— 23 — 



useful product owing to its high content of camphor (75%)- The 

 differences in the composition are probably due to the fact that the 

 Japanese oil is distilled from the wood of the roots and the trunk, 

 whilst the African oil was obtained from the leaves and branches. 

 An opinion in this sense expressed by us has now been published 

 by the above-mentioned Institute in Der Pflanzer 1 ), simultaneously 

 with an opinion on the same oil given by another firm, which to our 

 surprise differs very considerably from ours and reads much less 

 favourable. The firm in question, namely, has found in this oil a 

 content of only io°/ camphor and little safrol, and has in con- 

 sequence characterised the oil as not particularly valuable. We are at 

 a loss to explain this striking difference from the result of our examin- 

 ation, but we maintain our opinion on every point, for the camphor 

 which we found in the oil has been isolated by us as such, and 

 must therefore have been present in the oil. 



An extensive cultivation of camphor trees in the German Protec- 

 torate justifies the most sanguine hopes, and for this reason we should 

 not hesitate (as the Imperial Biologico - Agricultural Institute justly 

 emphasises) "to follow the example of other countries, and make 

 ourselves independent of the Japanese production which more and 

 more degenerates into a farming of the Monopoly.'' 



We mentioned already in our last Report 2 ) that the production of 

 camphor in Ceylon still stood at a very low level. It goes without 

 saying that since then no distinct progress could be made. But the 

 interest taken by some planters there in the cultivation of the camphor 

 tree has induced the Director of the Rangala Co., E. J. Young, to 

 read a paper to which the Chemist and Druggist 2 ) refers. According 

 to this there was up to the present really only one planter in Ceylon 

 who produced quantities of camphor worth mentioning, but he only 

 had i o acres under cultivation. Young, however, considers it necessary 

 to cultivate at least 50 to 100 acres if an adequate profit is to be 

 secured. The chief object in view must be to improve the quality 

 of the Ceylon camphor so that it becomes equal to that of the 

 Formosa camphor, and to extract the oil from the leaves and branches 

 separately from the oil of the trunks of the trees, as the former has 

 a lower commercial value. The present market conditions are favourable 

 for new cultivation of camphor trees, but it is doubtful whether these 

 prices will continue when the situation in Formosa has again become 

 settled. More than one generation will pass away before the planters 



x ) Der Pflanzer, Ratgeber fur tropische Landwirtschaft, published by the 

 Usambara-Post with the assistance of the Biologico -Agricultural Institute, Amani, 

 2 (1906), 333. 



2 ) Report October 1906, 18. 



3 ) Chemist and Druggist 69 (1906), 536. 



