\U THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. t, 1894. 
portant held," Pardon me, sir, if I aay that they 
are the most important ever held. The small 
amounts catalogued show the unwillingness of holders 
to sell, the inability of producers to harvest, at 
present prices. They snow that the lowest 
declivity of the wave has been reached, and 
that it will rise, whatever manufactuiers say. 
1 have pointed out before that manufactnres are 
pursuing a somewhat dangerous course in forcing down 
the unit below production and fair return level, 
instead of working, to a certain extent, hand in 
hand with the producer. I would now, without any 
antagonism to the manufacturer, emphasize this. 
If he looked sufficiently into the classification of 
the bark he has for some time purchased, he would 
understand my argument. He would see that he 
has forced the cottier to sell his goose, instead of 
the golden eggs it lays. They are hardly " golden " 
now, but that does not affect the argument. 
Let us start with the time when it paid the 
producer to shave, to strip, or to coppice 
In rotation. That was a time of legitimate har- 
vesting, and did not reduce the. world's visible 
Bupply of bark. But the time came when such 
legitimate harvesting increased the supply beyond 
the apparent demand, and this was largely aided 
by the fact that Cev'on uprooted large areas of 
cinchona, either because it was dyiug oat in an 
unsuitable soil and climate, or to make room for tea. 
By this the unit was forced down, and I do not 
deny the planters' self-guilty responsibility in 
this first act of the tragedy. In this act I myself 
have several times assumed the part of monitor. 
Then comes the second act. In this the manu- 
facturers forced down the unit beyond justifiable 
limits, while still making large profits on their 
Bales of quinine. The result is that the producer 
has to abandon legitimate cropping, and has to 
increas* his amount of bark put into the market by 
thousands of pounds, obtained from wholesale cop- 
picing or uprooting. His profits per pound were reduced 
to a minimum; hence he had to increase his output. 
Third act. The manurncturere join bands acd eay 
the nuit is to go lower yet. They are encouraged in 
this by tbe large and forced exports of b&'k from 
the producing countries. Naturally, they succeed in 
forcing down the unit, but they have forgotten to 
gather statistics as to the proportion of root-bark 
•nd of stripped chips they are puroba*ing— how 
many geese instead of golden eggs. For it staude 
to reason that root-bark means uprooted trees, thnt 
stripped chips mean bark from either uprooted or 
oopptoed trees. Uprooted trees me&n in actusl dimi- 
Dution of the world's visible supply of bark ; coppiced 
trees mean a diminution of such supply for from 
five to six years. To illustrate this statement let 
me quote the Ams'erdam sales held on October 
6. Out of 4,485 bales 1,072 were root-bark. That 
it to say, tbe whole of tbe bark sold was from 
nprootel trees, or their equivalent. 1 would 
go further than this and state, " That as a larger 
•mount of the bark was Ledgeriana, of which the roots 
are small, the amount of rootbark is in over-propor- 
tion to tbe rest of the bark by a large amount." 
This seemingly strange f»ct I would account for by 
the further fact that the Ijedgenana, is a most tender 
tree, the bark of which is apt to die back under any 
oircumstanoea, but especially after shaving ; that hence 
a large amount of trees were unrooted which had 
not their bark, or next to none. You may go back 
through late Amsterdam sales, and with my etate- 
m^t for a guida' ce you will find the same moral 
in every oue of them. With regard to lodian 
and Ceylon barks, it is needless for me to 
insist that during the last year or eo, if not 
before, by far the larger amount of bark has been 
cropped by coppicing or uprooting. I would go so 
far as to say almost the whole, and if you go into 
tbe statistics of atem-ohips and root you will see that 
I am right. (N. B. Off Succirubra roots about f b. 
of bark can be realised per tree; ofi Eyhrids enJ 
Condaminea abont Jib. ; off Ledger ai>out j.b). Let 
ine turn now to another phaaa of the qu stion 
tfiat (ihe akte pi^ce stilt pays tbe prodncer. However 
he gets his bark; whether by ibaviag, uprooting, or 
coppicing, the produc 'r oaonot put his b»rk into the 
market nn.ier IJd per lb., though I faooy that ia 
uprooting or shaviog it cOBte him more. And the 
without up-keep of his eatste, bis maaagiug-expeudi- 
ture. or big interest ou capital. The average peroeot- 
age at Londoa auctions i», 6ay, 2} per eeut. — i.e. at a 
halfpouny nnit ths bark realiaes Ijd. per lb ; benoe 
the planter loses a farthing or more per lb. on tbe 
mere coat of hirvesting and putting in tbe market. 
