H 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i,»i886/ 



the Goveruor has been pleased to appoint INIr. John 

 Robertson of the Land Ofl5cc to act as Superinten. 

 dent of Public Works during the absence on leave 

 of Mr. J. Sampson. 



CINCHONA CULTIVATION AND SYNTHETICAL 

 MANUFACTUBE OF QUININE. 



We are indebted to the correspondent who writes 

 to us as follows — and we feel sure he is right 

 i)i his conclusions on tlie subject : — 



" The enclosed advertisement appears in the last 

 Lancet. If quinine can be produced by synthesis 

 it will be a bad look-out for cinchona growers :— 



' Synthetical Manufacture of Quinine. — A Syndicate 

 is now being formed for the above purpose. Capital 

 £50,000. As the medical profession are almost the sole 

 users, it is proposed to confine the interest to them — 

 Particulars by post (stamp), M.D., 50a. Lincoln's -inn- 

 fields.' 



Wo arc certainly living in wonderful times, and the 

 progress of science will before long alter the inter- 

 ests of many industries. I always thought the 

 chemists would have a shot at the artificial 

 manufacture of quinine, and perhaps their efforts 

 have had some effect in keeping down the price 

 of the article. The former high price no doubt 

 ■set many minds thinking how it would be done, 

 but I doubt the feasibility of the proposal as all 

 efforts hitherto to produce expensive alkaloids arti- 

 ficially have ended in failure in a commercial point 

 of view. What has been the result of the artificial 

 production of indigo ! " 



TJbe marvellous cheapening of quinine by the 

 successful cultivation of cinchona in the East 

 operates against the usual inducement to manu- 

 facture by chemists, and, as our correspondent 

 says, the " synthetical manufacture," long ago 

 announced, of other products. Indigo for example, 

 has not so far been very successful. 



THE GOVERNMENT ENTERPEISE IN JAVA. 



REPORT lOB THK IST QUAKTER OF 1886. 



(Iransiatcdfor the " Ceylon Observer") 



During the month of January and the half of Febru- 

 ary there was comparatively very little rain ; the second 

 half of the quarter was, on the contrary, very rainy. 

 The planting out in the field was carried on unin- 

 terruptedly during this quarter. The young plant- 

 ations thrive generally very well and rapidly develop, 

 which is to be attributed to the selection of fine robust 

 plants. At Nagrak the young plantations were subjected 

 to an attack of grasshoppers( locusts?) which caused some 

 damagp. The results of the harvest of 1885 was des- 

 patched to Batavia at the end of January. It amounted 

 to 432,718 half-kilograms of bark pacfcftd in 1,008 

 chests and 2,023 bales. The harvest of 1886 is as yet 

 very small, chiefly in consequence of the continued 

 damp state of the weather, which in many establish- 

 ments stopped the gathering. On the whole the quant- 

 ity- collected has been about 40,000 half-kilograms, 

 almost exclusively obtained by the extremely necessary 

 tbiuning-out of the closely growing ledgerianas and 

 succirubras of which 9,794 half-kilograms were sent 

 to Batavia by the end of March. 



For the purpose of securing further data res- 

 pecting the influence which the succirubra stem 

 exercises on the graft of ledgeriaua upon it, 

 samples of bark from grafted branchtvs from 

 well-known and repeatedly examined parent trees have 

 been transmitted to chemical examination. From tlicst- 

 aualysce it eeenis eviduut ibat iu opposition to former 



opinions, the succirubra stem acts beneficially on the 

 ledgeriaua grafted on it as shown by the quantity less 

 or more of cinchonidiue which is found in the bark 

 of the ledgeriana, and which is not to be discovered 

 in the parent ledger trees. The conclusion appcar.s 

 uoquestiouable.that the yield of cinchonidine increases 

 with the age of the tree, whatever may be the i.ssue 

 of future experience. It remains still to be ascertained 

 whether or not the succirubra stem affects the higher 

 parts of the ledgeriana grafted on it ; and if it does 

 so, to what extent? Even should the results cause, 

 no small degree of disappointm«'nt, still the analyses 

 show plainly that the graft plantations of Tiitasiiri will 

 yield a very valuable produce of ledgeriana bark, and 

 that there does not exist the smallest rea.son for re- 

 laxing in the application of the system of grafting on 

 a large scale^ or even for placing any limits to it. The 

 original ledgerianas, and the graft and cutting plant- 

 ations at Tirta.sari produced during the last quarter such 

 a trifling quantity of seed, that up to the present time, 

 it had not been possible to hold any public sale of 

 cinchona seed. (Signed) Van Ko.munde, 



Director of the Government Cinchona Enterprise. 



Bandoeng, 6th April 1886. 



.Statement of the position of the Gwvernmeut 

 Cinchona Plantations in Java for the first (luarter 

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