TMF. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1889. 
lb. For 14 cases thin but very long (4 feet) rusty 
Java quills, analysing 2 - 13 per cent quinine sulphate, 
and 662 per cent total alkaloid 9d per lb. was re- 
fused. The arrivals in London have been very heavy 
since our last reports. With regard to last week's 
auctions in Amsterdam, the average percentage of 
quinine sulphate in the bark sold there was4'3 per 
cent, and not 3 73 to 4 per cent as has been stated 
In other quarters. The quantity of quinine in the 
bark sold was apportined as follows : — 
Amsterdam Quinine Works, buying also Kilos. 
f or the Maunheim Works ... 1,320 
0. L. Schepp & Zoon, Rotterdam ... 840 
Brunswick Quinine Works ... 820 
dimmer & Co., Frankfort-on-Maine ... 780 
Other buyers together ... ... 960 
Total ... 4,670 
Cloves sold at tbe weekly auctions at a decline oi 
to Jd per cwt. Zanzibar, dark to fair, 9i to 9j?d ; 
good fair 9|d ; good bright 9f d to 9Jd. 
Coca Leaves. — Steady. Five bales good bright 
brown mixed Huanooo leaves sold at Is 2d per lb. to- 
day. Another lot, not so good, was bought in. 
Cubebs. — Eight cases were imported this week per 
"Dardanus" from Singapore. At today's auctions 37 
packages of various qualities were shown. Four bales of 
these (of which no sample was shown) were sold at 
£24, for 19 bags small but genuine, very slightly 
mixed and stalky berries, £20 is required ; and for 
another lot of the bold berries, which mauy here con- 
sider spurious £22 15s was refused £24 being named 
as the price. 
Quinine has had an extremely uninteresting week. 
German bulk is now quoted at Is 4|d per oz. on the 
spot in second hands at the auctions ; 100 1-oz. bottles 
of Pelletier's make, imported in May, 1871 sold with- 
out reserve at Is 8Jd per oz. 
THE AMERICAN MARKETS. 
New York, Ootober27th. 
Quinine shows not the least improvement, though 
possibly the next few days may develop some change 
in the position of the article. London has been cabling 
to this market " active business " and " advancing 
priceB," with the value up to Is 6d, or equivalent to 
36c. for German in large bulk, but the information 
has been without influence, as buyers have, stood, and 
stand today ready to meet the wants of the trade at 32c. 
to 33c. Confidence is also lacking in the position of 
this staple, very few in the trade seeing anything of 
a favourable character in the oiitlook — Chemist and 
Druggist, November 17th; 
* 
OUR CINCHONA REPORTS. 
Sie, — Permit us to take the liberty of drawing your 
attention to an item in your otherwise so interesting 
and oomplete market reports that possibly might cre- 
ate falseideas about the capacities of the various quinine 
factories. Of late, namely, you give statements of the 
quantities of bark bought in the various auctions, to- 
gether with the names of the respective buyers, with- 
out, however, considering the percentage of quinine in 
the bark bought, nor the relative values of the lots. 
Thus it happens that factories appear to be at the head 
of the buyers who in reality purchase little proportion- 
ally. One factory in particular buys almost exclusively 
bark of a very low percentage, aud if the amount of 
quiuine in bark were taken into consideration, this fac- 
tory would not appear suoh a large buyer as is now the 
case, but generally rank far lower in your reports than 
it does. The following explains our meaning : — " Tbe 
Auerbacb factory bought 111,307 lb." (see page 445, 
September 29th) ; "the Auerbaeh factory bought 
117,858 lb." (see page 521, October 13th). But these 
quantities contained only 2,100 and 1,750 lb. of quinine 
respectively, aud were therefore barks of not even 1J 
per cent average. We bought 29,401 and 31,800 lb., re- 
presenting about 1,650 and 1,250 lb. of quinine. These 
quantities, it is true, are somewhat smaller thau those 
bought by the Auerbaeh works, but not at all in the 
proportion the bark figures might make it appear, since 
the bark bought by our factory averages 5£ and 4 per 
cent, therefore more than three times the average of 
the quinine standard of the Auerbaeh barks. 
It would, therefore, be an improvement if in your 
highly-valued report you could take this point into 
consideration in a similar way as with the reports on 
the Amsterdam auctions. This, no doubt, will be easy 
for you, as the official London analyses surely are easily 
obtainable by you.— Very truly yours, Zimmeh. & Co. 
Frankfurt a. M.-Sachsenhausen; October 22nd. 
— Chemist and Druggist. 
♦ 
A QUININE SPECULATION. 
Some three years ago a gallant attempt was made 
to found a new British quinine factory at Wid- 
more, near Bromley, in Kent. The enterprise was 
undertaken by a German gentleman named 
Schutte, who had been already established in 
London in business in the export drug trade, and 
who probably thought it desirable to be ready for 
the boom in quinine which has been so long 
coming. Building land was taken at 35?. a year 
ground rent, a convenient factory was put up at 
a cost of nearly 2,000?., and it was furnished with 
special plant, costing, it is said, about 9,000?. 
The plant included eight large torpedo-shaped 
bark-extractors, crystallising pans, boilers, engines, 
tanks, hydraulic and other presses, the fittings of 
an experimental laboratory, Ac. The factory was 
"going" for about a year, and a certain quantity 
of " Widmore " quinine was put on the market. 
We have not heard that any complaint was made 
of the quality, and we believe it realised ordinary 
prices. No time could have been more unfortunately 
chosen, as it turned out, for the investment of 
ten or twelve thousand pounds in quinine works, 
and the latest scene in the history was reached 
on Wednesday afternoon, when Mr. F. J. Bisley, 
auctioneer, invited offers for the concern at the 
Mart " by order of the mortgagee." Less than a 
score of people attended, and very little anxiety 
was manifested to become the proprietor of this 
desirable possession. For the whole property, 
building and plant complete, the best offer made 
was 1,500?.; for the plant alone no advance on 250?. 
was recorded ; and the auctioneer intimated that 
both these figures were considerably below the 
limit, though he said he had come there to sell 
if anything approaching a reasonable sum had 
been obtainable. The chance is probably still open. 
— Chemist and Druggist, Nc v. 17th, 
* 
FINE NILGIRI TEAS. 
Our Colombo broking correspondent expresses 
the following opinion on Glendale tea samples : — 
" They are both beautiful teas ; the young Hyson 
especially, which is worth all the money. The 
other tea (black) looks cheap against some Ceylont 
1 have seen as tippy and well-made. The 
' green' is as pungent as they make them, and 
is the top leaf and undeveloped bud only, or ' tip 
as it is called when ' tea.' I certainly should 
have valued it at 8s. to 93. per lb. and the 
O. P. at 2s. 6d." 
TEA FUND. 
Minutes of proceedings of a meeting of the Standing 
Committee of the Ceylon "Tea Fund " held at Nuwara 
Eliya on Thursday, the 6th day of December 1888, at 
half. past 3 o'clock in the afternoon. 
Present : — Messrs. L H. Kelly, Chairman, Planters' 
Association of Ceylon ; H. K. Rutherford, Chairman 
Kelani Valley Association; H. L. Forbes, Chairman, 
Ambagamuwa Association ; G. A. Dick, Chairman-, Uda, 
pussellawa Association; G. F. Walker, Chairman! 
