THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. i, 1894. 
DRUG REPORT. 
(From Chemist and Druggist.) 
London, Sept. 6th. 
Cinchona. — At Tuesday's cinchona auctions a moderate 
supply of bark was placed on sale. There were eight 
catalogues, and A these aggregated of :— 
Packages Packages 
Ceylon cinchona ... 753 of which 679 were sold 
East Indian cinchona,.. 141 do 141 do 
African ... 628 do 628 do 
Cuprea bark ... 200 do — do 
172] do mi do 
The assortment was a poor one, the bulk of the East- 
ern cinchonas being ordinary Succltubras, Ceylon supply- 
ing a small prinkling of Officinalis, and India of LecUe- 
riana barks. The hghe^t price piid for any lot of Eastern 
growth was 4|d per lb. A fair competition prevailed, 
especially among the German manufactures, and the sales, 
although somewhat irregular at fi st, close with a steady 
tone, at an average uuitcf 15-16ths d. per lb. 
The following are the approximate quantities of bark 
purchased by the principal buyers : — 
Lbs. 
Agents for the Frankfort and Stuttgart workb 75, 1(9 
Agents for the lirunswick works .. .. 6o,3t8 
Agents for tho Aueroach factory .. .. 6d,o6J 
Agents for the Mannheim and Amsterdam works u,i< h 
Mo-srs. Howards & Sous .. .. 29,597 
Agents for the American and Italian works. . 17,2/4 
Ageuts for the Faris works . . . . If, 860 
Sundry Druggists .. .. 13,860 
Total quantity of bark sold. 
Bought iu or withdrawn . 
307.S6H 
43,570 
Total quantity offered .. 35 : . 1*9 
The total weight of sulphate of quinine represented by 
the bark iu sale was only a'jout 56,000 iz. 
It should be remembered that the quantity of bark 
bought affords no indication of the amount of sulphate of 
quinine represented by the purchase. 
The following prices were paid for sound bark:— 
Ceylon Cinchona.— Original— Red varieties : Ordinary 
dull aud woody to fair quilly stem and brunch chips Jd 
to J£d per lb. i-ine stem chips ?J 1 per lb. Good to fine 
rich shavings 2$d to 4gd per lb. Koot $i to ljd per 10. 
Grey varieties : Ordinary to good bright stemi.nl branch I Jd 
to 2Jd ; dull dusty root l£d to 2d ; good 3jd per lb. 
Renewei — Red varieties: Ordinary to g-od bright stem 
and branch chips |d to 3d per lb. Grey shavings 2|d ; 
fair to good chips 2d to ijd per lb. 
West AfbicaN Cinchona.— The large quantity of 628 
bales Succirubra bark from San Thome sold with good 
competition at from 2£d to 3jd per lb. for fair to fine 
bright quill, and at 1|1 to <£d per lb. for dull Small to 
good bright bold chips. 
Cuprka Bark.— Two hundred bales of old import were 
offered, out all bought in at id per lb. 
The Amsterdam cinchona auctions on Thursday las 1 
ended in uisappointmentment to the bark owners, among 
whom there was a general belief tha-. the unit w^utd 
aivauce again. The total weight of sulyhaie of quinine 
represented by the bark offered was 0,2b5 kilos, of wmch 
18,.i5i iilos sold at an average unit of 4M5c. (ejual to 
about 4-5ths per lb.; again 4-dOc. at the July auctions. 
The richest parcel iu the sales was one of 11 bahs 
Le 'ger in broken quills, containing the equivalent of lo-63 
per cent sulphate of quiuiae. It realised 48c. per half- 
Kilo. Eine pharmaceutical barks were in demand at high 
prices, but medium and common grades are offering plen- 
tifully and are hardly saleable. The August shipments 
of cinchona from Java are cable! at SfcO.000 half-kilos. The 
total exports from the island during the first eight months 
of ib91 are slightly in excess of those during the corres- 
ponding per.od of 1893. 
