The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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When a tract of land of the above description is selected, the whole
of the ground should be cleared, leaving a few trees for shade, to
which the laborers might return for rest and relaxation; these may
be from 50 to 60 feet apart. The trees felled should be well lopped,
burnt and cleared away, the stumps should be removed with roots,
after which they may be allowed to remain, in order to save expense
of carriage, merely by observing some degree of order in the
disposition, by forming regular rows, of which the intervening
spaces are planted with cinnamon. The ground being thus cleared,
holes may be dug at eight to ten feet apart, and of one foot square;
the distance from each plant will depend upon the nature of the
soil--that is, the poorer the soil, the nearer to each other should
the trees be planted, and _vice versa_.

When this operation is over, should the holes be intended for
cinnamon roots, or stumps, the latter must be carefully removed with
as much earth as can be carried up with them and placed in the
holes, taking care not to return the earth removed originally in
digging the holes, which are to be filled with the soil scraped from
the surface, which has been previously burnt, exposed, and formed
into manure. Should no rain have fallen after the placing of the
roots in the holes, the stumps should be well covered, and watered
morning and evening, until such time as the sprouts shoot out fresh
buds, which will be in a fortnight or so from the time they were
transplanted, when the watering may be discontinued. In a month the
new shoots will be three or four inches high; this much depends upon
the weather.

If the holes be intended for young plants or seedlings, the plants
must be removed with boles of earth from the nurseries, and placed
in the holes, taking the same care as with the stumps, both in
watering and covering, in the event of its being dry weather. When
the seedlings take root, the coverings should not be removed until
the plants throw out a new pair of leaves from the buds, which is a
sign of their having taken root.

When a plantation is formed of old stumps, all the branches should
be cut down within six inches from the ground; this should be done
with one stroke of a sharp instrument, in order to avoid the
splitting of the stem. From these stumps cinnamon may be cut and
peeled within eighteen months from the time of transplanting. Often
this is done after the lapse of twelve months from the time of
transplanting.

From seedlings one cannot expect to gather a crop before two or
three years from the time the plants were transplanted, when there
will be but one or a single tree, which, when cut down as already
shown, four or six inches to the ground, ought to be covered with
fresh earth gathered from the space between the rows, and formed in
a heap round the plant. The next crop will be three or four times as
much as the first, from the number of sprouts the stem will throw
out, and so on every year, the crop increasing according to the
number of sprouts each stem will throw out yearly from the cuttings.
In the course of seven or eight years, the space left between the
rows will only admit the peelers and others to go round the bushes,
weed, clear and remove cuttings, as the branches from each bush will
almost touch each other at their ends.

It is essentially necessary to take every care not to allow any
creepers or other weeds to grow, the former interfere with the
growth of the bushes by entangling, because it not only takes out so
much of the support feeding the cinnamon trees, but interferes with
the peelers during the cutting season, and prevents the branches
growing up straight with a free circulation of air. The plantation
ought to be kept clean and free from weeds; the cinnamon requires no
manuring, but when the plantation is weeding the bushes should be
covered with the surface soil and raising the ground round the bush
by making a heap of the earth, which answers well in lieu of manure.
This operation must be attended to as soon as the cinnamon sticks
are removed for peeling. The plantation requires weeding three or
four times a year during the first two or three years, then twice a
year will answer the purpose; as by that time the trees will form
into bushes and destroy the seeds of the weeds on the ground.

The forming of a nursery is necessary, for which a space of ground,
say an acre, should be selected in a rich bit of soil free from
stones. Clear the whole brushwood, only leaving the large trees for
shade, remove all stones, stumps, and roots, dig the place well six
or eight inches deep, then form into long beds of three or four feet
wide, put the seeds down nine or twelve inches apart, cover them
eight or twelve inches above the ground by a platform, and water
them every other day until the seeds grow up and give one pair of
leaves, then leave off watering (unless great dry weather prevail,
then it ought to be continued) but not uncover until the plants grow
up six or eight inches high, and can bear the sun; these seedlings
will be ready for transplanting after three months from the time
they were sown.

The forming of nurseries is done at the close of the year, before
December. When this is done first, the party commences clearing and
preparing the land during the dry season, which is from the
beginning of December up to the end of March following. April will
set in with heavy rain (it is generally so in Ceylon), and it will
continue wet weather till the end of August, very often till
September and October, and you have the benefit of four or five
months rain.

