84 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



JAVA CINCHONA AND QUENiNE. 



Mr David Hooper, Reporter on Economic 

 Products to the Government of India, has re- 

 arranged, after translation, van Gorkom's pam- 

 phlet on Cinchona ia Java from 1872 to 1907, so 

 tha ; ; it may be of greater utility to cinchona 

 planters in India. This pamphlet is supple- 

 mental to van Gorkom's "Handbook," translated 

 by Mr B D Jackson, and published in 1883, and 

 also to Moons' treatise "De Kinacultuur in 

 Azie," 1854-1882. Since these appeared, no books 

 in English describing the remarkable progress 

 made in Java cinchona cultivation have been 

 published, and van Gorkom's latest pamphlet 

 is thus the nearest thiDg to date, Although it 

 contains nothing really now, the translation is 

 most appropriate at the present juncture, when 

 so much expectation has been aroused by nego- 

 tiations between European quinine interests 

 and Java planters with a view to working more 

 to mutual advantage. Van Gorkom's original 

 pamphlet dealt with matters chronologically, 

 which had its demerits ; Hooper has arranged 

 the information in narrative form. The idea of 

 cultivating cinchona in the island is reckoned 

 to have taken shape in 1854, but not until several 

 years later did those chemical researches begin 

 which have marched so steadily with the de- 

 velopment of the plantations. It was, in fact, 

 only in 1870 that cinchona culture in Java had 

 become so advanced as to supply material with 

 success for the commencement of systematic 

 chemical research. A chemist was appointed 

 in 1872. Interesting is it to recall 



THE STEPS TAKEN BY EUROPEAN NATIONS TO 

 FORTIFY THEMSELVES IN THE 

 SUPPLX OF QUININE 



against the failure of the South American forests 

 First, the French through La Condamine in 

 French Guiana and through Weddell in Algeria 

 — but both failed. Then the Dutch Government 

 in 1852 sent Hasskarl to South America and he 

 was brought to Batavia on a Dutch warship 

 with a precious cargo of 21 cases of youug plants. 

 The British Government in 1858 seat Markham 

 to Bolivia and South Peru, and he had to get 

 his living plants down to the coast by stratagem. 

 Spruce, Cross and Pritchett marie supplemental 

 expeditious. In 1865 an Englishman, 0. Ledger, 

 obtained from au Indian a packet of particu- 

 larly valuable seed, a part of which was sold 

 privately to British India and part to the Dutch 

 Government, its value being altogether un- 

 suspected by the sellers. Meanwhile, from 1865 

 the Dutch Consul-General at La Paz contrived 

 to forward seeds to Holland, and in 1368 the 



Consul-General at Caracas also assisted to this 

 end. In 1872, when the history of Java cultiva- 

 tion practically begins, there were in the island 

 stocks of Cinchona calisaya (from Weddell's 

 seed) and of C. Ledgeriana (from Ledger's seed), 

 beside stocks of C, calisaya from Hasskarl's 

 mission and from the Consular efforts, stocks of 

 C. officinalis raised in Java from seed sent from 

 Madras and Bengal, a supply of C. succirubra 

 received from Bengal, Madras, and 



CEYLON, AND OTHER STOCK, 



aggregating 1.009,000 plants of C calisaya, 164, uOO 

 of C. succirubra, 188,000 of C. officinalis, of 

 C, lancifolia, and 1,050 of C. micrantha. At the 

 end of May, 1872, Moens was able to start his 

 analytical investigations at Bandoeng, and his 

 first duty was to find the relative values of the 

 different species, U. Ledgeriana being proved 

 superior and the alkaloidal values of the other 

 varieties were in due course determined ; also 

 the status of the alkaloids in the bark at various 

 stages, and the most productive methods of pro- 

 pagation and cultivation. The effect of grafting, 

 the influence of seasons, manuring, in fact all 

 matters appropriate to placing the industry on a 

 thoroughly established basis, were undertaken 

 and are in specialised forms still proceeding, 

 with the result that Java has got the world's 

 supply of bark in her hands. 



Question has been raised with some emphasis 

 lately as to 



WHETHER JAVA CANNOT SUPPLY ALSO THE 

 QUININE THE WORLD REQUIRES, 



instead of leaving this function to European and 

 American manufacturers. There is, of course, a 

 factory at Bandoeng, and there is talk of estab- 

 lishing another in the island, whilst some of the 

 planters have great hopes of making quinine 

 themselves from the green bark by Van Leer- 

 sum's new process. Great difficulties would have 

 to be overcome, not the least of which would be 

 the natural preference of consumers for the pro- 

 duct resulting from the specialised apparatus, 

 processes and experience of Western makers to 

 that from the manufacturing experimentalists in 

 J ava. It might bo that their production would 

 never be above the crude stage; in this connection 

 it is interesting to recall some of the outstanding 

 efforts at manufacture by the Dutch. EydmaD, a 

 pupil of de Vrij, in 1874 converted succirubra 

 bark into coarse mixed alkaloids called "quine- 

 tum," which is described as a good-looking pre- 

 paration of sufficient purity, which was a good 

 febrifuge, and could replace sulphate of quinine 

 in many cases. Its variable composition, how- 

 ever, did not inspire confidence among payer 



