April '2, mo,] THE tropical AaRICULTTTRIST. 
6?^ 
CINCHONA AND QUININE. 
The!>e important staples are again in an interesting 
position, few knowing exactly what their immediate 
fntnre on the market will be, and, opportunely. Messrs. 
CM. & C. Woodhouse. the Mincing Lane cinchona- 
brokers, have issued a pink circular about them this 
week. After reviewing the markets during 1899, and 
tracing the market fluctuations month by month, 
they give reasons for the quite unlonked-for results 
which occurred last yeAr. They say : — 
In the first place, the rise in quinine caused the 
markets of Europe and the United States to be swt pt 
for supplies, and dealers, &c., were induced to part 
with their stocks to t:ike advantage of the higher 
prices obtainable in London, with the consequence 
that the stocks in London have been increased by 
about 1,0011,000 oz. This is, however, an operation 
that cannot well be repeated, and the trade every- 
where must be proportionately bare of stocks. On 
the other hand, we might have expected the rise 
is prices to have checked the consumption to some 
extent ; but, as far as consumption can be gauged 
from the exports of quinine. &c., from Germany, this 
does not appear at all to have been the case, but rather 
the contrary, for 210,900 kilos. (7,381,500 oz.) were 
shipped, against 200,900 kilos. (7,031,.>00 oz.) for 1898. 
Again, it was natural to anticipate that a unit value 
of abont 11c. per half-kilo, would have induced the 
planters in Java and elesewhere to take advantage 
of the rise and hurry their bark to market, and thus 
the total supplies of baik would have shown a large 
increase over previous years ; but this has not been 
so, as the total exports from the principal producing 
countries show no increase, even allowing for the 
quantity manufactured in Java and exported in the 
form of quinine. Further, the returns of the Java 
bark offered at auction in Holland show that there 
is a much larger proportion of succirubra and other 
barks of low analysis as compared with previous years. 
The three main facts to be adduced from the above 
statement are (1) that less bark was shipped from 
Java last year (5,583,400 kilos, against 6,945,400 kilos 
in 1898) ; (2) that the exports of qainine from Ger- 
many increased by 381,500 oz. ; (3) that there is an 
increase of 997,000 oz. in the London stock of quinine. 
In regard to the future of cinchona, Messrs. Wood- 
house quote from Mr. Standen's report made after 
his visit to Java, and his opinion confirms their views 
that " consumption has at last overtaken production." 
The circular concludes with statistics of Java bark, 
and a three-years' summary of imports and exports of 
bark for United Kingdom and Holland, from which 
readers are left to draw their own conclusions. This 
j year has opened with a very firm market for cinchona, 
and the tendency, both in London and Amsterdam, 
is towards higher prices. The London stock of bark 
is the smallest since 1*^94 — viz., 16,099 packages; on 
th« other hand, Amsterdam has a larger stock — viz., 
14,387 packages, against 12,263 packages last year. 
Ceylon and British India are now sending us greatly 
reduced quantities, the imports last year being — 
Ceylon, 618,921 lb., against 975,784 lb., and British 
India, 2,000,000 lb., against 3,090,000 lb. So far this 
year there have been no shipments at all from Ceylon, 
and Java has sent but little — 615,000 Amsterdam lb. 
for January. Another consideration is that the first 
Amsterdam auctions this year were small, as also 
was the cue held on Thursday, so that another advance 
in the unit is extremely probable. This Mesari. 
Woodhouse surmise. 
Since the beginning of the year quinine has been 
in a strong position, and all indications point to a still 
higher market in the future. There have already 
been three advances on the part of makers, from Is 
3id to Is 6d without engagement, the latest advance 
being made on Tuesday, when the makers of B. & S. 
and Brunswick, quinine added Id. This advance, 
coming as it does immediately before the Amsterdam 
auctions, has puzzled the second-hand holders, but it 
is entirely due to the good consumptive demand and 
abundance of orders. The second-hand market has 
ftlso been fairly active, the bulk of the transactions 
being for March deliArery, commencing at Is SJd in 
January, and rising to is ofti, which figure has been 
paid this week for March delivery. The quinine- 
au' tions to be held in Java on February 28 are 
expected to influence the market, and if they are 
successful the .shipments of bark to Europe are 
bound to diminish, for Java's idea is to malse and 
export quinine, and ultimately to keep all the bark 
they can. 
We have confirmation of what we have said re- 
garding the decreased output of cinchona in India 
in an import>int circular which we have received this 
week fiom Mr. J. E. O Connor, Director General of 
Statistics, Calcutta, This shows that, during the 
thir'een years eiiding 1898-99 the area under cin- 
chona in India ha^j falk^n from 14,491 acres to 7,591 
acres. At the end of the last official year, of the 
7,591 acres of land under cultivation, nearly 82 per 
cent was situated in Southern India, the remainder 
being in Bengal ; the latter comprisirig 1,,'S73 acres 
in and near Darjeeling, Most of the area in Southern 
India is in the Nilgiris (4,531 acres), and there are 
1,173 acres in Travancore, and smaller areas in Mysore, 
Malabar, and Coorg. In Bengal, the cinchona planta- 
tions, which are the property of the State, cover 
1,303 acres. In the Madras Presidency, on the other 
hand, the industry is mainly in private hands, the 
State plantations covering only 874 acres. There has 
been a substantial decline in Bengal as well as in 
Madras, and in Coorg the cultivation has been 
almost entirely abandoned. The number of trees 
in permanent plantations has fallen in the same 
period fiom 28 J millions to about six millions, of 
which a little over four millions were classed as 
mature. Mr. O'Connor attributes the decline in ci\l- 
tivation to a fall in the price of quinine. He gives 
statistics showing the amount of bark collected and 
exported from Southern India (Madras and Bengal) 
from 1885-86 to 1898-99. For the past live years 
they were : — 
Bark Collected. Exports (lb). 
1894 95 ... 2,027.629 1,737,318 
1895 96 ... 2,039,881 939,938 
1896 97 ... 1,491,506 321,478 
1-97-98 ... 1,692 439 3,056,7t)9 
1893-99 ... 997,001 1,361,539 
The Bengal and Madras Medical D.-partments nse 
between them at least 1.200,000 lb. of bark per year 
for the manufacture of alkaloids and galenical pre- 
parations, and are pnrchisers from private planters. 
These Departments are a factor in the cinchona- 
problem which is not generally reckoned with. The 
figures which we give indicate that they use about n 
twelfth of the world's present output of baik, which 
is reckoned at 16,000,000 lb„ or 3,000,000 lb. less than 
a decade since. The fact should be specially noted 
that the Indian Government has come into the open 
market as a buyer ; not for much — still, a buyer. — 
Chemist and Druggist, Feb, 17. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Sugar in QnKKNSLAND.— The report of Mr. 
Maxwell, a Honolulu sugar expert, deals cninpre- 
lien.sively witli the three distriet.<! of Bundaherg, 
Mackay, and Cairns. He thinks that the climatic 
conditions largely favour tlie industry in Queens- 
land, particularly in maximum rainfall occnring 
during the liot weather, but sjeaks strongly of 
soil exhaustion in various portions of the colony. 
He also deals with the ratoon question, and 
considers continufd growth witiiout replanting 
conducive to many pests and diseases. He 
regard.-i many portions of each di&trict as suita- 
ble for irrigation, anil condemns the system of 
extreme maceration in the iiianutactiire of sugar. 
Tluen experimental stations should, he says be 
established — one in the Caiins district, one in 
Mackay, and the third at Bundaberg, the last 
named to be the chief experimental station. — 
Sydney Mail, Feb. 17. 