The cinnamon seeds are to be gathered when they are fully ripe, they
must be heaped up in a shady place, to have the outside red pulp
rotted, when it turns quite black, then have the seeds trampled or
otherwise freed from the decomposed pulp, without injuring the
seeds, and well washed in water (just as is done to cherry coffee,
before they are made into parchment in the whole shell). Finally,
have the seeds[48] well dried in the air without exposing them to
the sun, and then put them in on the ground prepared for their
reception. In washing the seeds, those that float on the surface
should be rejected.

There are five different sorts of cinnamon, viz.:--

1st is called Panny Meers Carundoo.
2nd Tittha " "
3rd Kahatte " "
4th Wallee " "
5th Savell " "

Of these, the first kind is the best of all, the 2nd and 3rd,
although inferior, are peeled likewise, the 4th and 5th are
spurious.

The distinction in the cinnamon can be known both by taste, the
shape of the leaves on the tree, and an experienced "Challya" man
will judge the cinnamon by first sight.

The quality of the bark depends upon its situation in the branch,
that peeled from the middle of the bush or branch being the _most
superior_, and classed as 1st sort, that taken from the upper end is
the 2nd quality, while the bark removed from the base of the branch,
or the thickest end, is the inferior, and called the 3rd sort.

From the cinnamon bark refused in the sorting store of all kinds, in
separating the first, second and third qualities and in making bales
for exportation, the refuse is collected, and by a chemical process
cinnamon oil is extracted, which sells very high, with an export
duty of 3s. or l1/2 rupees on each ounce, exclusive of the British
duties payable in England for importation, which is at present one
shilling and three pence per pound.[49] Of the cinnamon roots
camphor is made, which sells well both in Ceylon and other parts of
the world.

Cinnamon, as a medicine, is a powerful stimulant, but it is not much
used alone. It is generally united with other tonics and stimulants,
but its ordinary use is to mask the disagreeable odor and taste of
other medicines. The oil of cinnamon is prepared by being grossly
powdered and macerated in sea water for two days and two nights, and
both are put into the still. A light oil comes over with the water,
and floats on its surface; a heavy oil sinks to the bottom of the
receiver, four hours before the light oil separates from the water,
and whilst the heavy oil continues to be precipitated for ten,
twelve, or sometimes fourteen days. The heavy oil, which separates
first, is about the same color as the light oil, but sometimes the
portion which separates last has a browner shade than the supernatant
oil. The same water can be used advantageously in a second
distillation. Professor Duncan informs us that 80 lbs. of
newly-prepared cinnamon yield about 21/2 ozs. of oil, which floats upon
the water, and 51/2 of heavy oil. The same quantity of cinnamon, if kept
in store for many years, yields 2 ozs. of light oil and 5 ozs. of
heavy oil.

Cinnamon oil is obtained from the fragments of bark which remain after
peeling, sorting, and packing. It is distilled over with difficulty,
and the process is promoted by the addition of salt water, and the use
of a low still. The oil thus obtained by distillation is at first of a
yellow color, but soon assumes a reddish brown hue. It has an odor
intermediate between that of cinnamon and vanilla, but possesses in a
high degree both the sweet burning taste and the agreeable aromatic
smell of cinnamon. It is heavier than water, its specific gravity
being 1.035.

The ripe fruit of this tree yields a concrete oil called cinnamon
suet, which was formerly employed to make candles for the Kandian
kings. An oil, called clove oil, is also distilled from the leaf,
which is said to be equal in aromatic pungency to that made from the
clove at the Moluccas.

The following were the quantities sold, and the average prices
realised during the Dutch rule in Ceylon:--

s. d.
1690 3,750 bales sold at 4 8 all round.
1709 3,750 " 4 6 "
1710 3,500 " 4 4 "
1720 5,000 " 4 4 "
1740 4,000 " 9 3 "
1760 5,000 " 8 5 "
1780 2,500 " 12 6 "
1784 2,500 " 17 4 "

The last quotation appears to have been the highest ever obtained for
cinnamon, for 17s. 8d. average would give about 22s. for the first
sort. In later years we find the deliveries and prices to have been as
follows:--

s. d.
1824 5,934 bales sold at 6 6 all round.
1828 3,918 " 6 0 "
1830 5,849 " 7 8 "
1842 1,018 " --- "
1845 3,245 " --- "

The comparative exports of cinnamon from Ceylon in the first six
months of 1853, as compared with the same period last year, are as
follows:--

1853. 1852.
lbs. lbs.
Quarter ending 5th January 99,778 93,291
" 5th April 73,815 135,248
------- -------
Total 173,593 228,539

The diminished export was caused by the prospective abolition of the
export duty, which came into operation on the 1st July last. The
quantity that will be sent to the English market by the close of the
year (1853) will be something prodigious compared with the average
consumption. From October 10, 1852, to July 22, 1853, the shipments
were 406,326 lbs.

