TORREYA 



NEW V 



BOTA N 



OARL 



Vol. 44 April 1944 No. 1 



Growing Cinchona under American Control* 



Colonel Arthur F. Fischer, G.S.C. 



In talking with Dr. Bonisteel, your former editor of Torreya, I asked him 

 what he thought I should stress before the Club and he replied, "Go after the 

 dependence of our country on tropical economic plants for the sinews of our 

 industry." 



Cinchona is, of course, an outstanding example. In World War I, we were 

 dependent on the Dutch, and Mr. Herbert Hoover, then food administrator, 

 cabled to the Philippines to raise quinine. The Forestry Bureau had a few trees 

 of C. succirubra of rather low alkaloid content growing, and efforts were made 

 to obtain seed from Java and India. The seed from India was good seed, but not 

 of the high yielding variety, Ledgeriana, and the seed from Java did not 

 grow. However, we did learn a little about the idiosyncrasies of the genus and 

 when General Leonard Wood was appointed Governor General, he made funds 

 available to purchase seed from Java which were obtained for us by Consul 

 General Hoover in Batavia, and from this seed a definite start was made in the 

 plantation industry. 



It may be of interest to you to hear how we proceeded. The first criterion 

 laid down was that we had to bring costs down to a competitive level with Java 

 with much higher labor costs in the Philippines. We had therefore to devise 

 and develop field methods which reduced labor to a minimum and increased 

 alkaloid content to a maximum. Terracing was too costly except for nursery 

 beds, and therefore out in plantations. Drainage and soil, and particularly 

 aeration of soil, became the primary basis for the plantation site selections in 

 regions of sufficient rainfall and elevation. Plantings were therefore made on 

 contours. 



Forests with good forest soil and thick humus were desired for plantations. 

 They were opened up sufficiently around planting holes to admit one-fourth to 

 one-third light, and as the plants took hold and grew, brushing out every 

 month or two took place admitting more light gradually. Then, in order not to 

 injure quinine trees, felling of timber was not practiced, but girdling and letting 

 trees die standing until a cover was developed by the quinine. We learne'd this 

 from sad experience of a three-month drought. The practice also prevented 

 erosion from taking place during the rains in the early stages. Whenever we 

 found forest cover inadequate or insufficient, we used Crotalaria spp., Teph- 



* Presented at the annual meeting of the Torrey Botanical Club, Columbia University, 

 New York, January 4, 1944. 



Torreya for April (Vol. 44, 1-16) was issued April 14, 1944. 



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