REPORT ON THE CULTIVATION OF CHINCHONAS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. BY WILLIAM G. McIVOR, ESQ., SUPERINTENDENT OF CHINCHONA-CULTIVATION IN THE NEILGHERRY HILLS.

Rearing Seeds.—The first sowing of imported seeds took place in the beginning of February 1860. No certain data being given for the treatment of Chinchona-seeds, our first operations were necessarily experimental, and a good number of seeds were lost by being sown in too retentive a soil, and supplied with what, to Chinchona-seeds, proved to be an excess of moisture; the greatest success we obtained in our first attempts was with the use of a soil composed almost entirely of burned earth, and of this sowing nearly sixty per cent. germinated, the temperature of the earth being about 70°. The number of days required before germination took place in the several sowings varied from sixty-two to sixty-eight. The seedlings made but little progress for the first six weeks, but after that time they sprung into rapid growth, averaging from 1¼ to 2 inches per mensem.

Seeds of the valuable Chinchona Condaminea, received on the 16th February 1862, were sown on the same day in a very light open soil composed of a beautifully open sort of sand, with a very small admixture of leaf-mould. Our experience with the first seeds having established beyond all doubt that the Chinchonas are very impatient of any excess of moisture, particular care was taken in the preparation of the soil used in this sowing. The earth was in the first instance exposed to the sun for two or three days and thoroughly dried, it was then heated to about 212° in order to destroy all grubs or larva of insects; after being allowed to cool, it was brought into the potting-shed and watered sufficiently to make it moist, but only to that degree of moisture that the particles of soil would not adhere together on being pressed firmly with the hand, that is, the earth on being laid down was sufficiently dry to break and fall into its usual form. With the soil in this state the pots were filled, the surface lightly pressed down, and the seeds sown thereon, being lightly covered with a sprinkling of sand. The pots were then placed on a slight bottom heat of about 72°. These were never watered in the strict sense of the word; when the surface got dry they were slightly sprinkled with a fine syringe just sufficient to damp the surface, but never to penetrate the soil. Under this treatment the seeds began to germinate very vigorously on the sixteenth day after sowing, and now, 17th March 1862, or twenty-nine days after sowing, upwards of sixty per cent. of the whole of the perfect seeds sown have germinated, and we may fairly hope to rear over ninety per cent. of this sowing. I may, however, observe that these seeds possessed the great advantage of being forwarded to India in a letter, and thus they were never subjected to the damaging effects produced on seeds sent out in air-tight parcels. The reason of this is the want of a circulation of air through the packets, and a consequent deposit of moisture on the interior of the outer covering by every increase and decrease of temperature on the voyage. As soon as the seeds germinate they are carefully pricked out into fresh pots (the soil being prepared as before described for the seeds). This must of course be done with very great care, the radicle being carefully covered with soil, while the seed and cotyledons are kept above the surface. In this way about twenty-five seedlings are transplanted into a four-inch pot, and treated in every respect the same as the seeds; that is, they are never watered, the soil being merely sprinkled as before stated to keep it in that medium state of moisture in which it was first put into the pots. This prevents the damping off of the seedlings, to which they are very liable when treated otherwise; it also greatly facilitates their growth and the formation of roots, the soil being so perfectly open that it is readily affected by the atmosphere, and thus kept in the most favourable condition for promoting vegetation. When treated in this way our seedlings have made an average growth in ten months of over eighteen inches, the growth being much more rapid towards the end of the ten months than in the earlier stages.

Propagation.—As soon as the seedlings and imported plants attained sufficient size, they were propagated by being layered; in this way it was found that they rooted readily in about six weeks or two months, and threw out shoots from every bud; and not only this, but many latent buds were developed, and a fine growth of young wood produced for succeeding layers and cuttings. The principle of layering, being so well known to English gardeners, requires no detail; but in the Chinchona-plants it was found that the layers were very liable to bleed, and this not only weakened the plants but retarded the formation of roots; this we found to be remedied in a great degree by inserting in the cut a triangular piece of perfectly dry broken porous brick. An abundance of young wood being produced, we proceeded to propagate by cuttings, the earth being prepared with great care, the same as for the seeds, with the exception of not being heated. The ends of the cuttings are placed upon pieces of perfectly dry porous brick, around the sides of the pots. They are then placed on a bottom heat of 75° or 80°; and, with this treatment, young and tender wood roots in about three weeks or one month, older wood in about six weeks to two months. With cuttings of the young wood our loss has not exceeded two per cent., and with older wood about ten per cent.

Our object being to produce the largest number of plants in the shortest possible space of time, it was found that cuttings and layers required more wood than could be conveniently spared, and it was resolved to try the propagation by buds; in this respect the success has been most satisfactory. The secret of success entirely lies in the amount of moisture given; if in excess, they rot immediately, but, if sufficient care is exercised in reference to moisture, the losses will not exceed three or four per cent. Six C. Calisaya buds put in on the 30th January all rooted in forty-one days. It may be observed that it is not necessary that a leaf should be attached to the bud: this is no doubt an advantage, although we have struck many buds of the red bark without leaves, and also a few of the Calisayas.

