Aug. 2, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



135 



THE MADKAS CHAMBEB OF COMMEBCE AND 

 THE MADRAS (lOVEENAIENT ON THE GOV- 



ERNMENT CINCHONA PLANTATIONS. 



tlie 



The Government of Madras has sent us 

 following important correspondence : — 



Keau— tlie following letter from P. Maci^-abyex, 

 Esq., Chairman, Chamber of Commerce, Madras, to 

 the Cliief Secretary to Government, dated 4th Febru- 

 ary 1880 : — 



I have the honour to inform you that the atten- 

 tion of the Chamber of Commerce has recently been 

 directed to the extension of the number of trees 

 in the Goveroment Cinchona Plantations near Oota- 

 camund. According to the Administration Report it 

 appears that that number advanced from 1,122,7(30 

 to 1,620,744, or by about 45 per cent in the year 

 ended 31st March 1885, and the Chamber has reason 

 to suppose that in the current year the work of 

 planting fresh trees over and above tho replacement 

 of those that die or are felled has not been iuter- 

 mitteJ. I am therefore desired to submit, on the 

 Chamber's behalf, that such extension seems opposed 

 to the spirit in which tlie jjiantations were .set on 

 foot as well as to spirit of the Government of India's 

 policy of encouraging private enterprise. 



2. The Chamber has no reason to suppose that the 

 plantations were established as a commercial enter- 

 prise in view to the creation, for the exclusive bene- 

 fit of the treasury, of a lucrative industry hitherto 

 unknown in India. The scourge of fever had, from 

 time to time, brought very forcibly to the notice of 

 the Government the suffering and loss that were 

 due to the want in this country of a febrifuge that 

 could be brought within reacli "of all classes. The 

 experiment of obtaining the cinchona plant in its 

 native habitat, of transferring it to, and of acclim- 

 atising it in, India was one that entailed heavy ex- 

 penditure, which it was vain to expect private in- 

 dividuals to incur on philanthropic grounds. It came, 

 however, legitimately within the province of the State 

 to expend public money in giving a fair trial, under 

 competent scientific directions, to the experimental 

 cultivation ot a plant that offered a defence against 

 the most fertile of all the causes that contribute to 

 the mortuary returns. The Government, therefore, 

 took a broad view of its duty in this matter, and 

 it succeeded beyond its most sanguine expectations 

 in its benevolent scheme. It was po.ssible for the 

 State to pitieiitly wait for a return on the large ii- 

 vestment that it made in the cuUivacion of the exotic. 

 That return eventually came, and not only was the 

 surplus of revenue over expenditure from 1860-61 to 

 18S4-85 K5, 51,743, but the Government now possessed 

 in the plantations an estate that would realise a large 

 sum of money were it offered for sale tomorrow. Thus 

 the enterprise has not only been successful as proving 

 incoutestably the suitability of the climate of the 

 Nilgiris— as well as of other bill ranges in India — for 

 the growth of cinchona, but it has yielded the State a 

 hand.some pecuniary profit. But it is no more con- 

 sistent, or debirable for the Government to make money 

 by cultivatiug cinchona than by cultivating coffee, rice, 

 indigo or cotton. The Government has established the 

 fact that the cinchona tree flourishes in India, and 

 there ha.s been no reluctance on the part of private indivi- 

 duals to avail themselves of the offer ot seed at low 

 prices which was made by the Government. No longer, 

 therefore, is the Government the only grower of the 

 tree, but private plantations are assisting to cheappii 

 tho drug, or to achieve the object that the Government 

 had originally in view. But private enterprise cannot 

 compete on equal terms witli the Government, which 

 has the command of tlie public pur.se, and is free to 

 sell at a loss when it cares to do .so. Tho niison irfitre 

 of the Government PJantatious exists no longer, yet the 

 jtlantations are being extended with an assiduity worthy 

 of a very opulent Joint Stock Company ambitious of 

 paying handsome divi.leuds to shareholders. In 1877-78 

 the number of plants was 569,031, and the net profit for 

 the year wa.s 112,88,980. Now, as has been shown above, 

 the plants are tln-ee times as numerous. The Chamber 

 /■ails to comprehend the aim ofsncii extension, and I 



am therefore to submit that in the Chamber's judg- 

 ment it is time for the Government to reassure 

 planters by announcing that the State, so far from 

 mereasing the severity of the competition that it 

 offers to private enterprise, will gr.adually retire from 

 the field, permit the usual operations of the laws of 

 supply and demand, and confine its own attention to 

 the introduction and acclimatisation of new varieties 

 of cinchona for the guidance and encouragement of 

 those who engage in the production of the plant. 

