April i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



685 



of semi-cultivation, whereas, in a wild forest, for 

 every tine tree there might be 50 or 100 very 

 inferior. If partial cultivation had been so successful, 

 more careful cultivation would be naore entirely so. 

 After all, the most important point was to encourage 

 the growth and import of timber from our own 

 ('olonies, in preference to depending on foreign coun- 

 tries, as vre now did so largely. 



Tests of tub Bbeaking Strains of some Colonial 

 Wood. 



Name of Wood. 



X 1 



I a 

 '■?, ^ 



1"' 



Billian, North Borneo (a) 

 Karri, Westernn Aus- 

 tralia (6) 



English dak (f) 



Teak (cZ) 



Yellow Deal (#) 



Russock (f) 



Mirabou iff) 



Jarrah (g) 



Kauri Pine (/;) .... 



Serayah (i) 



Douglas Fir (j) 



Best Pine (Jc) 



e9 



a =^ 



-16" 



M 

 o 

 u 



M 



5 cwt. 96 lb. 



4 cwt. IS lb. 

 3 cwt. 95 lb. 

 3 cwt. (i7 lb. 

 3 cwt. 50 lb. 

 3 cwt. 19 lb. 

 3 cwt. 46 lb. 

 3 cwt. 7 lb. 

 2 cwt. 67ilb. 

 2 cwt. 55 lb. 

 2 cwt. 42 lb. 

 2 cwt. 



Remarks. — (a) Good breaks, 12" long, (h) Very fibrous 

 but somewhat short break, {c) Long fibrous break. 

 {d) Short sudden break, (e) Good break, 6" long. 

 {f] Very fibrous break, 4" long, (i/) Good break, 7" long. 

 (li) \tity short break. ( () Fibrous but somewhat short 

 break. (;) Short break, {k) Very short. 



All samples were sawn from plank, planed 1" 

 square. Bearings 2 ft. apart. — Journal of the Society 

 of A rts. 



^ 



PEPPER AND GAMBIER IN JOHORE. 

 The great industries of Johore are the growth of 

 pepper and gambier, to which the Ohinese cultivators 

 direct their attention. Both these industries pay well, 

 but the profits, as a rule, find their way back to 

 Singapore, which had to make the advances in the first 

 to the cultivators. Tapioca is also successfully grown, 

 and a little tobacco. During the last few years 

 Europeans have appeared on the scene, and have 

 devoted their energies to growing cofiee, both Arabic* 

 and Liberian, tea, cocoa, tapioca, and tobacco. The 

 conce.ssions granted by the Government were very 

 liberal, and the industries went off with a big flourish 

 of trumpets. Unfortunately all these ideas have been 

 dissipated, and in consequence planting in Johore — 

 like tin mining in Peark and Selangore — received a bad 

 name. " Give a dog a bad name, and you may as well 

 hang him ;" others besides those who had essayed 

 would have made a venture, but were less bold than 

 the pioneers, and awaited results. Mistakes were made 

 and heavy losses incurred, many people in Ohina being 

 involved to a considerable extent. Experience has now 

 been gained, and I feel certain that money is to be 

 made out of tbe European culture of both coffee 

 (Liberian) and tea. But the errors of the past must be 

 avoided. People are for the moment afraid of embark- 

 ing anything, but when more results are obtained, say 

 in one '>r two years' time, they wil', I think. <>how 

 that profits are to be obtained ui'iler judicious, pniper, 

 and experienced management. 1 have seen several 

 gardens and "-states, and the look convinced hip, that 

 money can be made. Liberian coffee, on properly 

 selected ground, may, I think, ht: now writt n down 

 as a suecevs. (The Sultan himself h^s an estate now 

 seven years old, which must pay very handsomely, 

 to judfje by the berries one could see on the trees. 

