November i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



34 1 



extension of the cultiu-e too much depress the prices ot the 

 product ? 



Mr. Moens sums up his views in the folIo\ving four theses 

 or predictions. 



1 o . The relatively small quantities, which India (Briti.sh 

 India included) will produce in thefii-st3 or4jears, will have 

 little influence on the prices, as the consumption has not 

 ordy increased continually during the last ten years, not- 

 withstandiug the high prices, but is evidently stUl suscep- 

 tible of extension. 



2 ° . Should the quantities, after the period of 4 years 

 become so considerable as necessarily to depress the price, 

 because the consumption does not increase as rajjidly, the 

 immediate consequence will be, that a number of sources in 

 South America, not being able to bear the apjiressive costs 

 of tran.sport, will cease to flow. A very rapid decline of prices 

 will thus be prevented. 



3 ° . Should the production in India become in 12 or IG 

 years so considerable, that she alone will be able to supply 

 the whole world with the alkaloids required, then the export- 

 ation from the primaeval forests of South America will gradu- 

 ally become impossible, because, by the decline of the prices 

 the transport-costs of /1.80 a fi.bO pec K. G. will become 

 mipayable. 



4 ° . Should the production in India, and in other places 

 where cinchona can be cultivated, become at length greater 

 than the consumption, then will begin the contest between 

 the enterprises mutually. In this contest the victor will be 

 he who has cultivated the most quiniue-bearmg sorts, and 

 whose ijlantations have been most economically planted and 

 managed. 



It seems to us, that there are several objections to be made 

 to the justness of these theses. A decline of prices would 

 injme, and perhaps destroy, the South American cinchona 

 trade, because the costs of trausjiort would be too high. 

 This is perfectly correct, if the bui-k alone could be trans- 

 ported ; but this is not at all the case. There is nothing to 

 prevent the Americans from applying themselves to the 

 preparation of <|«iuine, and this they will no doubt do when 

 forced to it. If they have then only to .send the quinine to 

 Europe, (or to other parts of America; the costs ot freight 

 will be a matter of very httle importance. In om- opinion, 

 it is just to be expected, that in the case of a consider- 

 able decline in the market-price of quinine, the competition 

 from America will be more severely felt than at present. 

 For of com'se they will endeavoiu- to make up by greater 

 produce, for the lower profits. They will there also learn 

 to make exertions for organizing a more regidar culture, 

 anc;l providing better means of communication between the 

 forests and the export harbours. It seems to us a serious 

 mistake to suppose that the home-country of the cinchona 

 plant should succumb without an effort to her rival in A.sia. 

 Accocihng to Mr. Bloens, the consumption of quinine salts 

 for the whole world in IS72, was computed at 70,000 K. 

 (_!.; at present it is computed at 120,000 K. G. The writer 

 expects a considerable increa.se. He says: it is not so long 

 ago that quinine was considered in Europe a very danger- 

 ous medicament, only apjjlied in the greatest immergency, 

 while now its inocuousness and eminent curative qualities 

 are fully recognized. Besides, an important diminution in 

 the price will of course increase the consumption, also in 

 veteranary practise. 



To a certain degree all this must be conceded. Yet it must 

 not be overlooked, that the use of medicine always remains 

 a matter of coercion. The price of the drug, therefore, in- 

 fluences its use much b^'^s than other articles. Besides this, 

 it must be remembered that, by better observingthe precepts 

 of hygeine, the requirements of medicines, especially of 

 gpeciiic medicines, may decrease. And if, as the writer 

 expects, fevers be in the future more powerfully combated 

 by the administration of alkaloids extracted from cinchona 

 bark, then it may also be expected that the illnesses will 

 be sooner subdued and be less prevalent. This, then, might 

 counterbalance the more frequent employment. 



As to the price more especially, it must be borne in 

 muid that sulphate of quinine can never become a very 

 cheap medicine, because the costs of preparation are so high. 

 Though the bark be at a low costprice, the product from the 

 laboratory must cost sundry guilders to indemnify the manu- 

 facture. 



