37 



Medicinal Plants. 



"Manufacture op Celluloid.— The question of manufacturing celluloid 

 in Japan has been under consideration for some time, and that industry will 

 probably be undertaken before many years. It appears to me that if such a 

 thing be possible, users of camphor in the United States would find it to their 

 interest to arrange for their future supply by afforestation in localities, either 

 in our island possessions or in the United States, adapted to producing the 

 drug, if they expect to continue their business far into the future. "While the 

 camphor industry in Formosa has an advantage in cheap labour, it has disadvan- 

 tages in the inadequate means of transporting the material from the forests 

 and in the necessity of maintaining a large force of guards for protecting the 

 workmen from attacks by savages, neither of which will be overcome for many 

 years. I am informed that recent experiments in extracting camphor from leaves 

 and twigs of the camphor tree have shown that the drug can be economically 

 produced by that method, and that the monopoly bureau here intends to apply 

 this method as soon as the trees planted a few years ago have reached their 

 seventh year. However, the amount produced in this manner will be a small 

 proportion of the total pioduction. 



" The Price of Camphor will not be advanced. From an indirect source I 

 am informed that the Formosan Government does not intend to advance the 

 price of crude camphor during the new year. I am unable to confirm this infor- 

 mation, as the Government is naturally reticent in giviug out any information 

 regarding prices. With the enormous shortage in the present supply, it would 

 appear that an advance of say 10 shillings per picul could easily be maintained, 

 and the only reason why such an advance might not be made is that the 

 Government does not wish to encourage too deep a research into chemistry for 

 an artificial substitute. Without being able to secure direct information, I am 

 inclined to credit the information at hand that the price will not be materially 

 advanced during the next year. The present price of the ' B' grade, cost, insurance, 

 and freight, New York, is 175 shillings per hundredweight of 112 pounds, or 100 

 yen per picul. The direct cost (not including maintenance of the camphor bureau) 

 to the Government of this grade, delivered to the selling agent, is about 35 

 yen per picul." 



THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY OF CEYLON. 

 The tobacco industry of Ceylon, there is no reason to doubt, will attain 

 to important proportions if properly developed. As people in the country are 

 aware, various descriptions of leaf are produced in different parts of the Island 

 where soil and climatic conditions vary — in Jaffna, the arid "Vanni and Kurunegala ; 

 Kandy, Dumbara and Hewaheta in the hill country ; Negombo and other places 

 on the sea coast in the west ; and Trincomalee in the east — tobaccos of varying 

 flavour and strength, for smoking and chewing, all of which find a good and ready 

 local market. The production is large as those who have travelled about the 

 country could testify, and notwithstanding the supply, enormous quantities of 

 tobacco for smoking purposes are imported annually into the Island. Looking 

 into the latest Customs Returns, issued by the Principal Collector of Customs, 

 we see that from January to November last, eleven months, we expended so large 

 a sum as 3| lakhs of rupees in this direction, importing 172,702 lbs. of tobacco of the 

 value of Rs. 326,439. Of this 122,720 lbs. of tobacco, of the value of Rs. 288,678, 

 represented cigars, and 49,982 lbs. valued at Rs. 37,761, represented unmanufactured 

 tobaccos. Of the manufactured article 48,199 lbs. value Rs. 36,149 came from India, 

 and 1,569 lbs. value Rs. 1,470 from Egypt. This tobacco is used in the manufacture 

 of cheap, light cigars and cigarettes. Our readers will be familiar with the 

 itinerant South Indian trader who visits our bungalows armed with cigars of 