 His brother, Tunkoo Mahjid, aUo possesses an estate 

 which pays well. If Malays, who are not as a rule 

 given to oTer-exertion in matters of this sort, can 



obtain good results, Europeans should also be able to 

 do so). Tea is hardly as advanced as coffee, and is 

 still in a more or less experimental .stage. Good 

 samples have been forwarded home and been favourably 

 received and reported on in the " Lane." An attemp"t 

 is also being made to work the leaf up like a Formosa 

 Oolong, so as to fit it for the American market, but 

 complaint so far is that it is hardly pungent enough for 

 the American taste, which requires something of an 

 extraordinary strength, such as is provided by Formosa 

 teas. A difficulty will also be experienced by the fact 

 that tea grown tropically produces a larger leaf than 

 that grown farther north, and consequently cannot be 

 made to look, and roll up, so neatly as its present 

 competitors in China and India. To' reduce it to the 

 standard demanded by the New York Produce Exchange 

 it would have to be broken, which spoils the appear- 

 ance even more. These are small difficulties, however, 

 which further experience will probably overcome 

 Cocoa seems to do badly, and does not appear to be 

 worth attention. Enormous care is required to get it 

 over its critical stages, and when passed more or less 

 successfully, the trees are poor, weedy, seedy, and 

 undersized. It is not worth the attention of Europeans. 

 Coffee (Liberian) and tea seem to be the products that 

 will pay. The Arabica plant appears to be a failure, 

 for though its cultivation has been pursued for some 

 years on the slopes of Gunong Pillai, nothing worth 

 speaking of has yet been achieved, and the prospect for 

 Arabica does not seem to hold out many inducements. 

 Would-be planters had better turn their aitention to 

 Liberian, to tea or to pepper, the last of which is at 

 present monopolised by the Chinese, but in which a 

 good field exists. The present districts wbere European 

 planting industries are carried on are .Johore Babru, 

 Tebrau, Batu Pahat, Pantie. Pulai, Panggerang, and 

 Puloh Kobob. — London and China Express. 



PROSPECTS OF CINCHONA. 



The Mannheim firm of quinine manufacturers, 

 Messrs. Buhringer & Co., have recently issued a report 

 on the cinchona trade of the past year, as well as a 

 notice of the various alkaloids prepared by them from 

 this bark. I have not succeeded in obtaining a copy 

 of this document, and must, therefore, be content to 

 give you the contents of a rather brief resume which 

 has appeared in a medical journal. The Messrs. Bdh- 

 ringer point out that, with regard to the trade in, 

 and price of, quinine, the almost sole factor is the 

 importation of cinchona. They believe that the con- 

 sumption of quinine is steadily increasing, and is capable 

 of enormous, extension, the chief reason for arriving 

 at which conclusion is that this alkaloid is without 

 a serious rival ; for, although various substitutes have 

 been brought forward from time to time, they have 

 invariably been found to be devoid of some essential 

 qua'ity or too high in price. They go on to sav that 

 " the world's consumption of quinine was estimated 

 at 3,510,000 O'z. per annum in 1879, and afterwards 

 at 4,237,000 oz., but it is probably much larger. At 

 the conference of American wholesale druggists last 

 year, the consumption of quinine in the United States, 

 formerly estimated at 100,000 oz., was put down at 

 3,600,000 oz per annum, or about 1 oz. for every 

 twenty-three inhabitants. The demand for quinine is 

 certain t ■ a^radually increase in other feverstricken 

 parts of the globe. A large outlet is particularly looked 

 f ir in the rice-growing provinces of the Chinese Em- 

 pire, where fever is never absent, and where quinine 

 might advantageously supplaut opium to a certain 

 extent. Among the minor alkiloi.ls of cinchona bark, 

 cinchonine, cinchoni<Hi!e, and quinine* nre still largely 

 used in extra-European countries, aUhough they have 

 fallen out of use in Europe. Quinidine, the actiou 

 of which most closely resembles that of <(uinine, occurs 

 only in very small quantities in the present manu- 

 facturing barks, and its extraction no longer pavs." I 

 have since discussed the above statt-ments with Dr. 

 Paul, the cinchona analyst, and am bound to say that 

 he does not by auy means concur in the snrguine 

 anticipations as to the future consumption of the alka- 

 loids, nor as to its present use. In his opinion the 