The Same planter's average ia 4J per cent, bene* he te- 
cures 2id average price, which would, apparrntly, abow 
him to be a gainer of i 1 per lb. even at prttitut prices. 
But, in his ca'<e, greater difiicuUiea of labour and 
the question of exchange on silver again reduce tbit 
apparent surplus to a deficit. Nor maat it be forgot- 
ten that in both cases the anfraje yield is taken. Half 
of the bark from India is a little over 1 per cent, halt 
the bark from Java a little over 2 per cent, and, 
therefore, 50 percent, of all the bark Bbipped is inour- 
ring even greater losses tban are e''timated as abore. 
The other half is, no doubt, mnkiog some profit, 
but will this make up for the world'* dwindling supply Y 
Tbe fuss that has been made about tbe Java plan- 
ters agreeing to p ace only 75 per cent of their e*ti> 
mate in the market is increaible. They cannot help 
themselves, and if the present unit continue* they 
ratmot e</ea put 00 per cent of tbeir eatimste in. 
The fourth act is very plain • there will be a slight 
improvement in prices, and the market will again be 
fl >oded with barb, thus enabling manufaoturera to 
force down the price once more. Whether, in tbeir 
own interestf , they will bn justified in doing ao remains 
to be seen. There is a fifth act to eorae, in which 
next tone lark will bs obtainable from Gey loo or 
India, and when even Java will have largely reduced 
her output. It is then that Nemehit will wait on the 
manufacturers. The smaller amount of bark will oeces- 
vitate oompetitioo among tbem, and will force up the 
prices again. Will they then be able to force up quinine 
in the saiiip ratio ? ' Whether I am right or wrong tbe 
future will prove. Whether the manufacturers abould 
ascertain the actual fa< ts of the case, as shown by 
me, it is for them to decide. For them, aleo, it is 
to decide whether to act on these facta. Nor should 
they forget that the gulf they are clearing for planterf 
will, later on, yawn for themselver. Slight coDceasiona 
on their part and co-uperation with tbe planters will 
help both sides. For myself, I am content to ail 
still and wait, as I am sertaio of the iasae. I am 
taking no bark off my trees, and I notice that nay 
neighboars are reducing their ontpnt,— Yonrs faithfully, 
J. V. KOBENBEBC, 
Devikulam, Br, India, Oct. 12th 
P. S.— Might I saggtst that, in oommon fairness, 
you thould Rive, not only the large export from Java, 
but alfo the small export from India and Ceylon, in 
our noics on the bark-market ! — Chemist and Drwjgis. 
TEA IN AUSTRALIA. 
Melboubne, Dec. 2.— In Ceylons, over 600 packages 
have changed hands at prices ranging up to lOJd. A 
little businees has been done privately in Indian. Of 
Ceylon 205 chests and 126 half-chests, including some 
lower grades than have lately been on the market 
were offered ; sales amounted to 205 chests and 101 
half-chests at 5Jd to 6id;for pekoe souchong, which 
showed weakness, and lOid for broken orange pekoe 
Sydney. Dec. 1.— In tea rather more business has 
been done during the week, the impression being 
pretty general that prices have now touched bottom 
Stocks at the moment are ample ; but, as the Calcutta 
and Foochow markets are now about closing for the 
season, some improvement may be looked for shortly 
A small catalogue of Ceylon was submitted at auction 
without reserve on Wednesday last, 29th ultimo and 
sold as follows:— 24 chests flowery pekoe lUd- g'half 
chests broken pekoe, 8|d ; 20 chests pekol, Vid • 18 
chests pekoe, 6|d ; 13 half-chests pekoe Souchong, 
6Jd ; 8 half-chests pekoe Souchong, 6^d. In China 
teas clean common congou in original weiehta ia 
offering at 5d per lb., and between this price and 6d 
excellent value ia obtainable. 
