902 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURIST. IJvke i, 1892. 
ODities attendant on the first introduotion of cincbooa 
aa a cultivation. Until recently South Arnerica was 
the sole, and often diffigult and uncertain, source of 
Bupply, and while Spanish rn'e continued thtre the 
ntmoat cauticn was exerted, to prevent the Ciuchnna 
forest from being exposed to the curiosity or cupidity 
of foreigners. In fact, Markh-im, the greatest of all 
the authorities on cinchona, says: — " Wo did not even 
have B description of the Quinquina tree tilljusfieu, 
the botanist, accompanied the memorable Fiench 
expedition which went to Juito t" measTire an arc 
of the meridian, and so determined the fhape of the 
earth. M. M. De la Oondamine joined Jussien, and 
for 15 years they remained toiling in tlie forests, only 
to be robbed of their plants in raietako for gold 
ButenoB Ayrea en route to France. Thi.-i was about 
1735, and for about another 100 jears the cinobona 
forests were all but forgotten, when it struck the Dutch 
Government that Java, being of a similar lattitude and 
climate to Peru, might become a siiil more valuable 
possession to them if it could produce cinchona trees, 
the bark by this time having become a large and im- 
portant art'c'e of commerce. Moiis. HBS!«k:r). of the 
Java botanical gardens, was therefore despatched in 
1853, with a permit aad guide to the forests, but again 
comparative misfortune overtook the enterprise, for 
the guide wilfully or ignoiantly misled him into se- 
lecting the seed of such a woitblesf vfiri<-ty, i.e., t-o 
poor in alkaloids, that even >et a watchful eye is kept 
to uproot any plant betraying by a t;rey baiiiuess te- 
neath the petiole its inferior piBCC in the genus cin- 
chona. Since the discovery of the alkaloid quinine, 
and of several other less powerful alkaloids, such as 
cinchonine, in the bark, the ba'-k itself has al- 
most fallen into disuse powdered directly, and is 
therefore sold not as formerly, accordiug to its regular 
and handsome appearance, but on the merits of sample 
analysis. Hence the extreme caution necessary in 
selecting for cultivation varieties which have proved 
themselves richest in slk'<loi(i?. Of all cinchonas yet 
known, the most valuable in this respect are the 
calisaya or yellow bark, and of theso C" Ledgeriana, 
named from its importer Mous. Ledger, is so far 
Bapreme. It has this advantage, that while it not 
only secretes a very large percen'age of quinine, 't 
alao does so in a remarkably pure sttite and in the 
outer cells of the bark. 
The seed of this Tariety Mors. Ledger found very 
rare, even in South America, and a few years ngo it 
was literally worth its weight in gold. In Jave, where 
M. Ledger sold the bulk of his seed, the platitation from it 
proved one of the rrost successful uuderiakiugs on recoi d. 
A paragraph from an interesting manual m Cinchona 
Cultivation, by Mr. T. 0. Owen, Ceylon, the procur- 
ing of which should be the initial step in experimei.tirg 
with the product, will give a fair idea of how valuable 
the Dutch have found this variety. Fourieen acres 
of 0. Ledgeriana planted in 1866 showed "a return 
of 10,126 florins per acre during tho seven years, 
from 1872 to 78, or 1448 florins per annum. In spile 
of thia enormous return the p'antation f-hows no 
signs of thinness, and were it now uprooted would 
give s return of at leest £2,000 per acre. The bark 
of one tree of this remarkably jilantaiioD, No. 67, 
h»s been found to contain the v,onderfu! proportion 
of 13 per cent, of pure quinine besides other a'kalcids. 
