FISCHER: GROWING CINCHONA 3 



shipment and we then began to perfect methods of harvesting and drying, and 

 found that an appreciable saving was made in alkaloid content in quick and 

 proper drying and storage. This is a field where still much can be done. If 

 some method can be worked out for either cheap, quick drying at the point of 

 harvesting, or immediate partial extraction with some portable field grinders 

 and extractors, considerable loss in alkaloid content may be overcome. The 

 average dried bark production at six years of age was .5035 kilos per tree and 

 the harvest was around 3,000 trees per hectare, although 6,000 were planted 

 per hectare. 



With the quinine surveys taking place in various regions in Central and 

 South America quite a few new species or varieties will be discovered. The 

 nomenclature today is still nebulous to an average forester, and a good mono- 

 graph on Cinchona, straightening out of the species and varieties, would be 

 most welcome. This monograph should include the alkaloid contents of the 

 bark, because species and varieties vary greatly in their total alkaloid content 

 as well as in the proportion of their main alkaloids — 'Quinine, Cinchonine, Cin- 

 chonidine and Ouinidine ; and the relation of the individual percentages of these 

 alkaloids is indicative of species and varieties. 



A great deal of field work is necessary in the study of the species and hy- 

 brids of Cinchona, and a detailed study of herbarium material is also essential. 

 Some effort along this line is taking place in the various survey parties spotting 

 Cinchona in South America, particularly in Ecuador by Dr. Steyermark. 



I have been informed that species have been found at 300 to 400 feet eleva- 

 tion in Colombia and Ecuador, and others as high as 10,500 feet in Ecuador 

 and Bolivia. There is no doubt that some of these species can stand some de- 

 grees of frost, drying winds and drought, and grow in a variety of soil condi- 

 tions. When these factors become known, it will then be quite within the range 

 of possibility to develop by cross-breeding a variety which can grow in acid 

 soils along our Gulf Coast under our own flag, with an alkaloid content of four 

 to five per cent. 



Another possibility is to breed for specific alkaloid content. This may de- 

 velop as a result of research by the medical profession on the use of these 

 specific alkaloids. Today, the Office of Experiment stations, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, is carrying on work on cross-breeding in Puerto Rico and 

 Hawaii, and all support possible should be given by the public for this work. 



The Division of Plant Introduction and Exploration deserves great credit 

 for the work they have done in handling the Philippine Ledgeriana seed and the 

 hybrids. They have developed techniques completely eliminating damping off, 

 developed controls of light, temperature and moisture, and developed methods 

 of packing and shipping seeds and seedlings. It may also be of interest that the 

 percentage of germination of the Ledgeriana seed I brought from the Philip- 

 pines was around 96% and after two years of seed storage by the Dutch method 



