322 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October t, 1884. 



going on, and he was much interested in seeing the way 

 it was worked. He feared the discovery of new sources 

 for iodine and bromine which was now about the same 

 price per lb. as it was formerly per oz., must have very 

 much interfered with the success of the undertaking. He 

 concluded by proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Stanford, 

 which was carried unanimously. — Journal of the Society of 

 Arts. 



THE TRANSPLANTING OF THE OINCHONA-TREE 



FKOM SOUTH-AMERIOA TO JAVA. 



(Continued from p. 704, Vol. 111.) 



Junghuhn concluded hence that the great proportion 



of quinine in the root-bark of the still young trees, which 



had 1" grow a good deal, was to be taken as a sign — 



— a prognostic — of the eventual great quinine-proportion 



in tire stem-bark of the full-grown trees, so that he 



deemed it rational to class the Cinchona Pahudiana How. 



not only among the good, but even among the best known 



sorts of cinchona, whatever the learned worthies in Utrecht 



might hare to say aaainst it. 



In 1862 he declared officially that the condition of the 

 cinchona-culture in Java was eminently favourable. 



In Netherland, on the other hand, people were less 

 sanguine, and botauists and cinchonologists of reputation 

 had expressed doubts as to the supposed value of the 0. 

 Pahadiana, the more as the culture of it was being con- 

 tinued on an immense scale and engulphed great capitals. 

 To settle the question a full-grown, specimen of the 

 largest trees of this kind, was sent by order of the 

 Governor-General Boron Solet v. d. Beele L.L.D. to Utrecht, 

 to be there examined by Professor Miquel. This was 

 certainly not a half-measure; for the specimen had a 

 length of 24 feet, so that it had to be sawn into six 

 pieces, and dried and packed up with root, leaves, fruit 

 and all. 



The botanical examination brought to light that it was 

 the Cinchona Carabayensis, a worthless species, already 

 known to Weddell, and according to him not to be ex- 

 ploited for commerce. Also Dr. J. E. Vander Burg at 

 Rotterdam and the known cinchonologist F. D. Vrijdag 

 Zrjnen at the Hague, had pronounced the same judgment 

 on this Javan bark : the species was worth nothing and 

 t'ue culture must be stopped. 



Junghuhn, however, continued to dissent from the Nether- 

 land scientists; but by a Government Resolution dated 

 lltli September 1862, the further propagation of theCinchona 

 Pahudiana How. was prohibited. 



This Government measure was no doubt a hard blow 

 to his feelings; but the conviction that it was taken in 

 the true interest of the cause, could no longer reach 

 Junghuhn. The culture languished, and he himself died 

 24th April 1864 at Bandong of a liver-complaint* 



As his successor Mr. K. W. Van Gorkom was appointed, 

 with tin- title of Director of the Government Cinchona 

 Cultures. 



Here begins a new period, or the Third Act. In reality 

 it was necessary to recommence from the very beginning; 

 (in the several cinchona establishments were at that time: 



Cinchona Calisaya 12,093 trees. 



„ Pahudiana 1,139,248 „ 



„ various sorts 283 „ 



The first thing that the new Director aimed at, im- 

 mediately on entering upon the inheritrnce, was to extend 

 as much as possible the culture of the good sorts, and 

 to obtain from Government the permission to let alone 

 the bad sort, namely the 0. Pahudiana. By degrees it 

 was supplanted by other sorts, and has now almost entirely 

 disappeared from the gar-dens. 



Also the system consistently persisted in, of planting in 

 the woods under shade-trees, was entirely abandoned. The 

 grounds were cleared of wood as much as possible to 

 render them open, as Hasskarl had done before on the 

 Gedeh. Suggestions of professed nurserymen, such as 

 Tesymann, Binnendijk and In 'Ivor were gratefully received, 



* J. lies buried at Lembang, amidst beautiful Cinchona- 

 trees, but, alas ! not planted by his hands. A plain white 

 plastered column, without any inscription, forms bis monu- 

 ment, which has been desecrated by triangulatiou by the 

 insertion of a stone, on which: T. T. No. 456. 



