Aug. 2, 1886.] 



tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



13^ 



Sending from 11 to 15 million lb. of bark of all 

 grades into the European market in a single year, 

 the produce of Ceylon may now be said to equal, if 

 not exceed, that of all the rest of the -world put 

 together ! And yet less than seventeen years 

 ago, the Director of our Botanic Gardens (the 

 late Dr. Thwaites), had to beg, and beg in vain, 

 to have a trial given by our planters to his 

 cinchona p)lants. otfering them as a free gift! 

 The cinchona planting industry has indeed become 

 a veritable giant in Ceylon ; the shipment of a 

 couple millions lb. of bark in a single month from 

 Colombo is not now deemed extraordinary and 

 as a correspondent well says elsewhere, it depends 

 entirely on Ceylon producers whether the price of 

 this product should rise again, or fall to a mere 

 fraction of what it was a few years ago. There 

 is certainly reason therefore for a Cinchona Planters' 

 Syndicate in this island. 



But it is not simj^ly in respect of cinchona bark 

 that the markets of Europe have been revolution- 

 ised. There is another "new product"' despised 

 and comparatively little known, and yet it has 

 put many useful rupees into the pockets of numerous 

 Ceylon planters during the last five years, until 

 now the cry comes from the brokers and merchants of 

 London that in respect of Cakdamojis too, Ceylon 

 has revolutionised the trade of the world as cen- 

 tred in the great distributing metropolis. How 

 strange this result ! Ceylon began by shipping only 

 5,000 lb. of this product so recently as 187*>, and 

 now we are up to 205,000 lb. for 9\ months with 

 the probability of touching 250,000 lb, for the twelve 

 months ending ;-!Oth September next 



It is surely then no small compliment to the energy 

 of our planters and the world-wide importance of 

 their industry in this island, to learn that in re- 

 spect of two of our new products — Cinchona and 

 Cardamoms— the whole trade of the world has been 

 revolutionised through the influence of Ceylon. 

 Who daresay that it may not be possible in 

 live or seven years hence, to say the same thing 

 in respect of " Tea " ? We ought to have taken 

 special notice before now of the fact that m April 

 last Ceylon had made another great stride forward, 

 in shipping over one million lb. of tea in the one 

 month. The day is not far distant, we believe, 

 when the same quantity will be shipped in a 

 week from Colombo. There can be no question 

 that we are, as a colony, in for "a big thing" 

 as the Americans would say, in respect of 

 " tea." The sooner our neighbours in India, Java 

 and China realize the fact, that this little island 

 is bound to go on exporting 12, 20, 30 and 40 

 millions of lb. in successive seasons until, perhaps, 

 the 50 or CO millions are reached, the better for 

 their own peace of mind and business arrange- 

 ments. It is impossible to arrest the great enter- 

 prise in which x^ractically the entire planting com- 

 munity of Ceylon are now engaged. Caedamoms has 

 done great things ; Cinchona can shew marvellous 

 results (and Cacao or Cocoa should not be for- 

 gotten) ; but among all the New Products of 

 Cevlon, none are so full of promise, potency and 

 revolution as regards the markets of the West, 

 and the prosperity of this little island, as Tea. 



EXHIBITION CONFEEENCE ON ElBRES, 

 DEUGS, &c. 

 (From a London Correqyondent.) 



20th June 188G. 

 A notice was issued from the Colonial Exhib- 

 ition dated 15th June, signed E. C. Buck, inviting 

 gentlemen to meet at a Conference at the Econoniic 

 Court in the Indian Department on tibres, silk, 

 di'uge, gumi; aad vQaiaa, miwx&h, gik, oil ■^eBd^, 



timbers, tanning materials and food stuff. The first 

 meeting was on the IGth instant, when Dr. Forbes 

 Watson, Messrs. Christy, Routledge, Collier, Cross 

 and Johnston attended. Dr. Watt had the differ- 

 ent fibres laid out in bundles, but owing to the 

 want of commercial information no practical results 

 were arrived at. One gentleman asked the names 

 of the tibres referred to in TJie TimeK 31st May. 

 Dr. Watt replied that the names of the fibres 

 could not be given as some visitors at the Ex- 

 hibition who had their attention called to these 

 fibres had undertaken to patent the employment 

 of two for certain purposes. This created con- 

 siderable surprise to the gentlemen who were asked 

 to attend this conference. Mr. Cross working with 

 Mr. Bevan and Mr, Johnston asked if the Indian 

 Government would pay for a chemical report upon 

 the tibres from India if he examined them chemic- 

 ally and microscopically. Mr. Buck said that he 

 was confident that the Indian Government would 

 not pay any expenses as they were most 

 anxious that this expense should devolve upon 

 merchants in England, and this was one of the 

 reasons why they hoped to form a Colonial and 

 Indian Museum. Mr. Ckoss then asked, supposing 

 he did the whole of this work, would Mr. Buck 

 undertake to have the whole published at the ex- 

 pense of the Government. He replied that if the 

 future recipients of the Indian collection would not 

 support the expense, he undertook to say that the 

 Crovernment would do so. It is rather a singular 

 coincidence that on the same day as this first 

 conference was held that a letter should appear 

 from Mr. T. Christy, F.L.b., in the CHij Prea:; upon 

 the subject of Colonial Museums. 



THE PEICE OF QUININE. 



Quinine, the alkaloid of cinchona that is most 

 largely used in medicine, is now lower in price 

 than it has ever before been in the history of its 

 manufacture. When Congress removed the import 

 duty on the various salts of quinine in July 1879, 

 the price of sulphate of quinine of American 

 manufacture, was 1i>3.35 per ounce in bulk, but 

 since that date the price, with the exception of 

 a few slight fluctuations, has steadily tended down- 

 ward, until at the present time tlie American 

 drug is quoted at 68 cents per ounce in bulk, 

 while the foreign article is (juoted at about four 

 cents per ounce less. 



The question naturally arises as to what extent 

 did the removal of the duty affected the price of 

 the drug. Immediately after the removal of the 

 duty there was a decided fall in the price, occasioned 

 by large quantities of foreign sulphate of quinine 

 being sent to this country, but it was not long be- 

 fore prices advanced, not to the same point, how- 

 ever, as prevailed at the time of the removal of 

 the duty. The cheapness of the salts of quinine 

 is almost entirely due to the low price at which 

 the cinchona bark, from which they are obtained, 

 is now being sold, and ihe bark is cheap be- 

 cause it is in plentiful supply. For many years 

 quinine manufacturers in this country and abroad 

 relied principally upon South America for the 

 supply of cinchona bark, and, as the amount 

 furnished was insufficient, the price was high ; 

 but during recent years the efforts made by the 

 English and Dutch Governments more than twenty 

 years ago to grow the cinchona tree in other 

 places have begun to bring forth good results, 

 so that the bark, instead of coming almost ex- 

 clusively from South America, is now supplied 

 from tiie East Indies, Ceylon, Java, etc. The first 

 shipments from Ceylon, wliich is now one of ilie 

 largest tjrowcrs oi the cinchona ticc, were juade 



