^o6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886. 



will lessen troubles regarding this particular depart- 

 ment o£ the industry; but trouble number two ia 

 now with the analysis. Bark, which has been an- 

 alysed by good authorities iu India, and found to 

 contain niore than four units of quinine, has been sold 

 in LouiIdu on tests of less than two units of quinine, 

 involving, to tlie unconscious and unfortunate owner. 

 a loss of more than SO per cent. The analysers have 

 differed ; who is to decide ? The Pykara Falls 

 Estate was very anxious to obtain a correct opinion of 

 the value of their bark, and a sample was accord- 

 ingly sent to the Government Qniuologist, wlio re- 

 plied as follows:— , ,~ 



" I have made an analysis of the sample of Cinchona 

 o/liiiii"!i« fi'om Pykara Falls Estate, and find it to 

 contain : — 



Quinine . . • • • • 2"61 



Ciuchonidine , . . . . . 1'63 



guinidine . . . . . . '08 



inchonine . . . . . . '35 



Amorphous alkaloids . . . . -ol 



r.-18 

 Crystallized Sulphate of Quinine . . :t-51 

 Moisture at 93 per cent .. 11(17 p. c. 



Tlie following analysis was also obtained from 

 sample sent to London : — 



Crystallized Sulphate of Quinine . , 3-86 

 ,, „ Cinchouidine. . 115 



,, „ Quinidine . ■ — 



Alkaloid Cinchonino . . . . 060 



And the hark was valued, oo this analysis, at 5d 

 per unit, to be worth Is 9d per lb. Subsequently, 

 the bulk of bark from which the samples referred to 

 were taken, was submitted to auction sale at London 

 in the usual manner. The test taken before the auction 

 was reduced to ISU psr cent sulphate quinine, and the 

 bark was sold at one shilling a pound, no';withstiuJing 

 that the price of the unit had risen to 6d. A stirring 

 complaint was naturally sent to London, which brought 

 the following reply :— ' Nothing can be fairer than the 

 whole transaction, and tliere can be uo fairer test 

 ot the value of a product than by public 

 auction. Ou arrival of a bulk ot a bark in dock, 

 it is carefully sampled by the dock exports, 

 who then forward an average sample to the 

 broker, a sample accurately representing the whole 

 bulk. The broker then forwards a small sample, 

 directly or indirectly, to every manufacturer in Europe 

 and America, these" samples, going out three weeks to 

 ten days before sale. The sooner they go out, the 

 tetter naturally , they are worked, as each manufacturer 

 analyses his own sample, and, as this requires time, 

 late samples re^-nive poor alttution. We also forward 

 to the au.vlyst, if the bulk is valuable enough to admit 

 of this, a sample to be tested lor jjuidauce only. On the 

 Monday before the sale, all the thow samples arc 

 exhibited, and the buyers coino round and examine 

 them, note whether the tests received liom their clients 

 are couoboiiited by the appearance, &c , ic. At the 

 publir sale the buyers and agents bid according to the 

 instructions received. Not one of them, as a 

 rule, ever a^ko if Ihe broker lias tested the 

 bark." There is a question— What have priv- 

 ate analyses to do with the result of dock 

 samples und public auctions: There certainly 

 should nut be a ililfeicucr ol luoi i- than 50 per cent 

 between the nsiilt of the private analysis and the 

 dock samples ; but such bus bicu the case recently in 

 so many casta, tli:it we consider the question descrviug 

 of public notice. The sab ^ ol bark on accuuut of 

 Governmont li:ive recenlly been atoppcd at Madras, 

 and we have no doubt the yreat disaati.'^laction ex- 

 perienced, on the one band by the purchasers of bark 

 at tliese sales, ami ou the part of Oovenimeut on 

 the other baud, in consecpuirce of the greatly reduced 

 prices realized, have contributed much to this result. 

