October i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
253 
we may expect from that quarter if once the culti- 
vation there should receive an impetus from the 
knowledge that a " ring " had been formed between 
the Eastern growers. "Would it be safe, then, under 
these circumstances to ignore the Bolivian planters 
in the formation of a convention ? On the other hand 
would it be possible to secure their adhesion or com- 
pel their observance of the rules of a syndicate ? 
Besides, even if this difficulty were overcome, others 
of equal or still greater importance would remain to 
be solved. The basiB of Baron Rosenberg's proposal 
is that all planters entering the convention shall 
pledge themselves to harvest and export only half 
of their estimated output. Now there must be in 
India, Oeylon, and Java together at least 300 planters 
who are growing cinchona on private estates, and the 
Dutch Government plantations would almost certainly 
have to be counted among the opposers rather than the 
backers of the scheme, for it is incredible that the Dutch 
Colonial Government should enter into any bargain 
such, as that now proposed. And how are all these 
public planters, whose estates are many thousands of 
miles apart from one another, and who possess not even 
a common central market, to be brought under con- 
trol ? By what means, should they be proved to have 
infringed the rules of the combination, are they to be 
punished in such a manner as to prevent the repetition 
of their offence ? Baron Rosenberg himself acknow- 
ledges that there would be a number of black sheep 
professing adherence to the ring, but secretly trans- 
gressing its rules, though as a planter, aud speaking of 
course with a greater personal knowledge of his col- 
leagues than we can lay claim to, he believes that the 
delinquents would be few. We can only express the 
hope that his kindly opinions of his fellow-creatures 
may never be put to the severe strain which the estab- 
lishment of a combination would entail. The Ceylon 
Observer in commenting upon the proposed syndicate 
justly observes that the planters, after all, are frequently 
not the masters of the situation. Many of them are 
not in a position for want of the necessary capital 
to leave half their bark unstripped while they can still 
get a small margin for it in Europe, and we may add 
that with the creation of a syndicate temptation would 
in many instances be irresistible to forego the 
opportunity of making a good stroke on the 
quiet. Moreover, the loading Java planters would 
certainly, and we should think properly, be 
indisposed to enter into an alliance with their 
Oeylon confreres with the express object of helping 
the growers of the poorer barks to keep their heads 
above water. They hold the better end of the stick 
by a long way. They, with some of their Indian 
colleagues and a few South American planters, mostly 
grow rich barks, which they will still be able to ship 
at a profit when exporting must cease to become pro- 
fitable to the Ceylon growers of poor cinchonas. The 
glut and collapse of the market are mainly caused 
through the action of the latter ; what, therefore, 
could better suit the cultivators of the higher barks 
than that those Oeylon growers who now spoil the 
market with their poor stuff should be weeded out ? 
As to Baron Rosenberg's anticipation that under his 
scheme the " present leaden tone of the market would 
give place to one of elasticity and speculation, both 
good for the producers," we confess that we cannot 
agree with him in the belief that the planters would 
reap any benefit from a revival of great speculative 
energy in the cinchona market. A leaden tone may 
not be pleasant, but a mercurial one is worse, as it 
would simply reduce planters to the position of tools 
of the London " bear " and " bull " speculators. Th« 
question of the production of oinchona, in fact, must work 
out its own salvation. The bark growers, through their 
unbridled eagerness to secure a share in a profitable 
culture, coupled with their disregard of the quinine 
consuming capacities of mankind, have brought their 
present plight upon themselves. What we now witness 
in the cinchona trade we have seen before in the 
cinnamon market, and we shall see in all probability in 
the tea trade a few years hence. It does not require 
the gift of prophecy to foretell that any attempt to 
stem the natural consequences of such recklessness 
must fail, By and by, no doubt, whim most of the 
Ceylon and Java planters shall have uprooted their 
trees because they did no longer pay to keep, we may 
see an improvement in cinchona, and we trust that 
when that times comes Baron Rosenberg may be one of 
the favourite planters whom survival shall indicate as 
among the fittest of their species. If we may presume 
to offer him any advice now from our point of im- 
partial observers of the market, it is to let well alone, 
and to leave his more unfavourably placed brethren to 
fight their own battles. Why should he go out of his 
way to bolster up the weaker ones who are bound to 
go to the wall ? and why, in the name of common 
sense, should he aspire to the historic part of the " fond 
ally that fights for all, but ever fights in vain " ? — 
Chemist % Druggist, August 10 ih. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN JAVA. 
The report by Mr. van Romunde, Director of the 
Government Cinchona Enterprise in Java, for the 
second quarter of 1889, has just reached us. It is 
dated Tirtasari, 10th July 1889, and runs : — 
The weather continued very rainy during the past 
quarter. After the long-continued drought in the 
second half of the year 1888 aud the extremely small 
amount of rain in the mouths of January and February 
of this year the wet weather in the past quarter 
was very favorable for the growth of the plants, and 
the plantations have therefore during the last few 
months grown very well everywhere. The upkeep 
of young plantations necessitated a good deal of 
manual labor on account of the rapid growth of 
upspringing weeds. It was intended to carry out in 
the second quarter of this year a vigorous working 
of the soil in the older gardens that were already 
producing, and after some days of dry weather in 
April a beginning was made with this, but the in- 
tention had to be soon abandoned on account of the 
falling of continuous and sometimes very heavy showers 
of rain. The old plantations were therefore chiefly 
and only very superficially operated upon, and that 
where the growth of weeds was too vigorous. While 
during the past few years there has been no cause 
for complaint with respect to supply of labour, in the 
past quarter the number of work-people was very 
small. The same phenomenon was also experienced 
on the private estates in the vicinity of the Govern- 
ment enterprise. In order to retain the fixed staff 
and to insure the carrying out of urgently needed ope- 
rations, the daily tasks were considerably reduced, a 
method which was chosen rather tliau the raising of 
the commonly recognized pay of 20 cents per diem, 
because an increase of task work can be more easily 
carried out than the lowering of a day's pay once 
recognized. Meanwhile, in order to yield as little 
as possible to the pretty general pressure towards an 
increase of wages or what is much the same thing a 
decrease of tasks, operations were restricted to the 
absolutely necessary, and the gathering of ciuchoua bark 
on most of the establishments was therefore as much as 
possible stopped in June, or at least temporarily restric- 
ted to the absolutely essential, which can be done 
without harm aud without inconvenience, now that 
satisfactory means for drying by sun-heat and scien- 
tific apparatus are everywhere available, to gather 
a large quantity of bark during the course of this 
year. From the crop of this year some 370,000 half, 
kilograms of bark have been obtained, of which by the 
end of June 312,036 pounds had been dispatched to 
Tandjong-Priok. The crop of 1889 was estimated at 
the beginning of this year at 900,000 half-kilograms 
of bark. That outturn would certainly have been 
largely exceeded were it not tha^ a considerable 
decrease in price, ot about 25 per cent, had intervened. 
That decrease iu price has been the cause of more 
and more bark of young branches and twigs being 
left in the plantations. Should the decrease in valuo 
continue, only quills of druggists' bark of the 
desired form aud of handsome appearance can 
be sent, so as to still realize a paying price. 
IBut iu that case the quantity of bark to be 
obtained will undergo a material diminution. In con- 
Bcquonco of the long-continued rain many of the 
