tSe tropical agriculturist. 
[Dec. 1901. 
journey has resulted in further ocular demonstrations, 
and I am convinced that the more we see of this 
country the more we shall become confirmed in the 
knowledge of the existence in considerable quantities 
of this valuable plant, which only awaits the early 
settlement of the boundary question, the prevention 
of the slave traffic, and the establishment of police 
posts, to secure a successful future for the develop- 
ment of the rubber industry.— /»iia-Bit&6er Trades' 
Journal, 
CINCHONA AND QUININE IN JAVA. 
The following is based on an interview with and memo 
randa sapplied by Mr. P. L. Seeiy, St. Louis, Mis., in 
regard to his recent journey of investigation in India and 
Java. The illustrations of Java scenes are repro- 
duced from photographs taken by Mr. Spely. 
Java is generally supposed to have come later into 
the ciaehona-field than Ceylon and India, and some 
say that Java started where the British dependen- 
cies left off — not an uncommon thing with Britain's 
trade-rivals. But this is scarcely the case. Aa early 
as 1829 the cultivation of cinchona in Java was 
mooted, but it was not until 1852 that the Dutch 
Government sent Hasskarl, who had been director 
of the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzore, to Peru and 
Bolivia, where he got with much difficulty seedlings 
that he took to Java, but these did not come to 
much. In 1855, Dr. Franz Juoghuhn, an eminent Dutch 
botanist was sent to Java with a number of seed- 
lings, commissioned also in the following year to 
superintend tho cinchona culture. Junghuhn was 
one of the most diligent workers in the field up to 
Bixties of the nineteenth century, indeed, by the 
end of 1860 there were about a million cinchona plants 
in Java, but 939,809 were the comparatively valuless 
Cinchona Phudiana. which had been propagated 
from the seeds of C. ovata brought from South America 
by Hasskarl, and renamed after Pahud, Governor 
General of the Netherlands India. Dr. J. E. de 
Vrij was sent out to Java in 1857 as a chemist, 
but he was really the man wno reoogni.sed that 
the future of cinchona-cultivation in Java depended 
upon the adoption of the particular kind of caliaaya 
that Charles Ledger had obtained in South America 
and which is now known by the generic name of 
the man who risked his life to get the seed. Ceylon 
and India might still be the centres of profitable 
cinchona-onliivation had the British Government 
realised that Ledger's work was the consummation 
of a long and expensive inquiry ; but the Dutch 
Government, thanks to De Vrij, was si^ffioiently 
fortunate to try the new seed well, and within 
twenty years planters had proved that C- Ledgeriana 
(at first regarded as a rich calisayal is the tree best 
worth cultivating. DeVrij's great service to quino- 
logy was the early recognition of the necessity for 
cultivating plants with a high quinine yield. 
The Island of Java is only 67,'! miles long and about 
125 miles wide. About 25,000 acres of the Island 
are under cinchonas. There are 25,000,000 natives 
in the Island, and only two of them speak the 
English language. The first thing Mr. 8eely did 
was to secure the services of one of these men, 
whom he kept through his visit. He was a very ac- 
complished young man, and somewhat of an aristocrat 
aa compared with his countrymen. His main ac- 
complishment lay in the fact that he had two wives, 
and he claimed that for a man to be a sincere 
Mahomedan he should have four, if his means 
permit. He explained to Mr. Seely, however, that 
one wife did not know of the other's existence, and 
he was quite confident that matters would run 
somewhat smoother if he maintained that ignorance 
on their part. The day after Mr. and Mrs. Seely 
arrived they proceeded to Bandong, which is about 
eight hours' ride from Batavia, at which port thev 
landed. It is a delightful little town of about 1,000 
pnropeaQB ftnd prob^tbly 60,000 natives, ancl the hot^i 
was as comfortable as any one could hope for. 
Nearly all houses in Java are one storey high, and, 
in the case of hotels, only one room wide, and 
sometimes a mile long This is to prevent serious 
injury in case of earthquakes, wtiich are common 
out there. 
After resting for a few days Mr. Seely made trips 
to the plantations, which lay in different directions 
around Handong. ranging from 9 to 30 miles distant, 
all of which had to be covered by pony-carts, pony- 
back, or in mountain-chairs each carried by four 
natives. Cinchona was seen growing in all its stages, 
beginning wi.h the seed and the little plants just 
above the ground, to immense forest trees which 
have been allowed to grow for nearly half a century, 
and some of which are 100 feet high, and could not 
be spanned more than half-way round by the em- 
brace of a full-grown man. 
Over 20,000 trees grow from Ledger's Feeds, and 
a large number of the trees are still standing, as 
is evident from one of the photographs. These trees 
have been allowed to go to seed, and are simply 
used for their seed, as they are now about 45 yeata 
old, and a tree ia harvestable at six years. 
The seed is planted iu what is known as the 
nurseries (see page 165). Both Ledger seed and 
succirabra seed are pi vn.eJ. When tha latter seed- 
lings grow to a height of about 3 feet they are cut 
down close to the root, and a Ledger shoot about 
6 inches long is grafted to each. This is covered 
up with wax and bound with a piece of banana- 
leaf, whereupon, after a short time, the wound 
heals and the little Ledger shoot comes out in leaf ; 
then the tall top of the little socoirubra tree is cut 
off, and we have the completed combination ready 
to be transplanted in the forests. This is one of 
the most important events in the life of the cinohoca- 
tree in Java — the bit of scientific culture which has 
enabled Java to outstrip the world in cinchona 
supply. It is done because the Ledger plant does 
not grow well in the soil, while the red-bark tree 
flourishes exceedingly. It is a wise procedure to graft 
the rich ledger top on the poor succirubra-root, for 
the Ledger bark is so rich in quinine that as much 
as a fourth of the weight of the dry back has on 
rare occasions been quinine sulphate. 
The so-called cinchona "forests" are clearings 
made from the jungle, and the ground is kept 
clean from weeds and rubbish by diligent garden- 
ing. The trees are planted in rows systematically, 
and the ground is so worked that the rains penetrate 
to a great depth. The trees are allowed to grow 
until the sixth year, when they are ready to be 
harvested. The old system of harvesting was to peel 
the bark of the trees. This is no longer done, but 
each tree is sawed off at the roots, divested of its 
bark, and a new tree planted near by. It has long 
been a familiar canard in commercial circles that 
the Java planters had tired of their work, and were 
uprooting the trees in order to pot tea in their place. 
It will be seen that Mr. Seely's observation proves 
exactly the opposite ; the uproot because it pays. 
The new trees grow to tne harvesting stage nearly 
as soon as the bark would grow on again, and the 
trees are much richer in quinine than renewed 
bark. 
After the trees are hewn down and cut into short 
lengths native woman beat the bark off the pieces. 
The wood is dried and used to heat the ovens in 
which the bark is dried. The drying, however, is 
largely done in the sun before the bark is put into 
the ovens, and the quilled or pharmaceutical bark 
is usually dried entirely in the sun, the native 
women and children sitting in the drying-trays and 
tying the bark into pipes while it is green and 
pliable. After the bark has been thoroughly dried 
it is coarsely ground, usually by water-power, and 
it is then packed tightly in bags, of 100 kilos, each ; 
these bags are sent to Amsterdam (90 per cent, of 
the Java bark going there), and the remaining 10 
jpei; oeot) is manujaictuve^ into ^qiaine ait SApttesj;^ 
