4o8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [December i, 1887. 
At the same time he declines to commit himself to a 
definite opinion as to the lowest price at which cin- 
ohona growing can pay. The cultivation in Java, he 
asserts, is still too young an industry, and its future 
much too uncertain to admit of any clo^e calculation. 
No one can say, for instance, whether the soil after a 
period of twenty years or more will still be suitable for 
cinchona culture. Nor has the vexed question of shav- 
ing the trees yet been solved, for while in certain 
plantations shaving has yielded the most favourable 
results, in others it has been a complete failure. The 
future average proportion ef alkaloids also is entirely 
undeterminable, bo much so that the bark of yung 
oinchonas raised on the same soil from the seed of the 
6ame mother tree yielded bark varying in alkaloidal 
richness from \ to 10 per cent. Moreover, statistics 
kept on carefully managed plantations show that a 
period of even twelve years is far too short to admit 
of an average calculation of the yield. Mr. von Win- 
ning's contribution to the controversy, although it does 
not definitely settle the question, is valuable in show- 
ing that, even taking his own estimate as correct, the 
unit obtained at the public auctions in Amsterdam 
until quite recently has been high enough to leave a 
small margin to growers. His figures of course bear 
only indirectly upon other cinchonas, but they go far to 
show that in all probability the Ceylon growers have 
not yet lost much money on the bark sold here, unless 
on parcels averaging a very small proportion of quinine, 
and this hypothesis points to a continuance of the 
heavy bark shipments, and, in sympathy with the latter, 
of low quinine prices. — Chemist and Druggist. 
« — 
SUGAR BOUNTIES. 
It will be seen by our telegrams that M. Sans 
Leroy, who was appointed by the French Govern- 
ment to inquire into the operation of the sugar 
bounties, has reported strongly against them. In 
every country of Europe they are falling into 
disfavour, and in the Legislatures they have been 
condemned even by protectionists in unmeasured 
terms. Nor is the reason of this change of opinion 
on the part of the financial authorities of the 
Continent far to seek. When the bounties were 
first imposed the production of beet-root sugar was 
small, being little more than a tenth of what it 
now is. As cultivation increased, and as machinery 
which extracted a greater amount of sugar from 
the beet-root was invented, the unnatural stimulus 
produced a glut, which was followed by disaster, 
bankruptcies, and distress. Owing to the keen 
competition of Germany, and to the difficulties of 
the producers, both France and Belgium have 
been obliged to revise their tariff. Germany and 
Austria have passed through a severe crisis, which 
has brought with it many failures among the 
capitalists, and widespread distress among the 
workmen. According to a member of the German 
Parliamert, the subsidy on sugar has amounted to 
eight or ten per cent, on the capital invested ; or, 
to take another calculation, it has nearly paid the 
wages of the workmen employed in the business. 
Yet, in spite of this subsidy, there have been many 
failures, and heavy losses, both to the Treasury and 
the community, on unrealisable property. 
The question, therefore, has arisen whether any 
real prosperity is represented by the figures which 
record the rapid growth of the beet-root industry. 
Any other department of human labour would have 
shown an equal advance, if it had been supported 
by a similar subsidy. The difficulties which beset 
the manufacture of sugar, when it is kept up by 
direct state aid, may be taken as sufficient to con- 
demn the whole bounty system. But the losses 
thut liuvo been cauoed by over-pioductioii loliowed 
by stagnation, are not the only losses that can be 
traced to the bounties. It is said that the German 
manufacturers of sweetmeats are undersold every- 
where by their English rivals. Owing to the cheap 
rates at which the latter have been able to buy 
their sugar they have succeeded apparently in 
laying hold of the German market. By way of 
returning the kindness done to them by the bounty 
system, they send across the manufactured pro- 
ducts at a price with which the local makers find 
it difficult to compete. Nor does even this exhaust 
the complaint which is now made against the 
bouiities ; for sugar costs at least twice as much 
to the German or French as it does to the English 
consumer. While in England it is universally 
used, the eousumption in these other countries 
remains almost at the same level. In other words, 
the people of the Continent are heavily taxed to 
produce a cheap luxury for the English people which 
they cannot afford for themselves, and at the 
same time the industry has never been as profit- 
able as it was expected to be. 
The artificial stimulus, however, to the produc- 
tion of beet-root has most injuriously affected the 
sugar plantations of the colonies, and to a consider- 
able extent the refineries of the mother country. 
But the latter suffer solely from the recent im- 
portations of refined, and not from the production 
of raw sugars. It is not the cultivation of beet- 
root but the competition of refining establishments 
elsewhere that has deprived the fifty thousand men 
who recently marched through the streets of London 
of their employment. Some three years ago, when 
the heavy fall in the price of sugar told severely 
on the owners of plantations, the refiners were 
importing huge quantities of the beet-root product 
at a low rate. It is probable, indeed, that the 
importation of these low-priced sugars gave an 
unhealthy impetus to the trade, and led to an un- 
warranted extension of business. But in spite of 
foreign competition, not more than one-fifth of the 
sugar imported into England is refined. Four-fifths 
of the imports consist of raw sugars, and while 
there may be considerable depression, there is 
certainly not the ruinous condition which is des- 
cribed by those who would fain impose a sugar- 
tax. It may be doubted whether anything tending 
to add to the cost of the raw material would be 
to the ultimate advantage of the refiner, since the 
competition would still remain, and the demand 
would probably be lessened. The people who have 
most plainly suffered by the bounties, and who 
will be most directly benefited by their repeal, are 
the cane-growers. The production of cane sugar, 
indeed, has not diminished. On the contrary, it 
has kept pace with the growing consumption, and 
in some of the West Indian islands the production 
is much larger than before. But the low prices 
have necessarily inflicted great damage in places 
like Queensland and Fiji, where the expenses of 
beginning the industry have to be incurred ; and 
in Mauritius, where the soil has been long worked. 
The demand for cane sugar has been little inter- 
fered with by the cultivation of beet root, for the 
simple reason that the cheapness of the article 
has enhanced the consumption. But while the 
reduced prices have told against all planters, they 
have been ruinous for local reasons to many. It 
is to be hoped that the difficulty will be ended, 
not by any artificial help to the plantations, but 
by the abolition of the bounties, and that the 
people of the Continent .'■taggering under a heavy 
burden will have sense enough to throw it off. 
The planters will then meet fair competition and 
roceivc a fair price, and the reduction of cost which 
>vould follow on the Continent would probably 
elad to a better demand.— lii. Argus, Oct. 14th. 
