5i8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1882 



3 4 pegs round them and either bend the roof over 

 and down between the side of the vessel and the 

 pegs, or put a couple of sticks across the mouth of 

 the vessel, lay your roof on flat with a slight slope 

 to windward and a stone on the top of it to keep 

 it down, l)Ut always remember that tlie larger tlie 

 area the l)etter. If a J puit charge seems too much 

 to risk for a start, ^ will do, but pure. Never at- 

 tempt to play witli Hcinileia rastatrix, as I was in a 

 manner compelled to do in the way of experiments, 

 because, as sure as you do so, you will produce a 

 crop of those obstinate, barren-looking, smooth, yellow 

 spots, wliii'li although not fatal to the leaf, will break 

 out and J MjJuce fresh spores always weak and often 

 deail, buL nevertheless suspicious, at the first relaxa- 

 tion in the treatment. I have seen them do so after 

 nine months of apparent inertia, just as if they at 

 first only scotched, in reviving, become inured against 

 the action of tlie enemy, every month more difficult 

 to kill until tlicy finally drop with the leaf. 



The grave difficulty apprehended by one of your 

 correspondents in trusting coolies with tlie acid is 

 effectively met by a suitable vessel, something like a large 

 kerosine lamp feeder, close all round %vith a small nozzle 

 carrying some 2 gallons. A watering-pot will flo. 

 There are some with shut-down lids. I never con- 

 templated carrying the chemical about in open soup- 

 tureena or on dimier-plates and to ladle it out with 

 table spoons. As for the folly of attempting to en- 

 velope a coffee field iu the fumes of carbolic acid, let 

 him live and learn. 



Do not wait for me, but let your planters go to 

 work and make themselves familiar with my treatment 

 and its effects ; all is so simple that it precludes the 

 possibility of any mistakes. There are now prepara- 

 tions being made here by the manager of the Mango 

 Island Company for an extensive trial of my cure on 

 a plantation of about 160 acres of grown coffee, and 

 on one or two more estates, which rhovements will 

 claim my most immediate attention for a while, but 

 1 will be with you as soon as I can get away — at any 

 rate at the end of this season's jjlautLng. 



On page 543 of the Wetkty Observrr of June 30th, 

 there occurs in connection with Mr. Parr's report 

 upon the treatment his estate received atthehamis 

 of the Fijian Government a footnote to the effect 

 " that all this must have happened before Mr. Storck 

 had thought of carbolic acid fumes as a remedy 

 against hemeleia vaslatrix." Precisely so, Mr. Editor, 

 but you will recollect that I had not had the iidvaniage 

 of a ten-years' acquaintance with the fungus, en- 

 joyed by the gentlemen of another crown coLtny I 

 know of. The fungus had then only been a few 

 mnntlis in the country, but I took a deep inter- 

 est in it from the first, and was enabled, after 

 some personal observation and through reading up 

 the then available literature on the subject, to offer Go- 

 vernment a manual tieatment of the leafless coffee 

 tree, which I flattered myself then, aud am sure of 

 now, would have done the work under the comlitions 

 given, isolation of Mr. Parr's estate, with the aid 

 of an Ordinance capable of compelling simultaneous 

 action throughout the country, and the then insi^jui- 

 fieant proportions of the coffee industry of this 

 Country. The fate of my propositions to Government 

 cannot be a matter of discussion in the paper before 

 you, as being foreign to aud beyouil the main subject. — I 

 am, dear sir, yours faithfully, JACOB P. STORCK. 



STATISTICS OF CINCHONA BARK. 

 There is no more certain fact than that millions 

 annually of the human race, and we might add of 

 domestic animals, also, perish for want of ample sup- 

 plies of the medicine, composed of the alkaloids of 

 cinclioua bark, which is almost a specific in case of 



malarious fevers. One of the most hopeful signs of 

 our times, therefore, is the enormous increase which 

 has recently taken place iu the production of bark 

 and its manufacture into quinine or the allied alkaloids. 

 Much of the increase is, no doubt, due to the ex- 

 port from South America mainly of cuprea bark, the 

 bark of a tree botanically distinct from the cinchona, 

 but possessing the same tonic and febrifuge properties. 

 That the average prices of cinchona bark should have 

 remained so steady in the face of the market flooded 

 by this inferior substitute shews how largely the 

 consumption of the alkaloids must be increasing. Tliis 

 fact is strikingly exhibited in a pamphlet issued by Mr. 

 John Hamilton, lately of Dikoya, Ceylon, whose 

 valuable contributions to our columns cinchona planters 

 have appreciated. A mistake in some statistics furn- 

 ished to us by Mr. Hamilton some time ago, it is 

 now explained, was due to a printer's error in the 

 monthly accounts of the Board of Trade, which, it 

 seems, give in any case only approximations, the 

 correct figures being found in the annual accounts. 

 Tlie figures now furnished to Mr. Hamilton shew a 

 perfectly^ astounding increase in the imports of bark 

 to Britain, with considerable advances in many other 

 countries. In looking at values, Mr. Hamilton re- 

 minds us that we must take into account an average 

 greatly lowered by the inpouring of cuprea bark. 

 He might have added the effect of the large quantities 

 of twig bark sent, especially from Ceylon. The in- 

 crease iu imports into Great Britain was from 2,533,000 

 valued at .-e218,000, in 1870, to no less than 

 14 040,000 lb., valued at £1,814,000 in 18S1 ; an in- 

 crease of 11,504,000 lb. and jei,595,000 in 12 years ! 

 While the imports from the United States of Colombia 

 had increased eight-fold, the adverse influence of 

 war in the case of Chili is she^vn in a decrease equal to 

 twelve-fold. The increase of imports into Britain was 

 gradual until 1880, when a leap was made from 9 

 millions of lb. in that year to 14 in 1881. Ceylon 

 told for some of this increase in 1881, but the in- 

 fluence of our island will be much more apparent in 

 the figures for 1882. The importations from British 

 India are given from 1876, and they evidently include 

 bark from Ceylou, as our London correspondent points 

 out. We are rather surprized that Mr. Hamilton 

 did not discriminate the bark from Ceylon. With 

 the proviso that not quite all the bark exported from 

 Ceylou goes to Britain, we now give the figures for 

 total imports from the British East Indies with those 

 for exports from Ceylon : — 



Imports from B. I. Exports from Ceylon. 

 1876... 1.54,480 lb. 56,589 lb. 



1877... 511,168 „ 173,497 „ 



1878... 514,864 „ 373,511 „ 



1879... 1,004, 080 ,, 1,208,518 ,, 



1880. ..1,814,736 „ 1,207,720 ,, 



1881... 1,864, 912 ,, 3,099,895 ,, 



There are discrepancies here which we cannot recon- 

 cile, especially in the case of 1881, when only an 

 aggregate of 1,864,912 was imported into Britain from 

 the East Indies against over 3 millions of lb. exported 

 from Ceylou aloue. Can the balance have gone to 

 the continent of Europe? The difference between 

 calendar years and seasons could not produce the dis- 

 crepancy ? Britain seems to have imported from 

 France and other western countries as well as ex- 

 ported to them, but as a general rule, keeping 

 the best barks to manufacture into quinine. Of 

 tlie 14 millions of lb. imported into Britain in 

 1881, more than half (nearly 8 millions, in truth,) came 

 from the United States of Colombia, but a large pro- 

 portion of this was cuprea bark. The Fast Indies 

 rank second as a source of supply ; with Peru third ; 

 France fourth (but Britain exported thither about as 



