Oct. /, me.! 



tUM tUOPiCAL AOHiCUt'fam^f. 



■n'h 



A CINCHONA aYNMCATE FOR CEYLON. 



We have to call attention to the letter of 

 Mr. James Sinclair on page, 276, a subject of 

 very great importance to cultivators of Cinchona in 

 Ceylon, It strikes us that one of the indispens- 

 able preliminaries to the successful working of the 

 scheme proposed would be the acquirement oi reli- 

 able and full information as to the exact position 

 of the Cinchona enterprise not only in India 

 and Java, but in the States of Central and South 

 America where systematic cultivation has been 

 attempted, and also the conditions under 

 which the further exploitation of the native 

 cinchona forests would be permanently discon- 

 tinued. In this connection we may quote the 

 summary in the PharmacetiticalJoitrnal oi a paper 

 read by Mr. David Howard at the British Pharma- 

 ceutical Conference : — 



" Ciuchoua Cultivation in South America was the 

 title of a paper by Mr. David Howard, who behves 

 that it is to other countries than Ceylon, which oc- 

 cupies at present tlie most prominent position of all 

 the countries where cinchonas liave been cultivated, 

 that we must look for the solution of the scientific 

 points involved in the cultivation of cinchonas, owing 

 to the little care that has been taken in Ceylon to avoid 

 the danger of hybridization. Unfortunately, very 

 little scientific information can be obtained from South 

 America, the natural home of the cinchonas, except 

 what little can be derived from the study of the cultiv- 

 ated bark which reaches us from that countr^^ Among 

 the cinchonas under cultivation in South America are 

 two new species, C. 'Tliomvoniaiia, named after Mr. 

 Thomson, who discovered it in the Central Cordilleras, 

 the home of the well-known C. lancifolia, and another 

 discovered by Senor Pombo in Ecuador. C. lliomon- 

 iaiui gave on analysis of the bark of a two-year old 

 treeo-8 percent, quinine sulphate, trace of cinchoni- 

 diue, andO'.')5 per cent, ciuchonine. The bark from 

 the other spi^cies of the same age gave 57 per cent, 

 ijuiniue sui] hste, O-IIJ percent, cinchouidine, with no 

 cinch<nune or (juiuidine. The impi-ovement brought 

 about by ih^. successful cultivation of the cinchonas 

 is further sliown by the results obtained from the 

 same plantt.iions in 1S7'2 and 1881 of the several kinds of 

 cinchonas g-'i-ni in Jamaica and these results were even 

 more favon • a M'? in the cultivation in Columbia oi des- 

 cendants tiom the Jamaica plantations, In the case 

 of asuccin.bra cultivation in Columbia from a Jamaica 

 plant the Lark yielded as much as 7'0 per cent, 

 quinine sulphate, with only lO i>er cent, cinchoni- 

 dine, and 0-(>7 ptr cent, cinchouiue aud Mr. 

 Howurd remarks that this succirubra is one 

 of the finest he has tested. In Mr. Howard's 

 opinion it cannot be too clearly borue in mind 

 that the pri.spect of future profits in the cultivation of 

 cinchonas di pends entirely on the cultivation of high 

 testing bark, for in the face of the importation of 

 such higlil.\ valuable cultivated bark from Bolivia, as 

 well as from Java, tlie profitable growing of inferior 

 bark is inqjossible." 



If the Ceylon Syndicate were fully supported, 

 a special agent might be employed to collect in- 

 formation in the several countries, and it in ad- 

 dition the gentlemen in Colombo named by Mr. 

 Sinclair in a private letter as likely to give their 

 services, took a managing interest in the Syndi- 

 cate we should be very hopeful of success. Of 

 course there are other difficulties in the way, many 

 of which are detailed in the letter under notice ; 

 but probably all could, by persevering and united 



endeavour, be overcome. 

 35 



LETTERS FROM JAMAICA.— NO. XIII. 



A STORM AFXEll A OONTINUANCK 01' UNSEa'TLED WEATHKB 

 — COFFEE CROPS — THE ANNUAL FL0V\T3K SHOW IN 

 KINGSTON — JAMAICA FKUIT TRADE — PROTECTION OF 

 PRODUCTS AND MANUFACTURES. 



Blue Mountain District, Jamaica, July iHSfJ. 



Since I last addressed you about the 20th ult., 

 we have had a continuance of very unsettled 

 weather. Sunday night, the 27th June, we had a 

 storm which most people believe to have been 

 the tail-end of a hurricane, for more mischief was 

 then done in that one night, than had been caused 

 by the previous fortnight's bad weather : not only 

 was the rain heavy, but the gusts of wind were 

 fields have suffered much ; some estates worse 

 than others, and it is strange that the wind from 

 the Northward which usually does us most damage 

 most severe. It is pitiful to see how it has blown 

 off the leaves in all unsheltered places, all higli 

 this time was not the evil-doer, but S. and S. E., 

 so that fields facing West have not suffered so 

 much. In the lowcountry, especially the central 

 part of the island, St. Mary's, Clarendon, Man- 

 chester, and St. Ann's, the iloods were very heavy ; 

 cane fields were turned into lakes, boats had to ' 

 be sent to rescue the settlers, and those living at the 

 estates works, and great houses ; several deaths tool; 

 place from people being washed away and drowned. 

 As to the Railway, especially the two new exten- 

 sions to "Porns" and "Ewarton," it sullered very 

 severely: bridges, walls, embankments being carried 

 away, proving the contractor Mr. David Reid, our 

 old Ceylon friend and his Manager Mr. G. M, 

 Campbell, with their Ceylon experience, were right 

 in protesting that the work as specified to be done 

 by the Government Engineers was not sufficiently 

 substantial, and it will no doubt be a cause of 

 great expense to the Jamaica Government, *or I 

 cannot see it would be fair to make the contrac- 

 tor suffer for damage done by such very excep- 

 tional weather during their term of upkeep, es- 

 pecially after he had pointed out to the Govern- 

 ment Oflicial Engineers, and Public Works Depart- 

 ment they did not consider the works sufficiently 

 strong to stand against tropical floods ; it would 

 be injustice to make the contractor a sufferer under 

 such circumstances. 



As to cofi'ee crops, last year's have not ([uitc 

 equalled expectations. I have only heard of one 

 Blue Mountain Estate that exceeded its estimate 

 and that was a very low one, and only exceeded 

 by some 8 tierces ; many others were short. No 

 doubt some coffee was lost during the continued 

 gales and winds in June ; there seems also to be 

 loss from rats and birds ; then there are so many 

 vacancies to the acre that it is very difficult to 

 make correct estimates, even old stagers are often 

 out in their calculations ; the quality, however, of 

 the 188(3 crop is excellent, aud there not being so 

 much as was expected should cause prices to be 

 all the higher. As to next year's (1887) crops, the 

 settlers' coffee and lower fields will do well, as there 

 has been so much rain, but I fear all upper fields 

 will be short as the vvind has cut them up so 

 n ach ; yet the coff'ee is so healthy and vigorous 

 (hke Ceylon, Udapussellawa and Haputale) that 

 they are doing their utmost to put out blossom, 

 and already jroducing a mass of young shoots. 



The Annual Flower Show took place in Kingston 

 a few days ago and it was not considered ccfual to other 

 years,— no doubt the bad weather of the previous six 

 weeks had something to do with it. It is not un- 

 likely this Society will suffer from the absence of 

 Mr, D, Morris, whose experience as a ecientiiic 



