May 1, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
THE Java cinchona harvest for 1894. 
6,tiG0,00j LB. Of BARK AVERAGING 5-28 PER CENT 
QUININE TO BE EXful.TKD IN ]894 ! 
Eqcjal to over 12 Million lb, Avebage Ceylon 
Babk 1 
The annnal statistical statement of the oiitpa*: of 
cidchona-bark ia the island of Java, compiled under 
the auspices of the local Flanters' Association, has 
just reached us (Cheiniat and Drwjfjist) and is of even 
more than usual interest. As in former years, the present 
ia the sixth annual issue of the statement, data are 
gi»en bo;h of the crop act liilly exported iu the pssr, 
ani of the estimated shipments during the pr.sent 
jeiir. The iatormatiou previously publiabed by the 
A-jsoci»tion bus beeu, broutly epeakiiig, so reliable 
that we ard juetitied iu p ao.ng reliance upon the 
^pptoIlm»te oorrectnessof ih ir forecast for the present 
year, which, we may say at once, is not altogether 
r-jaasuring to holders ot ciuohon*-bark and quiuine. 
Toe figures given by the Ass toiatiou deal only with 
"m mn acturing" barks, the "pharmaceutical" or drug- 
l{i>ts' cinchonas being loft out of account aUoguthec 
ot no iiifliience upon the quinine-market. 
Aojordiiig to the Associaiiou, tho umety-two plaat- 
atioas 10^ iu active oper»Liou in Java exported 
in 1893 3.066,525 kilos of bark, lepresentiog an 
a'o'8rag»te ot 148,910 kilos of sulphate ot quinine, or an 
average of 4'86 per cent, in 1894, should the unit 
ramaiu near the lowest pjiut it has touohed and not 
average mora than 3c, per hall-kilo., or, say ^d. per 
ib., it ia eatimited tba 2, .'374,600 kilos., averaging 
5 28 per cent., or a to:il ot 135,951 kiloe., sulphate 
of quinine will ba exported. Th se figures repre4eLit 
therelore, the irreducible miuimam of what we have 
to txpect as the Javan contribution to the world's 
quinine market. It would 63 nearly 10 per cent, less 
tnao that ot 1893 — that i< to say, an insufficiently 
large reduction to cause any wdll-founded coosiderabie 
upward movement la qainiue. As the high average 
peroentage of 5 28 agaiuat 4-85 in 1893 imiicate=, ouly 
the r chest barks will be snipped from the island 
uuder such unfavourable m .rket oomiitioue. liut 
eiiice tUo sluistics were ooiupi'ed there haa been a 
deoideJ improveiut^ut lu the oinchoaa position in 
Europe, and the unit ii no^v nearer a penny thin 
» h»lf-peuny per lb., and appeari likely to remain 
to toe some time to oocde. Ic is therefore probtble 
that the Java aliipments will be made upou aiiOdher 
baeis than that of a 3 cent nait. The compilerd of 
the statistics, forseeing ttiis, nave taken the prec^u- 
tiou >o give an estimate ot the sbipoieatij in tlie 
event ot a 5-cent per half-kilo., or say, |i per lb. 
ant preva'lin< iu the Eutopsan market. In buch 
a case, they thiuk, 3,535,100 kiks, of bark, ttsuug 
4 83 perceutou a:j average, and rt-preeeutiug 1/0,721 
kilos, sulphate of quinine, or 15 per cent more than iu 
189<i, may ue expected. It auy atatement can cju- 
tribme to depreis the m>rket) onee more to the 
aeeiniogly hopeluHS despondency of last aatamo, it 
muat be tae coufussioii by the Icadiug cinchoua- 
pUuttirs' AsBOciaiioii 111 the world, that the days of a 
reduoeJ Javan output have not yet airiveJ. What 
in more, the AsaosiatiOn, in the explanatory memo- 
randum which aooompauies their statistits, oommit 
themeelves to a remarkable statemen:, wbioh, 
traavUtud into Englisu from its native Dutch, runs 
AS follows : — 
"Ourfigurei show that the area under oiochoDa-caltiv- 
atiuu in Java at the presem moment is aboat 17,105 
bouivo Ul%812 atrea;, ui wliic'i abjut 1,022 are p anted 
VI la sued) libra, or biik lor p jarmateatu al putposei. 
