OeroBEfe t, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
257 
♦ 
To the Editor. 
BARON VON ROSENBERG ON A PLANTING 
SYNDICATE TO REGULATE THE CINCHONA 
BARK CROPS. 
Devikulam, Aug. Oth, 1889. 
Dear Sib, — Many thanks for yours of 15th lilt. 
You will pardon my not having answered it sooner, 
as I have been away. I was certainly pleased to 
see the prominence you gave to my letter, and can 
only hope that planters will give it the same con- 
sideration. 
The answer you subsequently gave from a corre- 
spondent (G. A. D.) and sent to me was remarkable. 
It was short, concise and to the point — but was it 
true ? 
I can hardly believe that 9 millions of lb. are 
taken in Ceylon from dying trees (most of the 
trees that are injurious to other cultivation have 
already been uprooted); but if it be so tant mieux 
pour nous, for there will not be a tree left in Ceylon 
in a couple of years. 
Nor is it a fact that "the cheapest storage in 
the world is procurable in Colombo." Consignees 
in London store for nothing, and so do our agents at 
Tuticorin. Supply and demand is a thing the merest 
tyro can write about. In answer I might indicate 
that the elasticity of the market has been damaged 
beyond the mere question of supply and demand 
by the power the "bears" have got over the 
quinine mrket especially on the Continent and in 
America. This is totally unwarranted by stocks of 
bark or quinine, and that especially as the figures 
in the latter, being fluctuating, are always over- 
estimated. But the fact is there, and after ever so 
small a rise, bears will send down their market 
again immediately until stocks are actually de- 
pleted. 1 know that the unit will go up ; I know 
it as well as G. A. D.; but I wish to support a rising 
marhet if possible and help the quinine manufac- 
turers to join hands with us planters in ousting 
mere speculation. At present it hardly pays 
manufacturers to manufacture, and were it not for 
the often disorganization of producers, it would not 
pay them at all. The only way they make it pay 
is this. Bark of low analysis, analysing say 1-45 
per cent, is only bought in at the unit rate for 
one per cent, i. e. they clear nearly half a unit. 
This of course cannot be done with bark of a 
high analysis, as, owing to one lb. of bark 
analysing 6 per cent and 1 lb. bark analysing 1$ per 
cent costing the same to obtain the sulphate, a 
competition sets in for good barks. 
Nor could it be the cause if the market were elastic; 
there would then be as much competition for the 
low as for the best sorts and the bark analysing 1-45 
would probably fetch the unit value for 1-30. And 
it is especially necessary for cinchona planters to 
raise the tone of the market. A rise in the price 
of quinine would I think be even productive of 
consumption. The millions of the lower orders, on 
whom consumption depends, would rather buy a 
dear than a cheap drug: they don't believe in a cheap 
road to health and life 1 The chemists and druggists 
too, that important body domineering over phy- 
sicians, would rather sell an expensive drug on 
which their commission amounts to more. 
Nor must it be forgotten that antifebrine and 
especially antipyrin are slowly but surely undermin- 
ing the market for quinine. It may take years for 
them to oust it, but they will certainly interfere with 
the inorease in consuiiiption. The time to aot thoreforo 
83 
is certainly now, while as yet the rivalry is trivial. 
But if mes confreres are not willing to act, 
well I shall suffer less than they are mostly 
doing already. That this is not mere blarney, you 
can ascertain from my agents at home. Messrs. 
MacPadyen & Co. I can, on the prices I obtain, 
work my estates thoroughly and yet net a good 
profit. Nor are all my trees dying out as G. A. D.'B 
seem to be. 
However I like G. A. D., and I wish he could 
see his way to work with me, for he is concise 
and I 'm afraid I am not. If he be a bona fide 
cinchona planter, he will no doubt sooner or 
later come round to my view, I am afraid — later. 
No, action must begin in Ceylon: Ceylon still ex- 
ports the largest amount of bark, and very good bark 
it is some of it, not such as is obtained by uprooting 
diseased trees, or a tree here and there interfer- 
ing with tea and open to the sun. If your Ceylon 
men will adopt the measure I have advocated, 
let them do so ; they could almost compel 
India and Java to follow in their train. 
I could however easily obtain number of estates 
and their acreages and probable export iu India. 
The VVynaad Association is of course the princi- 
pal one to reckon with, and I have already sent 
them your article and my letter. 
Negociations however must precede in and 
proceed from Ceylon. In Java I have no correspon- 
dents, but I would willingly correspond with the 
Planters' Associations there (in French or German, 
ca_ m'est egat) provided that a basis for operations 
in Java were first formed by co-operation in India 
and Ceylon. 
But to give you an idea of the practical work- 
ing. We up here on the high ranges of Travancore 
have some 1,634 acres in cinchona, most of it good 
(I have made allowance for neglected or frost- 
bitten clearings), some of it very good and giving 
analyses in bulk up to 6 88. Well we estimated next 
year's output in December last at 2501b. per acre, 
we would therefore decide that — a fiat to the same 
effect having gone out from Ceylon and Wynaad 
Planters' Association and an adhesion having been 
secured from the Planters' Association in Uva, we 
would agree to put in only half our estimated bark, 
i.e. 125 lb. dry per acre, from say the beginning 
of next working season (with us h begins in April 
and goes on to November). If you think it would 
strengthen your Ceylon Association's hands, I would 
get this conditional (it must be conditional until 
the adherence is large) resolution passed by our 
Association meeting. 
This of course is not thoroughly worked out, but 
if I myself can form a sufficient estimate, and I 
can easily do so, for our acreage up here, surely 
planters in Ceylon and the Wynaad could do the 
same. 
One very important reason why planters should 
be willing to join is the fact that bark is all the better 
if left to renew from 18 months to two years: 
it improves during this time. They could there- 
fore by yearly barking every other tree always 
have two years old renewed to take : the richer 
bark would therefore be a further gain to those 
I have already enumerated. 
You ask me where my estates are situated. 
They are up here around Devikulam, and I am 
proprietor or principal part proprietor in four estates, 
Manal6, Lockhart, Kalamankai and Kedegunmali. I 
am also a shareholder in the North Travancore 
Land Planting &c. Co., the owners of this district. 
—I am sir, yours.faithfully, ROSENBERG. 
P.S. — I may mention to you that I do not 
believe the actual execution of the plan would be 
necessary. I think the mere faot that an organi- 
zation had been effected by cinchona planters and 
