12 



Tvorld, is an example of what goyermneiit support of a plant industry 

 has done. For thirty years the Dutch Government was nrged to 

 nndertake the introduction of this valuable medicinal phmt from Peru, 

 and finally in 1852 the Dutch minister of colonies was authorized to 

 employ the botanist Hasskarl, who exi^lored the cinchona forests of 

 Peru, bringing back twenty Wardian cases of different species of 

 cinchona. Plantations of the various species were started and large 

 sums of money expended, and although an error in the extensive 

 propagation of a comparatively worthless variety, i)oor in the alkaloid, 

 added unnecessary difficulty to the problem, the plantations, both gov- 

 ernmental and private, now produce abundantly, and a factory is in 

 operation on the island for the extraction and refinement of the j^roduct, 

 which extraction has heretofore been done by European and American 

 firms. The profit to the Government in 1896 from its plantations was 

 838,500, and over 811,395 worth of the refined product will be shipped 

 to the United States alone this current year.* 



Tlie efforts of Clements E. Markham, engaged by the Indian govern- 

 ment to introduce the cinchona culture into India, were crowned with 

 success, and the cinchona plantations and factories of that region have 

 assisted in the production of their share of the 600,000 pounds or more 

 which are placed on the market annually. The price of the quinine is 

 BOW so lowt that it may be counted one of the inexpensive drugs, and 

 this cheapening has been brought about by the introduction of the 

 industry into India and Java.t 



The Colonial government of Cape Colony established in 1881 a gov- 

 ernment wine farm of 300 acres, with competent wine makers, for the 

 purpo;?e of stimulating the cultivation of the European grape and the 

 building np of the wine industry. Imported pure selected yeasts have 

 here been experimented with in the fermentation of the wine must and, 

 although as yet apparently not with the success wbich attends their 

 use in the Ehine region, a perceptible acceleration of the fermentation 

 Xjrocess and production of uniformity of product have been demon- 

 strated. The government, by the introduction ?nd pro])agation of 

 resistant American vine stocks, which are sold for a nominal sum to 

 grape growers, is enconvaging the rei)lanting of all vineyards with 

 American stock, to prevent the catastrophe which the rapidly spread- 

 ing ravages of the phylloxera are destined to ]n^oduce. § 



The Eoyal West Indian Commission, sent out by the British Govern- 

 ment in 1890 to investigate the causes ot agricultural depression in the 

 British AVest Indies, recommended the expenditure of £17,000, or more 



* Everett, Sidney B. Quinine in Java. Cousnlar reports LYIII, No. 217, Oct. 1898, 

 pp. 266-2(37. 



t (Nineteen to 19J^ cents per oz. in London.) According to de Tndisclie Mercuur, 

 Ko. 35, An^-. 27, 1898, p. 558, 9id. to 9|d. in London for snlpliate of quinine. 



tWarkham, Clements R. Travels in Peru and India. Lor.don, 1862. 



§ \Yalla(e, Robert. Farming Industries of Cape Colony. London, King Jt Son, 

 1896, pp. 137, 139, 152. 