RETURN OF CINNAMON EXPORTED FROM CEYLON, SHOWING THE QUANTITY AND
VALUE.

Quantity. Value.
Year. lbs. L
1836 724,364 --
1837 558,110 --
1838 398,198 --
1839 596,592 --
1840 389,373 --
1841 317,919 24,857
1842 121,145 15,207
1843 662,704 66,270
1844 1,057,841 105,784
1845 408,211 40,821
1846 491,656 49,165
1847 447,369 44,736
1848 491,688 49,168
1849 733,782 73,378
1850 644,857 64,485
1851 500,518 50,051
1852 427,667 42,766

The question of the export duty on cinnamon has, during the last
twenty years, occupied a considerable space in Ceylon correspondence
and the Island journals. This duty was first imposed in 1832, on the
abolition of the Grovernment monopoly, and was then fixed at the rate
of 3s. per lb. on all qualities. From the 19th April, 1835, it was
fixed at 3s. per lb. on the best, and 2s. on the second quality. It
was reduced in January, 1837, to 2s. 6d. on the first and second
sorts, and 2s. on the third; and in June, 1841, to 2s. on all
qualities; in 1843, to 1s.; and in September, 1848, to 4d. per lb.
Such a rate of export duty could be maintained only on an article for
which there was a considerable demand, and which could not be supplied
from other places, and this was for a long time the case. The
circumstances are now different, and the abolition of the duty, which
has so repeatedly been brought under the notice of the Treasury, has
at length been determined on. The quantity of cinnamon, &c., taken for
consumption in the United Kingdom, scarcely amounts to 2,800 bales per
annum. The sale and consumption is nearly stationary, and cinnamon is
only in demand for those finer purposes for which cassia, its
competitor, cannot be used. Whilst we imported the large amount of
700,095 lbs. in 1850, only 28,347 lbs. went into consumption. The
consumption has declined in the last two years to about 21,500 lbs.
Cinnamon is now imported into the United Kingdom duty free.

The land under cultivation with cinnamon in Ceylon is about 13,000
acres, principally in the western and southern provinces. The number
of gardens being eleven at Kaderane, seven at Ekelli, seven at
Morotto, six at Marandham, and two at Willisene. Several enterprising
planters have recently commenced the cultivation of this spice at
Singapore and Malacca. The plants already promise well. Indeed there
can be little doubt of its thriving, as the tree has been long grown
in gardens and pleasure grounds in those settlements, as an ornamental
plant, and has always flourished.

The Ceylon article is being supplanted in the continental markets by a
cheaper one, of China and Malabar growth. The Javanese, tempted by the
fatally high prices caused by the excessive duties on our Colonial
spice, smuggled a quantity of seed, and with it a cinnamon cultivator,
out of the island, and have since paid considerable attention to its
growth. The Dutch have at present more than five millions of plants,
equal to upwards of 5,000 acres, the greater part of which are in
tolerably full bearing.

The cinnamon trees in Java begin to blossom in the month of March.
They do not all flower at the same time, but in succession. The fruit
begins to ripen in October in the same manner, so that the crop lasts
from October to February. In Ceylon the blossom begins to appear in
November. The seeds when plucked ought to be fully ripe, and after
being separated from the outer pulpy covering, should be dried in the
shade. They can be kept for two or three months in dry sand or ashes,
but must not be exposed to the sun, as they would split, and thus be
rendered useless.

The plants in nurseries must be well sheltered from the sun and heavy
rains, but the plants are strengthened by the covers being removed at
night when heavy rains are not expected to fall, and in the day time
when only light rains prevail. The mode of planting out, cultivation,
preparing the bark, &c., appears to be the same in Java as that
practised in Ceylon. The only difference is, that while in Ceylon the
cinnamon, when ready for market, is packed in "gunny" or canvass bags,
in Java it is put into boxes, made of wood free from any smell or
flavor which would injure the spice. The inferior cinnamon, however,
is packed in straw mats.

