he mode of cultivation pursued by the natives differs from that
followed in the plantations of the Europeans. The native system is to
allow the cinnamon to grow large before cutting; the European practice
is to cut it young. The result is that the native produces quantity,
but coarse; the European produces quality, but less in quantity. I
have found, in conversation with the native growers, that they
consider the bush or tree decidedly weakened by its being kept down by
constant cutting twice a year; and that their plants are stronger and
better. It is not absolutely an original opinion, but I think the two
systems might be judiciously blended. In cutting the cinnamon sticks
for peeling, as the Europeans do it twice a year, there is always risk
of losing much valuable young wood, which is destroyed in slashing
into the bushes with _catties_ (bill-hooks) to take out that which is
in a fit state for peeling, all of which is so much loss from the next
cutting; and on this ground I should be inclined to advocate cutting
once a year. There are, I know, other considerations than the mere
growth of the sticks to be taken into account. Of these may be named
the time when the bark peels best from the stick, which of course must
depend upon age as well as season, the excited or unexcited state of
the shoots, and their several effects upon the quality of the spice.

Weeding the plantations does not seem to be of so much consequence, if
the shrub gets plenty of free air all round it.

Cinnamon land continues to yield abundantly crop after crop, not for
years, but for scores of years. The greater portion of the late
preserved plantations in Ceylon were planted by the Dutch, one hundred
years ago, and the bushes are stated to be as vigorous as ever, and
quite likely to go on yielding crops till the year 2000. This
productiveness can only be accounted for on Liebig's principle of
returning to the soil a portion of what we take from it. In the
operation of peeling cinnamon, the tops and lateral branches are cut
off, and left by the peelers on the ground close to the bushes. These,
no doubt, furnish a considerable quantity of manure to the plants.

The general appearance of the plantation is that of a copse, with
laurel leaves and stems, about the thickness of hazel; occasionally a
tree may be seen which, having been allowed to grow for seed, has
reached a height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk eighteen inches
in diameter. When i