 Order of Government— dated l.Jth June 1880 :— 

 In the letter read above the Chairman of the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce states that the attention of the Cham- 

 ber has recently been directed to tho extension of 

 the number of trees in the Government Cin- 

 chona Plantations which advanced from 1,122,760 



ioor-^'^ml^'^^i, "^ '^^ y^^^" ending 31st 'March 

 1885. Ihe Chairman then proceeds to notice that the 

 object with which these plantations were .set on foot 

 waste provide a febrifuge which could be brought 

 within the reach of all classes, but he urges that pri- 

 vate growers of cinchona are now assisting to achieve 

 this object, and that the raison d'etre oi the Govern- 

 ment plantations, therefore, no longer exists. The 

 Chairman states that he is accordingly directed to sub- 

 mit that as private enterprise cannot compete on equal 

 terms with the Government which has the command of 

 the public purse and is free to sell at a loss vrhen it cares 

 to do so, it is time for the Government to reassure 

 l)lanters by announcing that the State will gradually 

 retire from the field and permit the usual operations 

 of the law of supply and demand. 



2. _ As regards the extension of the numbf^r of trees, 

 it will be sufficient to observe that the increase which 

 is caused almost entirely by renewals is apparent only; 

 for, with the exception of one or two pieces of laud of 

 inconsiderable area which were added to the plantations 

 for the purpose of rounding off the estates where 

 danger from fire was to be feared, no new land lias 

 been planted in recent years. The reason of the ostens- 

 ible increase is that when plants are first put down they 

 are placed at comparatively short distances apart for 

 the purpose of affording mutual shelter, but as soon as 

 they have become firmly established, they are thinned 

 to a very considerable extent. For example, on the 

 Government plantations the plants are first planted out 

 usually at intervals of .3 feet, but are afterwards thinned 

 out until the space between each tree is f) feet, /. ,»., out 

 of every nine trees planted only one is left to attain 

 maturity. 



3. Turning now to the question of the .suggested re- 

 tirement of the Government from the cinchona enter- 

 prise. His Excellency the Governor in Council cannot 

 admit the rr/ison d\'tre of the.se plantations no longer 

 exists. It is true that the price of sulphate of quinine 

 has, of late years, fallen considerably, but it is still so 

 high as to be prohibitive to a very large majority of 

 the natives of this presidency. The de-ired febrifuge 

 must be sought, therefore, in some cheaper preparation 

 of cinchona bark than sulphate of quinine, and although 

 tlie extract recently prepared by Mr. Hooper has met 

 with some measure of success, this problem must be 

 regarded as one that has not yet been fully solved. 



4. Nor can it be admitted that the plantations have 

 yet completely served the second of the purposes for 

 which they were established, viz., the conduct 

 of experiments and investigations in connection 

 with the culture of cinchona. Many most valuable 

 results have already been obtained, but in a report 

 ujade to this Government in 188:!, Dr. Trimen, one of 

 the greatest living authorities on the subject, pointed 

 out that there are many questions of the greatest im- 

 portance to cultivators of cinchona still pre.ssing for 

 solution. As examples of the.se, he mentioned the 

 causes of the difference in proportion and quantities 

 of the alkaloids in barks from trees of identical bot- 

 anical typi\ the testing of the results which Mr. 

 P.ronghton obtained from experimental manuring, tho 

 cause of tlie increase of alkaloids in renewed bark, and, 

 lastly, the intlnence of age on the alkaloids. These 

 investigations. Dr. Trimen considers, can only be carried 

 on in a Government establishmnpt, as the work must 



