CINCHONA 



Manufacture 



THE CINCHONA PLANT 



Pall in Price. 



Official 

 Statistics. 



Trade. 



Bengal 

 Factory. 



Number of 

 Trees. 



Expansion. 



Pice Packets. 



Eecent 

 Eeturns, 



remarkable decrease is believed to represent the discontinuance and 

 adjustment of Indian production as a private venture. The reasons 

 usually given for this are the fall in price of quinine, the greater margin 

 of profit in tea, coffee and other commodities, and the more successful 

 production in Java and other countries. According to the Agricultural 

 Statistics, the area in 1898-9 was 6,192 acres ; in 1899-1900, 5.006 

 acres ; in 1900-1, 4,903 acres ; in 1901-2, 4,930 acres ; in 1902-3, 5,260 

 acres ; in 1903-4, 5,014 acres ; and in 1905-6, 5,309 acres. Of these 

 areas Bengal had an average of 1,400 acres, of which 70 to 100 acres were 

 private plantations. The area in 1904-5 was 5,269 acres (1,800 acres in 

 Bengal, 3,293 in Madras, and 176 in Coorg). Indirectly certain additional 

 particulars may be learned from the study of the exports to foreign coun- 

 tries. For a good few years past these have fluctuated severely, but 

 manifested a steady decline which more or less corresponds with the 

 curtailment of private interests. In 1899-1900 the exports of bark stood 

 atJJ,290,236 lb., but in 1906-7 they had fallen to 494,587 lb., and were 

 made exclusively from South India. 



Government Plantations and Factories. Turning now to the re- 

 ports of the Government plantations and quinine factories, of which we 

 possess more or less definite information, we learn that in Bengal during 

 1903-4, according to the report issued by Lt.-Col. D. Prain, the estimated 

 total acreage is not stated, but the expansion is shown to have come to 

 approximately 180 acres. It seems likely that private interests have not, 

 however, materially increased, and that therefore the total area returned by 

 Government in the volume of the statistics of crops may be accepted as 

 representing the Government plantations, viz. 1,400 acres. If doubt exists 

 as to the exact area the number of trees grown is systematically given, 

 and from that a more trustworthy conclusion may after all be drawn. 

 In 1903-4 there were 3,306,763 trees, of which 2,566,057 were Ledf/eriunn, 

 257,602 succirubra, 2,130 oflicinalis, while 463,075 were Hybrid 

 No. 1., and 17,899 were Hybrid No. 2. These figures show an expansion 

 on the corresponding numbers for the previous year that comes to 291,163 

 trees (practically the equivalent of the expansion of 180 acres). The 

 crop taken from the plantations came to 316,757 lb. of dry bark, but to 

 meet the necessities of the factory 461,467 lb. of bark had to be purchased 

 and mostly imported from Madras. The manufactured products of the year 

 came to 16,404 lb., which consisted of sulphate of quinine (12,314), sulphate 

 of cinchonidine (290), and cinchona febrifuge (3,800). The Bengal 

 factory by official arrangement supplies Bengal, Assam and the Panjab. 

 The issues from the factory were quinine 12,021 lb., which included an 

 increase during the year in the form of pice packets that amounted to 

 1,500 lb. The sales of cinchona febrifuge manifested a decrease of 976 lb., 

 and the final working of the Department showed a net surplus of 

 Rs. 66,320. 



In the latest report for 1906-7, by Capt. A. T. Gage, which has come 

 to hand since the above was written, it is stated that " the number of Cin- 

 chona trees of all sorts on the permanent plantations on March 31, 1907, 

 was 3,698,777. Of this number 3,006,847 were Cinchona Ledger tan a, 

 there being 1,770,521 on Mungpoo Plantation and 1,236,326 on Munsong 

 Plantation. The remainder consisted of Cinchona s'uccirubra and 

 77,283 of Hybrid No. 2 both mostly on Mungpoo Plantation." 

 amount of bark yielded by both plantations was 429,557 lb., of which 



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