The present consumption of quinine, wc learn, amounts 

 to 120,000 K. G. per annum. The writer, as we ha%'e also 



seen, reckons that a cinchona plantation as sketched by 

 him, furnishes 300 K. G. of bark per bouw. It is 300 bouws 

 large, and so produces 90,000 K. G. of bark. At the same 

 time he supposes the bark to contain 5 percent, of quinine; 

 therefore the plantation yields 4,500 K. G. of quinine. So 

 there will be only 27 enterprises required to supply the present 

 necessities of the whole world. But Java alone numbers, even 

 now, about thirty such enterprises, though most of them are 

 in their first phase. Not every one of these plantation is 

 300 bouws in extent; and, to be sure, they cannot all of them 

 succeed. Yet, if Java is now striving to export as much 

 quinine as the world can desire, what must then be said of 

 the abundance pi'oduced by British India and Ceylon, whose 

 cinchona plantations sm-pass, in extent at least, five or ten 

 times those of Java, not to speak of the South American 

 superabundance. 



What increase of consmnptiou can bear up against this ? 

 Mr. Jloens asserts somewhere, that the cinchona bark 

 can, at a push, be furnished by the planter at one guilder 

 per K. G. AVe can believe it. An enterprise, succeeding 

 from the very begiiming, may work without loss at such a 

 price; but who, with such scanty prospects, would run the 

 risk of a partial or complete failure? But independently 

 of this, nothing guarantees that even this low price \vill 

 prevail. If once the time dawns that the consumption 

 cannot come up to the production, that the impulse to 

 sell increases while the stock accumulates, then one guilder 

 per K. G. is no more a minimum price than one dollar. 

 Our conclusion, therefore, is, that great caution is advis- 

 able. It is as good as certain that, in consequence of the 

 extension of the cultures, the quantities of available cin- 

 chona will be trebled, quadrupled, nay quintupled, in a few 

 years. The consequences of this mnst be that the market 

 XJrices wiU more and more conform to the cost prices. Tho 

 disposals \vill most probably become so unimportant, that 

 it will be difticult to make good tho costs of production. 

 Circumstances may eventually booome so critical, that at any 

 rate for a certain time, transactions will have to take place 

 at a considerable loss. 



Of course the Cinchona Culture has a future also in 

 Netherland India, but it must move in a limited sphere. The 

 restricted consumption renders over-production doubly dan- 

 gerous. After the great impulse to new plantations, which 

 has manifested itself especially in British India, moderation 

 has become necessary, if we would not that all the capital 

 funded in these expensive enterprises be irrevocably lost. 

 — India Mercury. 



FEurrLizK your orange and lemon trees. Irrigation is a 

 good fertiUzer, and has been about the oidy one used in 

 Southern California. The few who have put all the fert- 

 ilizers to be held in then" orchards, have I'eceived hand- 

 some returns for the expense and labor. 'Ihe orange and 

 lime tree should have not only pro])er location, good soil, 

 free fx*om scale, but abundant irrigation an 1 fertilization. 

 If to the foregoing admonitions be added [)erfect cultiv- 

 ation, juilicious pruning, a careful gathering and assorting 

 of fruit, sLii^puig to best market when the fruit is ripe, 

 there is no crop that will pay as well as orauge and lemon 

 growing in Southern Cahfornia. — Rural Cn' forniait. 



Tea is Ceylon. — An Indian tea planter of eiperieuce, 

 who some years ago visited Ceylon, writes t" us from Dar- 

 jiling. I hope your planters will beware ot" inferior juts 

 and particularly the China kinds. Many gar. lens here have 

 made a fatal mistake in putting in the wrc ug variety — a 

 mistake which it takes years to rectify, if inili • d the expensa 

 of replanting can be borne. From what I recollect of your 

 climate, it is less cold with you than with i s at the same 

 altitude ; so that doubtless you will be able to go higher 

 up yom' hill-sides than we can. Our highest {.ardens do not 

 give nearly the yield that others in low districts like Assam 

 give, but, as a ride, we got better prices, and have to 

 economise working expenses as much as po^.sible. I don't 

 know how yon are planting, but personally I very much 

 object to planting at stake, for it not only causes a great, 

 waste of valuable seed, but never gives an ( .'en clearing. 

 It is much better to make a good mnsery and put out 

 good-sized healthy plants, make yom* hole *.''■ deep as />os- 

 siblc. However, I have no doubt you will soon be up to the 

 ropes and end by teaching us!" — "Local Tiuies,'' 