The following is a return of the extent of cinnamon culture in Java
:--

In 1840. In 1841.
Residencies in which cinnamon is cultivated 10 10
Number of plantations 48 49
" families devoted to this culture 7,901 9,688
" paid _budjans_ 294 345
Extent of ground occupied by the cultivation,
in _bahus_ of 71 decametres 1,690 1,880
--------- ---------
Cinnamon trees of which the bark can be taken 1,106,566 1,407,213
Young trees in the parks 2,478,427 2,565,774
For renewing 307,000 86,800
--------- ---------
Total 3,891,998 4,059,787
--------- ---------
Cinnamon crop, in Dutch lbs. 57,074 38,219
" refuse 23,283 82,803

The number of trees peeled in 1842 was taken at 1,824,599, and the
crop reckoned at 108,905 lbs.

In the residency of Bantam, four trees suffice to produce a pound of
cinnamon, whilst in the other residencies eleven trees must generally
be stripped to furnish the same quantity; in 1839 one pound could
scarcely be obtained from thirteen trees.

This cultivation increases each year, and the quality of the produce
improves, whilst the expenses diminish. However, the Dutch Government
has judged it proper not to extend it, although the soil of Java
appears favorable to this culture.

From 200,000 to 300,000 lbs. of true cinnamon, not freed from its
epidermis, is exported annually from Cochin-China.

JAVA CINNAMON SOLD IN HOLLAND.

lbs.
In 1835 2,200
" 1836 1,300
" 1837 1,600
" 1838 2,100
" 1839 4,700
" 1840 7,900
" 1841 23,900
" 1842 13,000
" 1843 23,000
" 1844 101,400
" 1845 134,500
" 1848 250,550

STATISTICS OF PACKAGES IN LONDON.

1842. 1843. 1844. 1845.
Imported 2,196 4,458 9,197 8,909
Exported 3,661 3,964 6,712 6,081
Duty paid 838 738 801 1,012
Stock 2,709 2,622 4,230 5,549

CASSIA BARK.

_Cinnamonum Cassia_, or _aromaticum_, the _Laurus cassia_ of Linnaeus,
seems to be the chief source of the "cassia lignea" of commerce. It
differs from the true cinnamon tree in many particulars. Its leaves
are oblong-lanceolate; they have three ribs, which coalesce into one
at the base; its young twigs are downy, and its leaves have the taste
of cinnamon.

Malabar cassia appears to be the produce of another species of
_Cinnamonum_, probably _C. eucalyptoides_, or _Malabatrum_.

Dr. Wight, of the Madras Medical Service, in a report to the East
India Company, expresses his belief that the cassia producing plants
extend to nearly every species of the genus. "A set of specimens (he
observes) submitted for my examination, of the trees furnishing cassia
on the Malabar coast, presented no fewer than four distinct species;
including among them the genuine cinnamon plant, the bark of the older
trees of which, it would appear, are exported from the coast as
cassia. Three or four more species are natives of Ceylon, exclusive of
the cinnamon proper, all of which greatly resemble the cinnamon plant,
and in the woods might easily be mistaken for it and peeled, though
the produce would be inferior. Thus we have from Western India and
Ceylon alone, probably not less than six plants producing cassia; add
to these nearly twice as many more species of _Cinnamonum_, the
produce of the more eastern states of Asia, and the Islands of the
Eastern Archipelago, all remarkable for their striking family
likeness; all, I believe, endowed with aromatic properties, and
probably the greater part, if not the whole, contributing something
towards the general result, and we at once see the impossibility of
awarding to any one individual species the credit of being the source
whence the _Cassia lignea_ of commerce is derived; and equally the
impropriety of applying to any one of them the comprehensive specific
appellation of cassia, since all sorts of cinnamon-like plants,
yielding bark of a quality unfit to bear the designation of cinnamon
in the market, are passed off as cassia."

The cassia tree, according to Mr. Crawfurd, is found in the more
northern portion of the Indian isles, as in the Philippines,
Majindanao, Sumatra, Borneo, and parts of Celebes. It is also grown on
the western coast of Africa. The principal seat of its culture is,
however, the Malabar coast, and the provinces of Quantong and Kingse,
in China.

