702 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1884. 



of mine, a well-grown, active girl, of twelve years, said to i 

 me lust summer, ' AVhy, grandpapa, om- garden is like a '. 

 big shop where we get such a lot of good things every 

 day, and have nothing to pay for them ! ' 



" ' Although I have had upwards of twenty years' ex- 

 perience of advanced fruit cidture, I never, to this day, . 

 stand before my fruit-covered trees, without feelings of 

 gratitude that are truly indescribable, on seeing how won- 

 derfully faithful and thoughtful Nature ever is in aU her 

 work, if we be but true in ours. Vi'e have the fruit tree 

 in almost endless variety, and the wit (it rightly directed) 

 that will enable us to largely and constantly ' eat the fruit 

 thereof ' ; but how customary it is for those who fail to 

 obtain it, to blame Gods weather for the miscliance. But 

 see how He, by His own grand words in Genesis, rebukes 

 us for om- unbeUet, or want of faith, in His infinite good- 

 ness — 



■■ ' And God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the 

 herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after 

 his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it 

 was so '. ' 



" From the very first man had to ' dress and keep ' his 

 garden, which clearly shows that ' good cultivation ' was as 

 necessary then to obtain its benefit as it is even now. 



'•You have, indeed, a grand and almost inexhaustible 

 theme to WTite and expatiate upon, and one that is not 

 tinned, as far as I am concerned, with a single mercenary 

 feeling, for I have given my life's real labours and these 

 discoveries gratuitously to the whole world."; 



Mr. ys'. a. Roberts "writes : — " I am well acquainted with 

 Bala, and its many drawbacks with respect to climate, fre- 

 quent rains, bath springs, and cold pierciug wiuds : but I 

 can bear testimony to ilr. Kyuaston's most wonderful suc- 

 cess. Trees and " shrubs w hich before scarcely bore any 

 fruit are now with bended boughs and branches overloaded 

 with fruit. Apple, plum, currant, and gooseberry trees all ] 

 speak: If you but cultivate us aright, we will produce 

 abundance and plenty for all. No doubt many thousai^ds 

 of pounds are lost annually through a lack of this know- 

 ledge of how to cultivate our fruit trees. Doctors of the 

 highest standing have declared that the juice of ripe fruit 

 is an antidote in cases of fever." — Herald of Health.^ 



THE TRjiNSPLANTlNG OF THE CINCHONA-TREE 



FROM SOUTH-AMERICA TO JAVA. 



(From the Indian Mercury.) 



The Quinuie-factory at Amsterdam has brought its first 

 product to market. In itself this announcement would 

 seem of little ipiportance, for what this new establishment 

 produces is no new article, but one long known. On a 

 small scale it has been made here for more than forty 

 years, and at Paris the quinine-factory of Pelletier exists 

 almost half a centiury. The circumstance, however, that 

 this Amsterdam manufacture owes its existence to a new 

 Dutch-Indian cultuie raises the fact to an event. For on 

 the one hand it proves that iu Netherland capital is still 

 forthcoming for good and solid entei-prises, and on the other 

 it is a positive proof of the excellent results that the plant- 

 ing of the cinchona-tree iu Java has achieved. 



Nobody then will deny the apportunene.ss of the subject, 

 it on occasion of the above-mentioned fact, 1 give an his- 

 torical sketch of the culture. 



Its history, fortunately, does not lose itscif m high anti- 

 quity; but though the idea of disengaging the cinchona- 

 tree" from its habitat is not much older than half a ceutury, 

 it is less easy to make out who has the honour of pri- 

 ority. This point has been much disputed and written 

 upon, even before a i>resentablc cinchona-tree had been 

 planted in Java, and for my part I hold it for certain 

 that this effusion of human vanity has done much haim 

 to the good cause aud to the treasury. 



It seems that Dr. C. L. Illume, the well-known botanist 

 of Java, who abode there from 1820 to I?S4 as a Botanist 

 and Inspector of the Civil Medical Service, made the fir.>.t 

 step about 1S29 to the Government to transplant the ciu- 

 chona-trce to Java, but unsucces-sfully. A few years later, 

 the subject was broached anew by Reinhai-t, Korthals & 

 Fritze, the first two naturali-sts iu Java, the last-mentioned 

 chief of the MiUtary Medical Service from 1835 to 1840, 

 with whom Junghuhn, then medical officer, amply discussed 

 the matter during a journey he made m 18a7 through the 

 Preauger Regencies. 'TIxv latter geutlemau tells this lum- 



self, and does not neglect tp add that the merit of this 

 priority is of little consequence, because such an idea as 

 the one in question might occur to many at a time. Dr. 

