362 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[November i, 1890 . 
which was obtained from Mr. J. L. Shand, and 
which gave such good results, was grown in districts 
closely neighbouring on Dikoya, whence the second 
lot was derived, so that it would seem as if mere 
locality of growth could not have materially contri- 
buted to the differences in result which have been 
experienced to the several trials made. But “ a 
fresh hare has been started,” and by myself, though 
I am unable to tell you yet whether there is a justifi- 
cation for hunting in anew direction. At all events 
there was this week shown to me a letter from 
Dr. Evans with which he forwarded a specimen 
of the grass (the second lot) as it left the boilers. 
“Why,” I immediately said, “this is no more 
like what they received at the Poyle Mills and 
experimented with than chalk is like cheese.” 
Nor more it was. What Dr. Evans sent was pure 
grass blade, quite unaltered in form from the green 
(or rather dried) grass. What was taken by me 
from the sacks at Poyle Mills (as you will recog- 
nize from the specimen sent you by me) was just 
like the heaps of fibre and dust resulting from 
rotten coir beating. A specimen of this has just 
been posted by me to the Syndicate in order that 
they may judge of the diflerence and make further 
inquiry, for really it seems to me certain that 
either some mistake has been made by Dr. Evans 
or else that the stuff which was sent to Poyle Mills 
and which proved such a failure in the working was 
not mana grass at all, but some other product 
which the firm who did the boiling had under 
treatment about the same time. Of course it is 
impossible for me to let you know by this mail 
whether or not my suspicion on this point can 
be justified. Personally, I feel very hopeful 
that some stupid mistake has been made 
which may account for the discrepancies that 
have become apparent as the result of the 
two sets of experiments and which have been so 
disappointing. But the Syndicate is by no means 
discouraged. It rightly says that one case of 
failure cannot negative others in which success 
has been attained, and its members are determined 
to pursue the subject fully out, feeling what great 
results may follow if they are ultimately successful. 
There is some probability, we now hear, that they 
may arrange to take over from Messrs. Ourtis 
& Harvey the ton of the grass which, as you 
were informed by my last letter, that firm has 
ordered from Ceylon, and may be willing to defer 
themselves experimenting upon until a subsequent 
shipment can be obtained — London Cur. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN BOLIVIA, 
SOUTH AMERICA. 
The production of cinchona bark, or oascarilla as it is 
called, from which the alkaloid quinine is extracted, 
was for many years Bolivia’s most important industry 
in the agricultural line ; but during the last four years 
it has proved unprofitable, owing to competition in J ava 
and the British provinces iu southern Asia. That class 
of individuals known at home as '■ smart Alecks” are 
found even in this out-of-the-way corner of creation. 
One of these is a certain Senor Shucroft, who was a 
heavy planter of cascarilla a few years ago, prosperous 
and presumably happy. One unlucky day the idea struck 
him of sending a (prantity of quina seed to his home 
government — that of Holland — thereby getting himself 
into the papers and winning the gratitude of posterity. 
In uncalled-for generosity he sent a very large amount 
of seed, with minute directions for its treatment derived 
from his own experience, and the suggestion that ex- 
periments be made in Java. The remarkable success of 
cioohoua in that isliind led the British government to 
encourage its planting in Ceylon, and already the busi- 
ness is ruined everywhere by over-production, Mr. 
Sbnoroft received a little gold medal from the Dutch 
king iu ackaowledgmest of hie enterprise, but at the 
same time he lost all his f Ttune by having made value- 
less his own extensive ca-carilla plintation. 
DIFFICULTIES OF Tfii N.SPCliT.^TlON. 
Bolivia can m \er compete with those countries that 
now take the load iu cinchona produclion, because of 
her immense disadvantage in the matter of transporta- 
tion. All her products must cross the successive cor- 
dilleras of the Andes on their way to the sea, mostly on 
mule l ack, at a cost of transportation not less eleven 
than Bolivians per hundred weight, an expense five 
times greater than that of carrying it from the coast 
around Cape Horn to Europe. 
On the other hand, the bark produced in Oeylon and 
Java yields only two-thirds as much sulphate of quinine 
as that grown in this part of the world. Fully nine- 
tenths of Bolivia’s cascarilla is of the red variety, known 
as quina morada. As an example of the rapid depre- 
ciation in the price of bark may be mentioned the 
Erickson plantation, which was valued at 1,500,000 
Bolivians five years ago and is now offered for sale at 
less than a quarter of that amount, but cannot find a 
purchaser. 
The number of quina trees now under cultivation in 
Bolivia is said to exceed 15,000,000, about two-thirds 
of them being in I he province of Mapiri, near the north- 
ern border, whose business centre is Sorrato. The de- 
partment of Yungas cultivates half a million trees 
and a great many are grown in the Beni province, far- 
ther to the east. It is impossible to get any reliable 
statistics regarding Beni’s productions, because they all 
go to the eastern coast of the continent via the Ama- 
zon and its tributaries. Indeed, there are no printed 
statistics of any kind concerning Bol via’s exports or 
imports, and no history of the oountry was ever written 
except one small and very incomplete edition in Spanish 
published forty years ago, 
teeatmknt of cinchoka. 
As to the treatment of cinchona — at this distance 
from the equator it will not grow at a greater elevation 
than 5,000 feet, nor lower than 3,000. The seeds, which 
are sown in beds, are so very small, lighter than the 
lightest thistle down, that the least freeze will blow 
them away, necessitating great care in the handling. 
When the plants are about one foot high they are 
transplanted five or six feet apart to the sunny side of a 
mountain. It is asserted that virgin soil is absolutely 
necessary and that the addition of any kind of fertilizer 
would be ruinous. Twice every year the earth between 
the tree is slightly disturbed by the primitive plows 
of tbe country, and that is all the “cultivation” they 
require Attheageof eight years the trees are ready 
to strip, or if the owner is hard up, as is usually the 
case, a part of them may be utilized sooner and young 
plants put in their places. In some sections it is cus- 
tomary to remove from each tree about a quarter of 
its bark every year, but here the tree is cut down to 
the ground, its trunk and large limbs peeled and the 
smallest branches carefully scraped clear to the leaves. 
An eight-year-olcl tree yields from twelve to fifteen 
pounds of bark, which in the present depressed state of 
trade is worthy only about seventy-five cents. 
THE quinine TKEE. 
If the peoled-off bark happens to get wet, it loses 
much of its alkaloid quinine ; hence every planter has 
to build ample sheds in which to dry it. The trunk of 
the tree, after having been peeled, is entirely valueless, 
not even good for firewood in a country where fuel is 
scarce. The cost of cutting, drying and packing the 
bark is about |1“J0 per hundredweight. The process 
of packing is as follows : — A box is lined with coarse 
sacking and then a layer of banana leaves. The bark is 
put in and pressed down with machinery until the box 
will hold no more and the scale indicates exactly one 
hundred pounds. It is then removed from the box, 
banana leaves and all ; a second sack is added and the 
whole bouud tight with raw-hide thongs. There are 
no fewer than twenty one varieties of the quina tree, 
some worthless, others ranging in the amount of quinine 
contained in the bark from one-half per cent to seven 
percent. The buyer must know his busieess, for if 
l ot au expert he is likely to be badly sold. The “ gold 
brick” swindle basnet been so often perpetrated in tbe 
United Btatea as thali of selling for oascarilla the wortb< 
