CHAPTER XXIX. CHINCHONA-CULTIVATION. Ceylon - Sikkim - Bhotan - Khassya Hills - Pegu -- Jamaica — THE Complete success which has attended the cultivation of chinchona-plants in the Neilgherry hills, encourages the hope that similar happy results will follow their introduction into other hill districts of Southern India, which have been described in more or less detail in previous chapters. I have no doubt of the suitability of the Pulney hills, the Koondahs, the Anamallays, and Coorg for such experimental cultivation; and trials should hereafter be made on the Mahabaleshwurs, the high hills east of Goa, the Baba-bodeens, Nuggur, Wynaad, the Shervaroys, and the mountains between Tinnevelly and Travancore. The hill districts of the island of Ceylon, which have the necessary elevation, and are within the region of both monsoons, also offer peculiarly favourable conditions for the cultivation of chinchona-plants, probably equal to the best localities on the peninsula of India. Mr. Thwaites, the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradenia, takes a deep interest in this important measure, and under his auspices there can be no doubt of its ultimate success. It was from the first determined to send a portion of the chinchona-seeds to Ceylon, although the whole expense of the undertaking has been borne by the revenues of India, and no assistance whatever has been given by those colonies which will thus profit by its success. The gardens at Peradenia are 1594 feet above the level of the sea, and the following table will give a correct idea of the climate : OBSERVATIONS taken at PERADENIA, in Ceylon, in 1857. It is evident that Peradenia is far too low and hot for chinchona cultivation. The C. succirubra, and some other species, would probably grow to fine large trees there, but the bark would be very thin, and would yield little or no febrifugal alkaloids. But there are many other localities in Ceylon admirably suited, from their elevation and climate, for this cultivation, and sites may be selected, well adapted to the different species, from 5000 feet to Pedrotallagalle, which is 8280 feet above the sea. Among these is the Government garden of Hakgalle, at Nuwera-ellia, which is 6210 feet above the sea, in a climate with an annual temperature of about 59° Fahr., and abundantly supplied with moisture. Here most of the chinchona-plants have been established under the superintendence of Mr. Thwaites, who is assisted in their cultivation by Mr. McNicoll, a zealous and intelligent gardener from Kew. Mr. Thwaites reported, last September, that the progress of the important experiment in the cultivation of chinchona was satisfactory. In February 1861 the first instalment of chinchona-seeds arrived in Ceylon, being a parcel of the "grey-bark" species sent from the Neilgherry hills by Mr. McIvor; and soon afterwards a portion of the "red-bark" seeds was received. In April six plants of C. Calisaya were transmitted from Kew, but two only survived, and are now growing vigorously at Hakgalle. Last September eight cuttings had been taken from them, two of which had rooted. From the seeds received early in 1861, 800 plants had been raised last September, namely, 530 of C. succirubra, 180 of C. micrantha, 25 of C. Peruviana, 45 of C. nitida, and 60 of the "grey-bark" species without name. In January 1862 I forwarded parcels of seeds of C. Condaminea and C. crispa to Mr. Thwaites; and early in March six Wardian cases filled with chinchona-plants, from the depôt at Kew, were shipped for Ceylon. Chinchona cultivation in Ceylon has thus been fairly started. It is exceedingly gratifying to hear that many coffee-planters will be glad to try the experiment upon their estates;1 and that Mr. Thwaites will shortly be in a position to distribute plants from the Hakgalle garden.2 Chinchona-trees, in their wild state, have never been found There are 477 coffee estates in Ceylon; and in 1858-59 the quantity of coffee exported was 601,595 cwts., valued at 1,488,0197. In the same year the revenue was 654,9617., ex penditure 594,3821., value of imports at a greater distance than one thousand miles from the equator, and they are essentially inter-tropical plants; though they only flourish at considerable elevations above the sea. The reason appears to be that one of their chief requirements is a tolerably equable climate throughout the year, which the temperate zones, with their great differences of temperature between winter and summer, do not afford. For this reason sites were selected, in the first instance, both in India and Ceylon, within the tropics; and indeed this point was essential for the first experiments, because all the other conditions of the growth of chinchonæ could not have been found beyond the equatorial zone. Under cultivation, however, it is probable that, with other favouring circumstances, these plants might thrive within the temperate zone, at short distances from the tropic, and attention was naturally drawn to the hill districts of the Eastern Himalayas, in Bengal. The usefulness and importance of the introduction of the chinchona into India will be much enhanced if their cultivation can be extended to these regions, and attempts will, therefore, be made to form chinchona plantations in Sikkim, Bhotan, and subsequently in the Khassya hills. The province of Sikkim,3 at the base of the mighty Himalayan peak of Kunchinginga, consists entirely of the basin of the river Tista, which, with its tributaries, drains the whole country. Its position, opposite to the opening of the Gangetic valley, between the mountains of Behar on the one hand and the Khassya hills on the other, exposes it to the full force of the monsoon. Its rains are, therefore, heavy and almost uninterrupted, accompanied by dense fogs and a saturated atmosphere throughout the year. There are frequent winter rains accompanied by cold fogs, alternating with frost, hail, and snow. March and April are the driest months, 3 I have taken the following brief | Khassya hills, from Dr. Hooker's Flora notices of Sikkim, Bhotan, and the Indica, and Himalayan Journals. but rains commence in May, and continue with little intermission until October. The bounding mountains are very lofty, and snow-clad throughout a great part of their extent; but the central range in Sikkim, which separates the Tista from its great tributary the Rangit, is depressed till very far into the interior. The rainy winds have thus free access to the heart of the province. The snow-level is at 16,000 feet; and the mean monthly temperature of the English hill station at Darjeeling, which is 7430 feet above the sea, and in lat. 27° 3' N., is as follows: The annual rainfall is 122.2 inches. Of course no chinchona-plant would flourish in such a climate; and in the latitude of 27° it will be necessary to seek for suitable sites in much lower situations than in the hill districts of Southern India, which are in corresponding latitudes to those of the chinchona forests. In the Neilgherries the sites have been selected at the same altitudes as those at which the plants are found in South America, but in the Eastern Himalayas the localities must probably be chosen upwards of a thousand feet lower for each species-the C. Condaminea and its companions perhaps at 5000, and the C. succirubra between 3000 and 4000 feet. |