*74 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April 2, 1888. 
pete with the rich Java bark which is now reach- 
ing 8 to 9 years old ; for Java is most likely, 
having waited so long, to be wise enough to ship 
only such portion of her bark year by year as will 
permit her to continually have rich mature bark 
to send. 
A Ceylon shipment of 8 or 9 millions of lb. 
for 1887-88 will assuredly bring the shippers back as 
much money as a 16 millions shipment would.— 1 
am, sir, yours faithfully, RIVERS HICKS. 
17th February 1888. 
Sir, — I wrote to you by last mail and now send 
you enclosed a cutting from the Planters' 
Gazette of the 8th instant, which I shall be 
glad if you will reprint as a portion of this pre- 
sent letter, as it supplies governmental figures 
showing that your estimate of 3 lb. dry bark to 
be expected from cinchonas of 8 or 9 years of age, 
is probably rather over than under the mark. 
These Jamaica Government figures show that 10 
trees gave a total of 178J ounces, m 11 lb. 2 oz. 
of dry stem bark and 16 ounces ^y root bark 
which the article says should be calculated at 
lib, 12 oz., or in all for the 10 trees about 13 lb. 
being at the rate of under 1J lb. per tree. 
The ages of the tree do not however ieem to 
have been accurately ascertained, and for the pur- 
pose of calculating the bark-producing capability 
of Java in 1889-90 and later, your 3 lb. estimate 
will probably be the safer guide. I am sir, yours 
faithfully, RIVEBS HICKS. 
5, Savage Gardens, Trinity Square, London. 
WEIGHT OF BARK FROM CINCHONA TREES. 
The following interesting information is given by the 
Director of Government Gardens and Plantations at 
Jamaica : — 
Inquiries having been made as to the amount of bark 
that may be expected from trees of various heights, ten 
trees were cut down and barked with the following 
result:— 
-3U0 }B U35JBJ) 
jjjBq iCip jo }q!*!3.M. 
A.l[> 
eaatlno 
in looi caoij qinq 
}8Ai jo ?q3i3AV 
(piiqj-ano 
Xap jo iqSpAV 
£33tmo ni 
63qsntfjq pne rasje 
ujojj J3A\ jo jqSia^ 
(piiqj-9ao 
UBJiej) njuq 
jo WtfWAl 
eaotmo 
m majs inojj 
3[ltjq jail jo jqSya^ 
Baqoai 
m qoasjq isiu 
jo aoua.tajinno.no 
Baqon; 
ui qouujq }8jg 
'eoaajajranojjo 
ssqoai at ascq 
}u aoaajsjratioiio 
punoiS raojj 
(jaaj — paqouBjy 
saqoui 
pTTB ^aaj ui iq2i3H 
SB 
: ; « o O "J M 00 » 00 
. . CO w M itT' Oi n ^ 
iC CC OS f 
^ooOOHOKtOHOOMO* 
The trees Nos. 1 to 7 are from the plantation at New- 
haven Gap, which was first made in 1808. It is impos- 
sible now to ascertain the age of any of these trees, as 
some are seedlings and some are shoots from coppiced 
trees. There are probably very few of the original 
trees left ; perhaps No. 7 is one of these. No 1 may 
bs taken as an example of a tree 6ix years old. 
Nos. 8 to 10 are from the plantation called " Upper 
Buzza " made in 1679-80. These trees are therefore 
seven or eight years old. 
The dry bark in the table has been taken at one-third 
the weight of the wet bark. This would give 11 lb. 2 oz. 
for dry stem bark, the actual weight being 12 lb. Root 
bark does not lose so much in drying, for instead of 
one-third (viz. 1 lb.), more than one-half was obtained 
1 lb. 12 oz. One-third, on the whole, is a safe estimate, 
for there is considerable waste in drying on a large 
scale, on account oi the constant shifting of the bark 
from the drying houses to the barbecue, which causes 
friction and reduces a good deal of it to dust. 
It is instructive to take Columns II. and IV. 
together and compare the amount of bark harvested. 
No 2, for instance, is much higher than No. 1, but 
being more slender gives much iess bark. It there- 
fore pays well to attend to thinning. Perhaps the 
most convenient time for crown bark is wheu the 
trees are six years old If the plants were put in 
four feet apart, half the trees should be thinned out, 
and it will be well to uproot them, for the shoots, would 
interfere with the other trees, and besides the root bark 
will be more than fifty per cent of the batk from stem 
and branches. 
The amount of bark per acre may be roughly 
estimated by taking an average tree and multiplying the 
weight of bark by the number of trees on an acre. 
Trees planted six feet apart, are 1,210 to the acre ; 
eight feet apart, 680 to the acre; t-in feet apart, 435 
to the acre. 
JAVA BARK. 
12 Great Tower St., E. C, London, 16th Feb. 
Dear Sir, — Your editorial in the Overland 
Observer of 14th January (page 41) regarding the 
possible , output of Java bark based on a circular 
headed "Amsterdam, December 14th," and unsigned,* 
inserted in Overland Observer of January 21st, page 
50, invites criticism and calculation, hence I am 
prompted to write the following remarks. In the 
first place the very high analyses quoted avera- 
ging 10 per cent sulphate of quinine are no more likely 
to be realized over large parcels of bark continuously 
than are the favourable assays we frequently see 
quoted in gold-mining prospectuses as derived from 
samples of gold-bearing quartz when crushings 
extend beyond the experimental stage. So far Java 
barks do not appear to be more than 50 per cent 
richer than those from Ceylon. With reference 
to this the remarks in the Tropical Agriculturist 
for January (page 502) bear me out: — " Java bark 
containing 11 per cent of quinine was sold in Lon- 
don at 37£c and planters realize a good profit at 
present market value." Commenting on this the 
writer of rest of the article says : — " Upon care- 
ful inquiry at headquarters in London we find 
that a small lot (11 bales) of Java bark was sold 
at Is 6d to Is 7d, which contained a fraction over 
9 per cent of quinine, not 11 per cent as stated. 
If planters could rely on producing such high test 
bark, it would probably pay them very well to cul- 
tivate the cinchona trees, but such bark is very 
rare, the great bulk testing on an average only about 
2 per cent and realizing about 4d a lb." An instance 
of a parcel of bark not realizing anything like in- 
dividual analyses from picked trees of hybrids 
came under my own observation some five years 
ago. It was bark from a well-known estate in 
DimbuLa. Samples had been taken from some 20 
From' London Chemist and Druggist.— B». 