Another 78, bus yielded a batk coutnning 10 5 per 
cent of quinine, and no other hlkaloid." This was 
written before the very considerable fall in the price 
of bark, but as he gce< on to say "By the method 
of harvesting now employed, this retult will be 
greatly iucreafed," the immerse valug of healthy 
plantations of a good variety of Oii cboi n is even 
now indisputHble. The metboJ of liTvo t ■ « alludsd 
to by Mr. Owen was invonlod by Mr. Mofns the 
director of the Java plantations, and i< ho h curious 
and interesting- It in a system of r mo\ing the bwrk 
in strips from the living ticc. This is donw by a sort 
of epobe, shave ho regula'ed that whethtir operating 
on a thick or thin bark the knife avoul» toncl i/ig the 
cambium, or layer of rnncilagiiiouH visci<l matter, 
which is intercepted between the wood layers and the 
bark. When care ia exorcised in this piirtioular, not 
only does the bark renew, but also secretes even a 
larger percentage of alkaloide. A covering of rough 
grass is ui-utlly tied over the wound to protect it from 
the sun. On ticcount of the Dutch success in Java a 
proposal was in 1853 laid before the Indian Govern- 
ment to attempt a similar undertaking. It waa calcu- 
lated that 1,000 000 of people died nnnually of fever in 
India, and that nearly a half of their lives, besides 
an incalculable arr.ount of tiuffering, might be spared 
if only some low priced alkaloid could be' made avail- 
able in every villaiie. The laudable idea was therefore 
seized upon with enthueiasm.Htd the Government spared 
neither time, trouble nor expense, even to atpecial stea- 
mer to carry the collections directly across the Pacific. 
Mr. Msrkh&m happened atthe time to be exploring Pern 
in search ot objects of an antiquarian and ethnological 
character, and to him, assisted by Mr. Oroes, was 
er.frusted the great undertaking. At much personal 
toil and peril tliey penetrated the vast primeval 
forests, carefully tludied the condit'ons under which 
they found the parent trees growing when they 
collected seed, as well as the soil and temperature 
natural to the various varieties, persevering through 
every difficulty and discouragement till they had not 
only succeeded in estalishing the now world renowned 
Government plantations of Injia, but alsD, as ot a 
later period, in col junction with such men as Mefsrs. 
M'lvor ani Gammie, foui d thofe factories which 
work np the so-called inferior alka'oids into febri- 
fngea iuexpersive enough to be v.ithin leachof tha 
poorest villagers. Hownrd, the gieat quinokgist, 
expretsed the hiftbest opinion of some of these 
preparations. These are yearly imj: roving, as factories 
iucreose. which is especia ly the case since Govern- 
ment, meeting the complaint that they were competing 
with private industry in this cultivatioD, withdrew their 
bark hsrsehts from the open mnrket.Eud with great fair- 
ce's agreed to useup Government bark for Government 
purposfs only. South India and Ceylon have leen 
the great centres of private enterprise in the east. 
There is some cultivation also in Bolivia and Peru, 
while in Jomaica it is urider the auspices of the 
Government, who were fortunate in securinc as director 
Mr D. M rris, FRS. Ees-dcs his yeteral extensive 
knowleilge of botanical subjects I e took very specii.1 
knowledge of cinchona cultivation with him from 
Ceylon, and Jamaica n^w b ds fair to bo the quinine 
producing country of the western hemisphere. Some 
of the hardifr varieties have g.-own ai d harvested in 
Ceylon at an 1 ,tude of over 5,000 feet above sea level. 
It has beeii - rule there to avoia any appearance 
of a damp Eubscil, and Eorne of the finest trees to 
be seen in that island ure on poor udges of 
moist dis'ricfB. The experience of ciDchona cultiva- 
tion among the hills of Ceylon would therefore, 
of all culti\ iting ccunttits, be the safest basis 
for Victoria experiments, From large stock of b; rk 
flooding the market, and including a South American 
bark called Cuprea. of which it was said there was an 
inexhaustible supply, cinchona bark fell suddenly and 
disappointingly, fo that even yet only the finer classes 
nav The South American indigenous supply is, how- 
ever failing, and till lately little effort, if any, was 
made to restore tbe forests. Cuprea has been proved 
to secrete a very small quantity of qnini e, and frym 
its hardness presents eo much difficulty in extracting 
the alkaloid that it can only coine freely into the 
L'udou market when prices are high. Ceylon has 
chiefly turned its attention to tea, and. as has been 
said the Indian Government uses its bark for Govern- 
ment purpote=i. The product is thus bound ere long to 
find its true level again, and any serious check to its 
production would l-e an incalculable loss to hn- 
raauity ai'd to the bru'e cieation. The boon of 
a chtap effective febrifuge has jet to be placed 
within reach of the ordinary veterinary surgeon. 
Qnin ne, the oi ly specific yet known for malarious 
fever must freely find its way to the terrible coas's of 
Afrio'i to the fever sfrickeu portions of America and 
Nortli Australia, and the day is also likely to come 
when quinine will replace opium, now the least ex- 
pensive, but most ruincns cf fever cures among the 
teeming millions of China. Wherever, therefore, it is 