It ought to be explained that the reason why the earth is brought to a medium state of moisture before being put into the pots is because it is never afterwards watered to such an extent as to render it really wet, being in fact just kept in that state of moisture in which it was originally placed in the pots, and this uniform and medium state of moisture is more easily retained by the pots being plunged in beds of earth. The reason why we found this system necessary was, that, when the soil was watered in the usual way after the seedlings or cuttings were placed in it, it was found, from its expansion and adhesion by the action of the water, that its particles were forced far too close together to be beneficial to the growth of the plants, and in many instances this proved to be injurious, vastly retarding their growth.

In the nurseries in the open air the same principle of cultivation and propagation as that described above has been adopted, and, with reference to the condition of the plants and layers, with nearly equal success, the period of rooting of the layers being from two months to ten weeks, while cuttings take from two to three months, the average loss being about fifteen per cent.: this occurs from the impossibility, in the open air, of keeping a uniform state of the atmosphere around the cuttings. With layers this is not so important, as they root quite as surely (though slower) as in the propagating-houses, and flourish equally well.

Formation of Plantations.—The mode of cultivation of these plants likely to prove the most advantageous being uncertain, it was resolved in May and June of 1861 to place out a number of plants under different conditions of shade, exposure, &c., and the result has been that the plants placed without the protection of living shade have made the most satisfactory progress, and borne the dry season without the least injury. The plants placed under living shade were found to be damaged in some degree during the rains by the incessant drip, but on the weather clearing up they threw out new leaves and quickly recovered. Nine months after planting, or at the end of our dry season, these plants were found to be suffering considerably from the drought; and on taking a few of them up, it was found that the holes in which these Chinchonas were planted had become entirely filled by the fibres of the roots of the living trees in their neighbourhood, which had drawn up the whole of the moisture and nourishment from the soil in which the Chinchona-plants were placed. In putting the plants out, which were placed in the open, we of course saw from the first that with the young plants we had to combat the bad effects of excessive evaporation during our dry season, under a bright and scorching sun; we also saw the injury likely to be done to the plants by radiation during bright and cloudless nights. To obviate these disadvantages the plants were sheltered on the approach of the dry season by a rough enclosure of bamboo-branches, with the leaves adhering to them, so as to give them sufficient shade both from the effects of evaporation and radiation. The enclosure is left open on the north side, and enclosed on the south, east, and west; the sun's declination being south during the dry weather. The ground will not be impoverished by the roots of other trees, and the whole of its nourishment is preserved for the Chinchona-plants. At the same time they will, by this treatment, be far more efficiently protected from evaporation and radiation than they would be by the use of living shade, whether caused by forest-trees or by the admixture of faster-growing plants. In addition to this shade of the branches of cut bamboos, the soil around the roots of some of the young Chinchona-plants was covered one or two inches in thickness with half-decayed leaves, and the plants thus treated show a very great luxuriance, which is not exceeded by any of the plants in our propagating-houses. To ascertain the cause of this luxuriance a few of the plants were recently examined, and although at the end of the dry season the soil about the roots was found to be perfectly moist; thousands of young rootlets of great strength were found to have been thrown into the covering of decayed leaves, so that it had become one matted mass of beautiful white roots, many of them nearly the thickness of a crow-quill. On the strength of these observations we have resolved to place out this season seventy-five acres of Chinchona-plants in cleared land, and exactly under the conditions and treatment last described; we also propose planting seventy-five acres under various degrees of living shade, in which every attempt will be made to mitigate as much as possible the injurious effects of this system already described. The cultivation of these plants being experimental, it is necessary that we should give every method of cultivation which appears reasonable a fair trial, and that only developed facts should influence us in giving preference to one method of cultivation over that of another. The distances at which we have prepared to place the plants are for the larger growing species from nine to ten feet apart, for the sorts of medium size eight feet, and for the shrubby sorts seven feet: these distances are of course too close to admit of the plants attaining a full size, but we believe that it will be advantageous to plant them close in the first instance, and thin them out afterwards. In order to illustrate the extreme growth of our plants, it is worthy of note that one or two of them, although not yet twelve months old, have attained a height of about five feet by three and a half feet in diameter through the branches; we may therefore conclude that the plants will in about two years fairly cover the ground if placed at the distances given above. When they begin to crowd and impede the growth of each other they will of course be thinned out and pruned; and it is anticipated that a good supply of bark may be obtained by these means in from eight to twelve years, or perhaps earlier.

Ootacamund, 19th March, 1862.

P.S. On the 5th of April the seeds of C. Condaminea were coming up plentifully, and 4193 seedlings had already been transplanted. 100 seedlings of C. crispa had also come up. The seeds of C. Condaminea were coming up at the rate of 500 a-day. At this date there were 25,000 Chinchona-plants on the Neilgherry hills, and all the species, except C. lancifolia, were increasing rapidly. It will be some time before Mr. McIvor will be able to propagate from the latter species, owing to the very unhealthy state in which the plants arrived from Java. In April 50 acres of ground were prepared for planting at the Dodabetta site, and 70 acres at Neddiwuttum.