THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 26TH AUGUST, 1882.
703
In addition to these places there are several small localities near the West river at intermediate places where small patches of cassia are grown, and, as the quantities of bark obtained are too small to send to market towns, it is brought off by small boats and sold to larger boats which carry produce down the river.
About six miles south west of the small town of To Shing, which is situated on the southern bank of the river about 25 miles above the confluence of the Loting and West rivers, there are some plantations, from which, however, no bark has been obtained for two years and no new plantations made for ten, because the low prices which can now be obtained for the bark, do not leave any profit to the producers. This was the only instance which came to my knowledge of the decrease of the trade in cassia production, although it is said that the Java cassia trade, in consequence of the lower prices at which the cassia can there be produced, is cutting out and crippling the China trade.
IV. PROPAGATION.
As before observed, the seeds retain their germinating power for only a very short time after they arrive at maturity, therefore the sites and soil to be used for the reception of the seeds must be in readiness when they begin to ripen, which is said to be in January. The seeds, after they are gathered, are kept in small quantities together, or spread out thinly on a floor or shelf for a week or ten days in a shady place; if placed in large quantities together, they would ferment and thus be injured or destroyed. The seeds may be sown from the beginning of February to the beginning of April as they ripen, at about three inches apart, in drills two inches deep and one foot apart, in beds prepared in the open air, cach bed about six feet wide and any desired length; the beds are raised about nine inches above the surrounding ground, and consist of good friable soil without fresh manure, but containing a large amount of humus. The seeds begin to germinate at once and in about three weeks the seedlings appear above the ground. Besides being supplied with sufficient water in dry weather to keep the soil moist, and being kept free from weeds, they require no particular attention until transplanted into their permanent positions in the plantations.
V. ESTABLISHMENT OF PLANTATIONS.
Plantations exist on situations with all aspects, any particular one not, apparently, receiving consideration in preference to others. They are at altitudes of from about 300 to 1,000 feet above sea level, and on slopes of from about 50 to 30 degrees. Plantations were nowhere seen on level ground, in fact so very little level ground exists in the localities of cassia cultivation that, even if wanted, it could not be obtained. The very small portions of level ground that there are in the bottoms of small valleys, are used for the cultivation of rice and vegetables. Land carrying the thickest vegetation of grass and ferns--Gleichenia dichotoma chiefly-is selected. Naturally the soil contains a fair quantity of humus for a depth of from six inches to a foot, but the accumulation of vegetable matter is not more than to give the soil a light brown colour; the consistency of the soil is from friableness to hardish compactness. If very dense the vegetation is burnt. The soil is dug to a depth of about one foot and placed in small terraces or steps three feet apart, and of a width varying according to the steepness of the hills, frequently they are not more, sometimes even less, than eighteen inches wide. No manure is used either when the ground is prepared or subsequently.
The plants being in readiness in the seed beds, as described under the heading of propagation, they are transferred to their permanent sites in the plantations during the months of March, April, and May. One and two-year-old trees are used, the former being preferred. They are lifted from the seed beds without balls of earth, and a portion of the long tap-root, which in one-year-old plants is about a foot long-as well as all the leaves except the two top ones, cut off. They are then planted at three feet apart on the newly prepared ground.
At the same time when the new plantations are made, gaps, caused by the deaths of trees in the older plantations, are filled up with young plants.
VI. CLIMATE.
Cassia cinnamomum being grown in a part of China where Europeans are not settled and where any have rarely visited, and the Chinese themselves not troubling to make and record meteorological observations, it is impossible to give precise information on the climate of the cassia districts, but as the districts are in about the same latitude and only about from 120 to 280 miles west of Hongkong, I have given, in Appendix A., tables of the mean monthly temparature, and the monthly rainfall for ten years-1871-1880-as observed at the Government Civil Hospital of Hongkong. Although
* "86 feet above mean low level of spring tides."
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