June i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
vernment— 300,0(0 francs — to any person who shall 
discover a radical remedy. Chemists and savants have 
been active enough in devising nostrums, but the 
reward has not yet been claimed, although, collective- 
ly, several of the experiments have afforded partial 
relief in certain districts. The mischief of the phyllo- 
xera is that it seems to be wholly unaffected by 
changes of temperature : no summer, however hot, 
no winter, however cold, appearing to have any effect 
upon it. Indeed, one experimenter has gone so far 
as to enclose specimens in glass tubes and plunge 
them for a lengthened period into freezing mixtures, 
;md yet the phylloxera has emerged triumphant and 
unharmed. Another of its peculiarities is, that it is 
preserved from the attacks of birds and insect-feeders 
by being able to burrow deeply into the roots of 
the vines, so that practically it has very few natural 
enemies to contend with. The treatment to which it 
has the most decided objection is that of immersion 
hi water, and the flooding of vineyards has in con- 
sequence been in some districts the most efficacious 
remedy yet discovered. It is an easy one, when the 
character of the ground and the proximity of a river 
allow of its being applied ; but so many vineyards 
are situated on the steep slopes of hills, to which 
the water could not be brought except by a costly 
system of pumping and canals, that it would be prac- 
tically useless in the great majority of cases. Of arti- 
ficial remedies, the most efficacious appears to be the 
sulphur carbons, which kill the phylloxera more speedily 
than anything else. But, whether from the trouble or 
the expense, vineyard proprietors have been rather 
backward in using it, although every facility has been 
offered by the Paris and Lyons .Railway Company to 
«upply it at 45 f. per 100 kilogrammes, together with 
an injector, specially made for the purpose, at 40f. 
M. Dejardin, secretary to the Gard Phylloxera Com- . 
mission, states that according to his experience 
the sulphur carbons do not answer alike in 
-til soils, but only in those which, being very light, 
allow the vapour to thoroughly permeate every grain. 
The most radical treatment is, doubtless, the entire de- 
struction of the vine and its replacement by American 
-stocks. This seems rather paradoxical as it is from 
America that the phylloxera has been imported ; but 
notwithstanding this fact, the American vines are not 
injured by it. This is due probably to their comparat- 
ively new and robust growth, while the French vines, 
owing to their being a good deal worn out, or perhaps 
to some peculiar internal weakness, have fallen an easy 
prey. The latter supposition is the more likely, see- 
ing that the phylloxera has been very destructive at 
Geelong in Australia, where the vines have not at- 
tained any great age. M. Girard, formerly president 
of the Entomological Society of France, does not share 
M. Dejardin's enthusiasm over the introduction of 
American vines, on the ground that enough is not yet 
known about their "idiosyncrasies," and that in all 
probability an entire change in culture will be neces- 
sitated, with a possible change in the quality of the 
wine. As a considerable acreage in Gard has been 
replanted with American stocks, whatever may be 
;he ultimate result, a comparatively short period will 
nable the vine-growers to see how far the scourge 
will be kept at arm's length. 
PERUVIAN BARK. 
A popular account of the introduction of chinchona 
ultivaiion into British India. By Clements R. 
Markham, C.B., F.R.S. London: John Murray. 
In this volume Commander [sic] Markham has 
"uppleinented tho narrative previously published of 
the travels undertaken by him in connection with 
the enterprise of introducing the cultivation of 
• 'oruvion bark trees into British India and Ceylon, 
ml has presented in a concise form a complete 
45 
history of the undertaking, from its commencement 
in 1860 down to the present year. Although specially 
interesting to medical men and botanists, the author, 
writing in a popular style has rendered the work 
attractive to the general reader, and has placed 
before the public an amount of information in regard 
to the cultivation of the chinchona trees of South 
America, and of the manufacture of the inestimable 
alkaloid drug extracted from them, which will be 
recognised as being of a most valuable kind. The 
use of quinine and the relative alkaloids extracted 
from the cinchona tree has now become so indis- 
pensable, and has proved of such iacalculable value 
in warm countries where fever abounds, that on this 
account alone a history of the enterprise by which 
its benefits have been secured ought to prove of 
great interest. We are informed that there are now 
847 acres under cinchona cultivation in the Govern- 
ment plantations on the Nilgiri Hdls, besides 4,000 
acres of private plantations on the Nilgiris in Wynaad, 
Coorg, and other hill districts of Southern India. In 
British Sikkim the Government cinchona plantations 
now cover an area of 224 acres. The annual bark 
crop from Government plantations of Southern India 
alone is 490,000 lb. In Ceylon 5,578 acres were under 
cinchona cultivation in 1877. In 1879-80 the quantity 
of bark sold in the London market from British India 
and Ceylon was 1,172,000 lb. The East India source 
of bark supply is now the most important, but one as 
regards quantity, and by far the most important as 
regards quality. On the Nilgiris the whole ex- 
penditure has been repaid with interest by the sale 
of bark in the London market, and the Government 
is now deriving large profits of many thousands a 
year from the bark harvests. In Sikkim the true 
object of the undertaking has been better understood, 
and the plantations are utilised for the supply of a 
cheap and efficacious febrifuge to the people of India. 
In 1879 there were 7,007 lb. of this cheap febrifuge 
manufactured. Having given the?e general facts, the 
author proceeds to relate the history of the discovery 
of the virtues of Peruvian bark, of its first intro- 
duction into Europe, and of the opposition to its use. 
He then gives s me account of the first botanical 
investigations connected with the cinchona genus, of 
the early trade and destruction of trees, and of the 
region of the Andes, where the trees flourish. His 
next object is to convey to his readers a correct 
general idea of the characteristics of a true cinchona, 
of the number of valuable species, and of the nature 
of the bark and of the febrifuge alkaloids which are 
extracted from it. Having also described each region 
of the Andes separately — where the valuable species 
are found, with some account of their discovery, and 
related the circumstances connected with the intro- 
duction of cinchona trees into Java by the Dutch. 
Commander Markham concludes with a lengthy de- 
scription of the arrangements which he set on foot for 
the accomplishment of a similar object in India. In 
the course of his narrative the author directs special 
attention to the inadequate remuneration which his 
fellow-labourers, Dr. Spence, Mr. Pritchett, Mr. Cross. 
Mr. Weir, and Mr. Ledger received for their difficult 
and perilous tasks. He writes : — "They have laboured 
zealously and most successfully, and their task was 
one which called for special qualifications. Some 
have lost health, all have risked life and limb in 
the service of their country. They have nobly earned 
the gratitude of the Government aud people of India. 
Cinchona cultivation is now not only self-supporting 
but remunerative. Recompense would not be paid 
from revenue provided by the tax-payers of India, 
but from the profits of work actually done by the 
very men who are now deprived of their due reward. 
It is unnecessary that I should give further expres- 
sion to the indignation I feel at the injustice with 
which those have been treated who have done an 