siucK 1890 about 2,492 bouws have beeu uprooted, but 
the new plantations laid out during the same psriod 
cover 3,512 bouws. Considering that the quality of 
the yuuug plantations is so much better than that 
of ttie uprooted ones (.which certainly were not among 
the richem,;, it mui/ lu: i>rei)ictcd n'itli a 1 taint ;i that f or 
the nej:t /iw years to coiiic the Java cropn irill not tUerease " 
Toid is, indeed, a candid admission to make from 
the planters' side, and we do not wonder that, under 
tue vircuniatancea. Iheio Hhould have been consider- 
able neatcaiuga ot huail before tha Aesuciatioa do- 
eided upon giving its statistics to the world. Several 
planters, in fact, refused to give information con- 
cerning their estates, on the ground that by doing 
so they would be playing into the hands of their 
opponents, the European quinine-makers. But the 
feeling that it would be better to face the sittiation 
boldly prevailed at the meeting of the Assoc ation on 
January 23, where the question was finally threshed out, 
and hence we are in a position to give the figures quoted 
above. That some of t'^e largest and, to judge by the 
alkaloidal richness ot their bark, most progressive 
Javan plaijters are not i is^osed to regard the s'^'iition 
ss hopeles.s seems to be inOicatad by tie ftJt that 
a few of them have inert ased the area of their plau- 
tations during the Uit three years by 50 to 180 
per cent. It is the weaker ones tbat have g>ne to toe 
wall, or are at present in process o extiu:tion. 
The graduil elimination of these weak elements 
from the oompetitiva a'ena, the decline of Indian 
and South American competition, and the tUct tbat 
Ceylon has finally thrown up the sponge, leave from 
seventy to ninety Javan planters in the posit'oa of 
potential dictators of the cinohona market. Oan it 
be doubted that if there had been among them ai 
organising genius of the stamp of a Rhodes, or of 
one of the bosses ot the great American Trusts, wa 
should long ago have steo a combination before which 
the quinine makers and consumers would have bsen 
powerltsi ? 'Ihe hour struck two years ago, bat where 
ij the man ? We are no advooates ot commercisl 
ooraMne^, and we should be as sorry to eee- a ring 
of planters take their aqueeza out of the consumer 
as to witness the same operation performed by a 
Syndicate of 'jUinine-manufactorers. We only recorf 
our nurprise tbat such a splendid bnsineas-oppottanity 
tshonld have paesed neglected. 
CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 
In The American Grocer of the 14th ult. a 
lengthy and illustrated article ia devoted to 
Cjylon tea, and when the organ of the grooers 
gives so much space to the subject, we think 
that may be regarded as b very hopeful sign 
iudeeJ. The illustrations consist ol a geographical 
— aetronomioal sort of diagram showing the 
oompirative consumption of tea in tbeU. S- and tbe 
Uoited Kingdom, skeiches of a Ceylon tea planters' 
bungalow (exterior and interior), coolies rolling tbe 
leaf by band and tbe tea being examined, Attbo out- 
sat of the article statistics are given to show tbat tba 
total supply of Ceylon tea in 1893, for the United 
S'.ates and Canada was 1,649,767 pounds. Fifteen 
years ago Ceylon exported 81,695 pounds or less than 
one-tenth the exports in 1893. fcimall as had been 
the imports into the United States, there has been 
mora stir, talk and noise about Ceylon tea, than 
was ever made about Japan or China tea in the 
history of the plant iu that country, waiving the 
instance of the Boston tea party. It was strange 
that in a country which in 1893 oonsomed 88,liili088 
pounds, only about one per cent, came from Ceylon. 
It is added that tbe attempt to stimulate the use 
of Oeylon tea by discrediting China and Japan tea 
had failed. There was something in that method 
wbioh antagonised the Ameriottn's idea o( fair 
play. Consumers there were wedded to collse and 
beer, and although the importations of tea had 
doubled since 1870, the per cipita consumption was 
!e38 than it was in 1S80 and subjequeni ycirs and 
only one-quarter pound more ihio lu 1870. Tba 
Hse of cotiee, however, had increased over 3 pounds 
per capita nhilj beer had gone up irom little 
over 6 gallons to o tr 16 gsllone per capita. 
Undoubtedly one oau^e of the non-increaso in the 
use of tea as a beveraga was due to the poor 
average quali;y of the imporlallon^. Another 
cause ii climatic. The American people did not 
take kiadly to (be tea Ib« bod; and fl&vj; 
