338 



'l he Supplement to the Topical Agriculturist 



CINCHONA AND CINNAMON. 



By T. Gardnek, f. c. s. 



CINCHONA. 



Quinine and quinine salts showed a diminu- 

 tion in 6 months of this, as against last year, 

 although the imports of quinine for the half-year 

 1,571,206 oz. in all, were 88,693 oz. more than 

 during the same period of 1911. 



A reference to quinine almost necessitates 

 mention of its source, cinchona baik, commonly 

 known as Peruvian bark, a drug of equal impor- 

 tance with opium. This, a drug ot vice-regal 

 institution, owes its nomenclature to the wife of 

 a Viceroy of Peru in 1638, the Countess Chin- 

 chon, who through its instrumentality was cured 

 of a fever., Its growth commercially can be 

 traced from this incident, for soon afterwards it 

 found its way to Spain, supposedly through the 

 instrumentality of the Jesuits, who seemed to 

 have been largely connected with the introduc- 

 tion of new drugs into Europe. Markh&m's ex- 1 

 pedition to Peru and Bolivia in 1859 resulted 

 in the commencement of cinchona plantations in 

 British India, in the Himalayas and Nilgher- 

 ries. Prior to this, plants and seeds had been 

 brought to Java by the German botanist Bass- 

 kari on commission by the Dutch. In this way 

 the cultivation of the trees has become so exten- 

 sive in India, Ceylon and Java that we are no 

 longer dependent on its South American home 

 for our supplies. For nearly a year the Java cin- 

 chona planters have been in negotiation with the 

 European quinine makers, and have obtained 

 from the manufacturers the concession they 

 sought. This arrangement was ratified towards 

 the latter end of July, the principal feature being 

 that the quinine manufacturers have agreed to 

 pay for a peiiod of three years 5c per unit for 

 bark. During the present year the unit price 

 obtained for bark at the Amsterdam sales rose 

 from 3 07 at auction 1 to 4"31 at auction 6, 

 a somewhat noteworthy feature compared with 

 the minimum and maximum unit prices at 

 the 1911 auctions— namely, 3 - 03 and 322 

 respectively. These low prices were the direct 

 cause of the negotiations referred to, which 

 created considerable dissatisfaction amongst 

 the Javanese planters, who, by way of re- 

 taliation, circulated a threat to manufacture 

 on the spot quinine and export it, whilst the 

 Government at the same time thought about 

 doing likewise. The outcome of these threats 

 was the despatch to Java by the European 

 manufacturers of a director of the Brunswick 

 Quinine Factory — Herr Buchler — who was em- 

 powered to offer the planters a considerable 

 advance in the unit price on the condition the 

 planters gave up their scheme of budding a 

 factory. The Government, however, still reserve 

 the right to build and equip such a factory. 

 Through the agreement it is hoped that an im- 

 portant industry, which was becoming unpro- 

 fitable, will once more be worked on payable 

 lines. 



The cost of producing quinine in India is 

 heavier than in Java on account of the Indian 

 bark being poorer in quinine than the Java; 

 indeed, during the past few years a good deal 

 of bark das been imported from Java for the 



manufacture of quiuine, although the* Indian 

 Government does not deem it necessary to make 

 a profi*; cu t f either its cinchona plantations 

 or quinine factories. Notwithstanding this, 

 the cost of making quinine by the Indian 

 Government is abnormally high. 



Cinnamon. 



The recent activity in planting rubber and in 

 extending rubber plantations in Ceylon has 

 given a serious blow to one of the important 

 and old-established plantations of the country, 

 cinnamon, to wit. Where the locations have 

 been suitable planters have rooted up their 

 cinnamon and planted rubber or coconuts in- 

 stead, no doubt being led to do this by the 

 prices obtaining for cinnamon, which have 

 gone down to so Iowa figure as to scarcely 

 pay for its cultivation. This has not been 

 without appreciable effect on the market and 

 accounts for the scarcity of bark offered at 

 present. Probably a diminution of supply may 

 cause an upward tendency in price, and hence 

 stimulate its growth once more. The cultiva- 

 tion of the plant in the island dates back to 

 1770, when the Dutch instituted a profitable 

 trade in the bar k, actually controlling not only 

 the supply but the price. When England came 

 into possession of Ceylon the Amsterdam 

 market suffered severely, and ultimately the 

 trade passed to London. The cinnamon tree 

 is indigenous to the island, and before its culti- 

 vation the Portuguese, on their occupation in 

 1536, exported regularly the bark which they 

 collected from the wild plants. It seems a 

 mistake that the cultivation should be gradu- 

 ally foregone, particularly as its competitor, 

 Chinese cassia bark, is encroaching as a substi- 

 tute, and is making such headway as to threaten 

 the extinction of the cinnamon trade. This 

 cassia bark is obtained wholly from trees culti- 

 vated in the south-eastern provinces of the 

 Chinese Empire, and is a species of cinnamon. 

 The oil it yields is similar but not the same as 

 the oil from cinnamon. The mode of obtaining 

 the two barks is slightly different. In the case 

 of cinnamon the plant is cut down so as to 

 allow shoots to grow. When these are about 

 two years old they are cut off, trimmed of 

 leaves, the bark removed, dried in heaps for 

 24 hours, and finally the outside bark is re- 

 moved. With cassia, when the trees are six 

 years old, the branches are cut, the twigs aud 

 leaves removed, and the bark planed and then 

 made into bundles for exportation. — Financier. 



THE COCONUT WARNING. 



Now that we have the full text of the F.M.S. 

 Government wa ning about coconut and copra 

 speculations before us, we have nothing but 

 praise for those who took the responsibility of 

 giving it currency, lhe particular prospectus 

 on which the warning was based was never pub- 

 licly issued, but copies of it are known to have 

 reached Malaya, though we have not been able 

 to obtain one. It is but fair to say that the re- 

 ference the warning contains is not to officers 

 retired from the F M S Civil Service whose 

 names may be said to be household words in 

 Malaya. It would apply to them if they associ- 

 ated their names with a coconut or copra propo- 



