55 
prise there embarked in the business to some extent, but this 
interest did not reach any really great proportions, and has since 
declined, so that in India proper the industry is more particularly 
known as a governmental and a domestic one. In Ceylon, 
private capital was invested upon a very extensive scale. In 
fact, cinchona cultivation there became a craze, and was over- 
‘done. The Ceylon bark was not particularly rich and this fact, 
coupled with its enormous amount, forced a disastrously low 
price, so that a sudden and violent reaction followed, the crop 
being largely uprooted to make way for tea-plants. Later, a root 
disease attacked and almost completely exterminated the remain- 
ing cinchona plants and the Ceylon product has since be 
scarcely a factor. Considerable plantations were established in 
admit of competition with the East and they too have ceased to be 
influential. Experimental plantations were established in various 
other countries but, with the exception of Java, either became 
extinct or never reached any importance. 
In Java, the operations, while under government direction, 
have always presented a more distinctly commercial aspect than 
elsewhere. They have been continuous and steady, conservative 
but progressive. Not only has their extent increased, but the 
quality of the bark has steadily improved, until now twelve per 
cent, of alkaloid, or occasionally even fifteen per cent., has replaced 
the three or four per cent. which was formerly considered an 
excellent yield. At the same time, the processes of cultivation, 
harvesting, packing, shipment and commerce have become revo- 
lutionized in every detail, until the best of bark can now be had 
at from twenty-five to forty cents per pound, and the price has 
actually been very much lower. <A further economy is sough 
by the Java producers through the manufacture of the alkaloid 
at home and this industry is apparently established upon a per- 
fectly successful basis. For the ten or fifteen dollars an ounce, 
formerly charged, the price of less than twenty cents has been 
substituted. The price is now about 30 cents and the Java 
operations bid fair permanently to maintain it thereabout. It is 
