152 



FACTS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 



GiNcnoNA. — Since tbc publication of our February number, (iontaiii- 

 ing an article on thi« subject, (pp. 73, Ti,) tlie Department has received 

 several letters from Caliibrnia in relation to the same subject. 



The lirst is from Artlinr B. Stout, M. D., of San Frauciscjo, with a 

 coy>y of a proposed act " to create and estabiisl] a State botanical and 

 zobiogical farm for the experimental culture of all desirable phiuts of 

 foreif^u or indigenous growth, available for economic ))urposes, for the 

 cultivation of knowledge in zoology, and for the foundation of a i)ublic 

 thermal sanitarium for the cure of chronic maladies." The plan sug- 

 gested, and to be carried out by legislation, is to appropriate one mil- 

 lion acres of public lands, (granted by the State or by Congress,) forty 

 thousand acres to be divided into four nearly equal and appropriately 

 located farms, so as to obtain ail the beuehts of (bllereut climates, soils, 

 altitudes, and of thermal springs — all to bo under one general govern- 

 ment, and each to be managed with reiereuce to the object of its insti- 

 tution. 



As the California legislature meets only biennially, the corporators 

 desire, to avoid delay, that permission to occupy at least a portion of 

 the lands be obtained from Congress, so shat cinchona plants may be 

 I)rocnred and set out immediately. 



F. A. C. Grebner, of San Francisco, writes that he assisted at intro- 

 ducing cinchona plants into Java, under Dr. Jiiughiihn, and in their 

 cultivation under the present Superintendent Van Gookum. He also 

 planted over 200,000 cinchona trees in his own coft'ee plantation, and 

 when they were six years old their bark was sold in Frankfort, Germany, 

 at the price of bark from Peru. Though acquainted with the British 

 plantations at Ceylon and Nighlberry, he couiines his remarks to those 

 of Holland, in Jaxa, as the bark is superior to that of British India, 

 and fully c<iual to that of Peru as regards the quality of the quinine 

 extracted, though the alkaloid is generally less than in the Peruvian. 



He says that "the shipments of bark irom Peru and Bolivia are annu- 

 ally decreasing. The plantations in Java now contain over four mil- 

 lions of trees of the best kind, and in the course of the next year a 

 factory will be erected there to extract the quinine and prepare it for 

 use. 



Mr. G. thinks the climate of Southern California well ndapted to the 

 raising of cinchona and coliee, and that Chinese labor there will not be 

 dearer, considering its greater efticicncy, than JMalay labor in Java. He 

 says that entire freedom from frost can only be secured south of Los 

 Angelos, along the coast of San Diego, extending back into the country 

 feome thirty or forty miles ; that in. this district the average temperature 

 for years has been about 02^ ; the lowest, 51^', in January; the highest, 

 73°, in August: the rain-fall is 10 inches annually, but there are fre- 

 quent heavy fogs. Wood-land is scarce, but that is no objection. 



Mr. Grebner believes that capitalists cannot be interested in the sub- 

 ject until one or tv/o successful experiments have been made, and i)ro- 

 poses to commence on a small scale, at the same time trying coffee 

 i)lanting, and increase the planting as results may warrant. That suc- 

 cess may be attained in growing the cinchona, there is little doubt ; but 

 as the coffee-plant requires a temperature uniformly abo\'e 55'^, there is 

 less pi'ospect of success in its culture. 



National Ag-ricultueal Associatlon. — The next meeting of the 

 National Agricultural Association will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, on 