 Fritze, it is said, had already recommended Jimghuhn to 

 the Government for a voyage to Peru. 



But this proposal remained in abeyance. 



Meanwhile a new sphere of action, that of naturalist iu 

 Sumatra and Java, was opened to Junghun, so that the 

 plan of the cinchona culture seems to have been abandoned. 

 At leat in India nothing more would be heard of it till 

 1852. About this time the aiTair had passed iuto other 

 hands, and thereby entered upon a new phase. It was 

 through the exertions of Professors G. Vrolik, G. J. Mulder, 

 ^'. H. Vricze and F. C. ^Miquel, that, encouraged by the 

 successful attempts of the French, the Netherland govern- 

 ment was urgently made to see the great importance of 

 this question. It is therefore but fair that we should first 

 relate what the French had done, that roused our scientists, 

 and awakened Netherland to action. 



France sent in IS44 the botanist Dr. AVcddell to South 

 America commissioned to trace the cinchona tree to its 

 habitat, and to study it with attention. A purely scientific 

 mission. 



"fl'eddell devoted more than four years to this task, and 

 propounded the fruits of his research in his work : Histoire 

 naturelle des quinquinas ou monographie du genre Cin- 

 chona. A truly standard work, and an issue most credit- 

 able to the French Government as well as to the French 

 publishers and draughtsmen. Not less than 30 plates, partly 

 beautifully coloured, a topographical map and an engi-aving 

 of a primeval tropical forest illsustrate this work. The 

 introduction of the work is devoted to the travels in the 

 native country of the cinchona-tree, of Condamiue. Van 

 Humboldt and others. Then tl.e exiJoitation of trees by 

 the natives is described, and finally follows a detailed botan- 

 ical pharmacognostic treatise of the genuine and kindred 

 cinchona species. ... . , 



It is especially the manner of exploitation of the wild- 

 growing ti-ces, aud the ever increasing want of cinchona 

 bark, that opened the eyes of European savants towards 

 finding means to prevent the thoughtless extirpation of 

 the trees, as was long practised in Peru aud Ecuador. 

 Mostly the trunks, more than twenty metres high, were 

 cut down at the base, and then stripped of the baik. 

 Not a thought was even given to the rearing of new trees 

 from seed or slips. „ ., , 



Against this vandalism two remedies are feasible :— " I'un 

 est de limiter I'exportation a un chiffre proportionne a la 

 puissance productive des forets; le second est d'en faire 

 I'objet d'une culture reguliere." 



"Liuiiter I'exportation serait sans doute le plus siir; 

 mais n'est^il pas a craindre que la disproportion entre la 

 consommation et la production ne soit dejii trop grande pour 

 qu'il soi* possible de retablir la balance ; et uos besoins d' 

 autre part ne sont-ils pas devenus trop exigeants pom- se 

 plier a des considerations qui ne regardent qu'un avenh- 

 I'loigne ?— Reste la source de la culture, et il faut I'emiiloyer. 

 S'il est uu arbre digne n'l'-trc acclimate dans une colouie 

 fraiicaise, c'est certes le quinquhia, et la postcritc bt^nirait 

 ceux qui auraient mis a execution une sembldile idee."* 



This happiness, however, was not reserved for 'Weddell 

 or his countrv. The trial made in 1850 to acclim.atize the 

 cinchona-tree "in Algiers miscarried, and it would seem that 

 the affair is no longer on the programme of the second 

 Empire. Fortunately Pnris possessed in the Jardin des 

 Plantes. some seed and even young plants, brought thither 

 bv "Weniiell. The horticulturists Tliibaut and Keteleer were 

 also pro\'ided with some. From these Professor De A'rieze, 

 Director of the Academical Botanical Gardens at Tycyden, 

 had obtained a cinchona plant (Cinchona Calisai/a), and 

 this specimen, which in 1851 had aheady attained a height 

 of 075 metre, was in fact the very first that was introduced 

 into Java. The ycuvig tree arrived there in April 1852 with 

 the ship Prins Fruhrik dtr Ncderlaiide-n, Huidekooper com- 

 mander, aud was entrusted to the care of the able Teys- 

 maun, aud (his tree is the progenitor of the first two 

 cinchona trees in the open ground at Tjibodas, from which 

 afterwards 1,!1(10 slips were taken. ,,_.,,,.. 



I find it of imjiortance to insist upon this last tact 

 especially, just because this has not been appreciated at 

 its^jnst value by Junghuh n. aueut the question of priorit y. 



« Weddell, Histoire des Quinq., p. 13, 