The famous cassia of China is incomparably superior in perfume and
flavor to any spice of its class. Its native place is unknown, though
supposed to be the interior provinces of China. The market price is
said to be L5 per lb.

The Malabar sort brought from Bombay is thicker, darker colored, and
coarser than that from China, and is more subject to foul packing. A
small quantity of cassia is brought from Mauritius and Brazil, and a
large amount from the Philippine Islands.

Cassia bark fetches from 80s. to 105s. per cwt. in the London market,
according to quality. The imports appear on the decline. In 1843 and
1844 we imported nearly two millions of pounds. The quantity imported
and retained for home consumption in the past four years are shown in
the following figures:--

Imported. Retained for consumption.
lbs. lbs.
1848 510,247 76,152
1849 472,693 83,500
1850 1,050,008 97,178
1851 267,582 82,467

The cheaper Indian barks, as well as the cinnamon of the East, seemed
at one time to be fast driving out of the market the superior class
cinnamon of Ceylon.

In 1841 Java exported 400 cwts. of cinnamon; and the quantity of
cassia imported into the United Kingdom from India and the Philippine
Islands, in the five years ending with 1844, was--

lbs.
1840 329,310
1841 1,261,648
1842 1,312,804
1843 2,470,502
1844 1,278,413

40,000 lbs. were received from India in 1848; and 3,795 arrobas of
cassia were exported from Manila in 1847. In 1852, 2,806 cwts. of
cassia were received at Singapore from China, and 1,380 cwts. exported
from that settlement to the Continent, against 903 cwts. shipped in
the previous year.

What the Ceylon spice-grower wants, is an extended field of
operation--a larger class of consumers to take off his cinnamon, and
this can only be obtained by bringing it within the means of the great
mass of cassia buyers.

Look at the quantity of cinnamon exported by the Dutch in the middle
of the eighteenth century. Eight or nine thousand bales a year were
exported, and now, after a lapse of a hundred years, Ceylon hardly
sends away half that quantity. Yet the consumption of spice must have
kept pace with the increased population of countries using it, and so
it has. But the difference is made up, and more than made up, by
cassia from China, Java, Sumatra, Malabar Coast, &c., and though the
new article is not equal to the cinnamon of Ceylon, yet the vast
difference in the price obtains for it the preference. Now what the
Ceylon planter wants, is to be allowed to produce a spice on equal
terms, and of a superior quality to cassia, which might be done under
an _ad valorem_ export duty of 5 per cent. Spice of this description
of course could not afford the high cultivation bestowed on the fine
qualities, neither would it be required. In fact little or no
cultivation need be given it. At present anything inferior to the
third sort is not worth producing, because it cannot stand the
shilling export duty. But under a more enlightened system of things,
with a low duty such as I suggest, myriads of bushes would spring up
on those low, sandy, and at present unprofitable wastes that skirt the
sea-coast of the western province, around Negombo and Chilaw.

The difference of duty would be more than made up by the diffusion of
capital in planting, the employment of vast numbers of laborers, the
purchase from Government of many thousand acres of now valueless
flats, and all the attendant benefits arising out of the development
of a new field of operation for the colonial industrial resources.[50]
The cassia tree grows naturally to the height of 50 or 60 feet, with
large, spreading, horizontal branches. The peelers take off the two
barks together, and separating the rough outer one, which is of no
value, they lay the inner bark to dry, which rolls up and becomes the
_Cassia lignea_ of commerce. It resembles cinnamon in taste, smell and
appearance. The best is imported from China, either direct from
Canton, or through Singapore, in small tubes or quills, sometimes the
thickness of the ordinary pipes of cinnamon and of the same length;
but usually they are shorter and thicker, and the bark itself coarser.
It is of a tolerably smooth surface and brownish color, with some cast
of red, but much less so than cinnamon. The exports from China are
said to be about five million pounds annually; price about 32s. per
cwt. In 1850, 6,509 piculs of cassia lignea (nearly one million
pounds), valued at 87,850 dollars, were shipped from the single port
of Canton. Cassia bark is of a less fibrous texture, and more brittle,
and it is also distinguished from cinnamon by a want of pungency, and
by being of a mucilaginous or gelatinous quality.