so that sowing and setting were henceforth proceeded with 

 most successfully. A brisk intercourse and interchange 

 was entered upon with the leaders of the British Indian 

 cinchona culture, Markham and M'lvor. In short the affair 

 looked very promising. A chance occurence in 1865, added 

 a great impulse, the advantages of which could not be 

 foreseen at the moment. Charles Ledger, an Englishman, 

 who had been travelling in South America for 38 years, 

 to buy up Peruvian bark and Alpacas for the European 

 market and for Australia, after years of unavailing endeav- 

 ours, at last got possession of a certain quantity of 

 genuine cinchona seed* which his old native servant Mamiel 

 had contrived to obtain at his own peril, and for which 

 L. himself bad formerly in vain offered considerable suni6 

 of money. This seed, fetched with so much difficulty from 

 Bolivia, and preserved with the teuderest care against cold 

 and moisture, arrived at length in London, and was 

 offered for sale to Hooker the botanist. But he having 

 just then set out for India, it was presented to the 

 Netherland Government, who, on the advice of Professor 

 Miquel bought it for the small sum of 130 guilders, to 

 pay 500 guilders more, if the sort and quality should 

 afterwards prove to be good. Mr. Van Gorkom, as early 

 as 1866, announced from Java that 20,000 plants had been 

 reared from it. The sum promised was now paid down 

 to Ledger in London, with which according to Mr. Moens 

 he was then very contented. But when in 1874 the extra- 

 ordinary quality and the uncommon success of the Ledgeriana 

 seed came to light, Ledger complains in a letter to Howard, 

 that he had been but poorly rewarded for his pains and 

 devotion.f 



"Surely after the success attending the seed sent by 

 me (1865), the Government of India and the Government 

 of the Netherlands should award me a sum of money 

 commensurate with the importance and value of the 

 service rendered." Not improbably, both his countrymen 

 am. the Dutch have remained deaf to these complaints 

 But let us return to the subject of culture. 



The young cinchona plants, which were originally not 

 taken for a special sort, were yet, fortunately, not mixed 

 up with the old Calisaya sorts, and in Tjimiroean 8i 

 booms had been separately planted with them. In 1872 

 the Director caused a part of this plantation to be pruned 

 to get more air, and on this occasion reaped the first 

 261 kilogr. of bark, for which, at the Amsterdam sales 

 the extraordinary price of /4,64 per ± kilogr. was paid' 

 Mr. J. 0. Bernelot Moens, who was attached in 1872 as 

 a chemist to the Government Cinchona-Concerns "had 

 proven by repeated tests that the Ledgeriana bark (hence- 

 forth called Cinchona Ledgeridna) contained twice as much 

 quinine as the best Peruvian-bark from America, and even 

 trees were afterwards found which, on examination, proved 

 to contain even a greater proportion of this alkaloid 1 



So it speaks of it itself that the inferior sorts of 

 which the crops were regularly brought to market were 

 far behind the Ledgeriana cinchona in value, and would 

 be no longer in demand with the quinine manufacturers 

 Their culture was consequently not extended further that 

 of C. Leilytriana on the contrary so considerably ' that 

 towards the end of 1881, the plants in the open Srround 

 amounted to above 640,000, and in the nurseries to 619 000 

 Moens has computed that the above 8J bouws planted i» 

 1866, had cast off in 1876 a net profit of /"48,0O0 which 

 sum— if the trees had been all felled with root and 

 branch— would certainly have amounted to 100,000 guilders 

 fully. This may indeed be called a profitable culture' 

 whose results stand out so brilliantly against this dis- 

 appointments, experienced from 1855 to 1866. But at that 

 tune people concerned themselves more about the rights 

 of priority and other highly scientific speculations and 

 interminable scribbling and verbosity.!; I will only revert 

 to the official reports of Junghuhn.' Against this, it is 

 refreshing to read in Howard's book the discourse held 

 at the Botanical Congress in 1867 at Paris, delivered by 

 the man who has most contributed to the transferring of 

 the cinchona-trees from America— by Weddell. 



* Howard, Quinology of the E. I. plant, p. 47. 

 f Howard, „ „ „ v 49. 



I Haakman, Tijdschrift voor pharm. 1S72, vol. 1. 

 £ Natuurkundig Tjidschrift v. N. I. enJ,vroeger. 