 The growth of cinchona on the Nilgiris is slow, 

 and expensive iu upkeep. Tlauters who have 

 been out of their money for years in the 

 cultivation of cinchona, are not only burdened with 

 the iliculties referred to, but the great competition 

 continued by Ciovciumeut. which is unreleutin.:,' in its 

 demand for taxes, is most disastrous. What will Gov- 



ernment do with its bark now, if it is not to be 

 sold locally!' It has tried London, it has tried Madras, 

 and it has tried the alternative of selling nowhere, 

 and sending their bark direct to manufacturers of 

 quinine. Still they are dissatisfied, and the planters 

 also. The faults and faihngs of this useful enterprise 

 require fuller inveatigiition, and we have uo doubt the 

 Government will see the advisability of giving as wide 

 circulation as possible to all the information in its 

 possession. — JltKiraa Mail. 



FEOJI THE HILLS OF CEYLON. 



THE TOON XHEE I'Ol! TE.V IIOXES, &C. — ITS CillOWTH 

 IN INUI.V, ,I.\VA, QDEKNSL.\ND, ANll CEVLON. 



UiTEU LiNL>iTi..\, Iltli March. 

 Thanks for the tin of seed from Mr. Mundt, which 

 is very welcome. As I anticipated, when I heard 

 of it, the seed is that of the Toon tree (Cediclu Tooiia), 

 which was all tlie rage in Java wlieii I was there 

 in 1881, and you may remember that I brought a 

 large quantity of the Haky seed, collected for me 

 by my good friend Mr. Kerkhoven, but which un- 

 fortunately lost its vitality cu route. I tirst made 

 acquaintance with this fine tree at Dehra Dun, 

 where there are fine avenues of it along the roads. 

 That was in February 1870, and in tlie following 

 March I saw it at Parjeeling. At botli those 

 places and in Assam it gi-ows well, and there are 

 now a good many specipiens yielding seed in Cey- 

 lon. My experience in India, Java and Ceylon 

 seems to indicate that it does better at a high 

 than a low elevation. A planter in Upper Hpwa- 

 lieta liad his toon trees destroyed by beetles, but 

 on Abbotsford they have grown beautifully, running 

 up clean, branchless stems to 20 to •i.') feet in four 

 years. We mean to cultivate them largely, with 

 GrevillcK nilmxta and Cniptomerio .luiiuiiii'a. Seeds 

 of the latter recently sent from Darjiling by Mr. 

 Gammie are doing well in our nurseries. Thfe 

 three trees I have mentioned are all valuable for 

 timber purposes, and the toon is so mucli valued 

 for house building and furnitnre purposes, tliat I 

 suspect it will be found too valuable to be de- 

 voted to tea boxes. The inferior woods of Ceylon 

 answer well, and now we are getting cheap boxes 

 from Japan and elsewhere. Toon trees can be 

 planted (i x ti and then thinned out. When I was 

 in Brisbane the wharves were covered with inagni- 

 tieent logs of toon timber, known locally as "red 

 cedar," cut in the Queensland forests ; and in Java 

 it was so much prized that all the roads in the 

 Treanger Regency were being lined with it. young 

 plants of the large-leaved cinchona succirubra being 

 used to shade the planted out seedlings ! Of all 

 trees I know toon is llw one for estates, it the 

 beetles do not injure it. In our experience of some- 

 what over four years, no enemy has attacked our trees. 



SCKNTiiic Tea Manukactcbe. — We call attention to 

 a thoughtful article on this subject, by a subscriber to 

 this Joiirual. There are several useful matters mooted 

 in the paper, and others which will draw forth, doubt- 

 less, criticism ; but this can only lead to useful and 

 desirable discn-ssion on a very important subject to all 

 tea planters. — InJian Tea (inzrtie. [The paper will be 

 given iu full in the Tropical Agrinilturist. — Ed. ] 



Bb.vzil axi> Floiuiia are mentioned by the 

 (iroccr's Journal as possible tea-growing countries. 

 With its approacliing slavery crisis, we do not 

 think Brazil is likely, for very many years, to grow 

 much tea, and as for Florida the expense of labour 

 puts competition from thatquarter out of the question. 

 Upper Burma when pacified and populated may 

 become a tea country, but we believe the period 

 is far distant. 