QUININE. — Most people interested in quinine still affect 
to consider the position of the market a sound one. Never- 
theless, there has been a slightly increased reaction towards 
lower rates this week, about 20,000 oz. German quinine 
(Brunswick and Mannheim) in tins having been sold on 
the spot at from 12^d to i^d per oz., while for lu.OOO oz 
Aueroach 12d per oz his been accepted. Transactions of 
Brunswick and Mannheim quinine for October-November 
delivery are also reported to have ta«en place at from 
12jJ iO 12 Jd per oz. On Wednesday another 5,00u-oz. parcel 
sold at l2d per oz. on the spot. The market closes with 
a weak and uncertain tendency. Ail the business reported 
this week has been \a second band. The makers' quota- 
tions are unaltered, 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
Genial Uva. — " I don't think 1 have seen 
any rain to speak of in Haputale siooe Christmas 
last" was the expression we overheard a railway 
official oonsianily travelling between Uva and 
Colombo, make to a friend recently. No 
wonder, though there is a fiae ooffee orop there 
this season. Mr. A. Boss's experience iu Matale 
was that no season oould be too dry and 
hot for ooffee. A planting correspondent in 
Observer sugg s s, th*t Government should 
sell small blooks of land in the Uva country 
opened by the railway — the Obiya district for 
instance. How would it do to bind purchasers 
down to plant no tea — only coffee, cacao, &e. 
On virgin soil, many think coffee oould now be 
profitably grown ; and how pleasant for the planters 
who scarcely see the sun lrom June to November 
on the Nawalapitiya-Nanuoya side, to be able to 
run across the range into sunshine and a cool 
temperature to look after little clearings on the 
other side ! 
Took Through the Hinterland of thb 
Colony of Siebba Leone. — A long tour through 
the Hinterland of the Colony of Sierra Leone has 
just been most successfully oncluilei by Colonel 
uardew, o M.o.. the Administrator of the Oolony, 
by which many entirely untravelled districts have 
been explored, and avast amount of hitherto unknown 
information has been colleoted. We quote a few 
paragraph;-. — 
For natural resources its wealth seemed unlimited. 
Palm-nuts were liberally bestrewed over the little 
trick along which the column wended its way, droppiog 
from the stately oil palms, and the rubber vine was 
to be found in all big vegetation, adorning the forests 
with graceful festoons, some of the vines being 3 to 
4 iucbes in diameter. It is, indeed, pitiable that a 
country to bountifully supplied with useful natural 
productions should be today absolutely depopulated 
and devastated from co other cauee than to furninh 
supplies for the carrying out of a nefarious traffic in 
human beings. Some of the flowers tbroughoot the 
entire journey were very beiutifnl, huge bnnohes of 
large white lilies were constantly met with ; also 
delicately tinged ground orchids, and many other kinds of 
flowers, for tropical flowers of some description or other 
seemed to be ever present ; but nothing could compare 
for exquisite daintiness to the indescribable ferneries 
of a sort which appeared to be closely allied to the 
familiar maiden-hair, whose climbing tendencies over 
the Palmettos upon both sides of our track formed 
a vista of transcendental magnificence, tiansformirg 
that part of the Bash into a veritable fairyland. 
The one great drawback to the rapid advancement 
of the Colony by the development of its natural le- 
sourcrs is the want of the means of transporting the 
produce to the markets at the coast, and to receive in 
re'nra Manchester cottons and oih -r impjrta;i 'n« which 
are eagerly purchased whenever they are shown in 
remote places. The demand is very great, but owing 
to the distance little or nothing finds its way into the 
far Hinterland ; and as regards that most productive 
of all districts — Upper Mendi — 50 miles from the 
coast is probably the limit to which imported cottons 
are carried, and in no way represent the tithe of 
what the country is capable of receiving. The only 
articles which really go great distances inland are 
guns, powder and salt, the latter being reptcked into 
narrow cylindrical palm-leaf bundles before they 
leave the coast. The difficulties in the way of land 
transport will be more readily understood when it is 
remembered that 40 men are required to "tut" 
(carry) down a ton of palm kernels, each man carry- 
ing on his back a long narrow palm-leaf hamper 
containing about 80 lb. weight, for which be receives 
in barter merchandise to the value about 4s. This 
produce may have occupied four or five days to bring 
down, so that it can hardly be wondered at that a 
greater quantity does not find its way to the mere bants, 
