[May I, 1891. 
752 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN JAVA. 
Mr, van Eomunde’a report on tho Government 
cinchona enterprise in Java ,£cr the fourth 
quarter of 1890 states that the weather during 
>he quarter was very abnormal. October and the 
first half of November being very wet ; the second 
half of November being very dry with low tem- 
perature at night and frost in some parts ; and 
December being characterized by alternate rain and 
drought. The drought in the latter part of November 
caused considerable damage to the young plants : 
but the loss can be made good by means of Ihe 
largo number of well-grown plants in the nurserie?. 
The older plantations showed remarkably good 
growth ducing j the later months ; and the prospects 
tor the crop of 1891 are therefore very favourable. 
The crop of 1890 amounted to 459,000 half kilo- 
grams of bark, of which by tho end of December 
364,123 pounds had been forwarded to IV.ndjong 
Priok. Though a considerable decrease in pro- 
duction has been experienced during the past 
year, this is certainly not to be ascribed 
to a diminution of the stock of bark in the 
plantations, but is found in the sparing to the 
utmost of the trees, specially of the ledgerianas 
after it was seen that vary densely grown 
plantations were not attacked, at least not appre- 
ciably, by Ilelopeltis antonii or by caterpillars, 
which have caused such devastation of late years. 
The amount of bark in the plantations has there- 
fore very largely increased during the past year, 
in spite of the unfavorable weather of 1890. On 
2nd October, 6th November, and 11th December, 
sales of the bark of 1889 were held in Amster- 
dam, the unit prices obtained being respectively 
9, 8 and 8 cents per half kilo. In November and 
December cinchona seed was so’d by public auc- 
tion, the gross amount realized being /i,027 and 
/792. In consequence of the small amount of dry 
weather in 1889 the supply of ledgeriana seed 
was very small, and the prices realized therefore 
far exceeded the minimum prices fixed by the 
Government. For one lot indeed so much as f 2 
per gram was paid. The total number of plants 
in the Government plantations at the end of 1890 
was 3,489,800, made up as follows in tho nur- 
series 920,000, viz., 510,000 ledgeriana (including 
10,0e0 grafts) and 410,000 succirubra ; in the open 
2,569,800, viz., 1,905,000 ledgaiiana (including 
265,000 grafts and cuttings, but exclusive of the 
more or less 3,000 original ledgerianas), 2,400 
calisaya and hasskarliana, 605,000 succirubra and 
oaloptera, 55,900 officinalis, and 1,500 lancifolia 
(among these about 1,000 G. 7Jff«?/e)i.s/s). 
♦ 
EEVIEW OF CINCHONA HARK AT 
AMSTERDAM FOR THE YEAR 1890. 
( lie])ort hj a Dutch Droher.) 
Amsterdam, Dec. 1890. 
Toe past year has been one of great importance for 
the Amsterdam cinchoua market, m the struggle for 
precedence with London as market of the worli ; 
oar market may be looked upon as the victor. 
Mech has b on coatribatoct to this result by the 
onergelio leadership of the founders of our cinchoua 
establisbraent, who from the beginuiug, have taken 
care that tverj thing could be done to the bark re- 
ceived hero, which would tend to promote a favour- 
able sale, Tho untiring energy with which growers 
arc male acquainted with poe-iblo improvementR and 
economy iu their profile ions, has been atteiidi d with 
marked result. 
Uoth buyers and sellers have become convinced that 
cur mark'/t clfors advantages which are not to be 
found eltewLere. Each pacUago can be inspected and 
y 
sampled three weeks tefore every sale, and c£ ever 
parcel an analysis is made and puflislied by non- 
interested analysis. In addition to this the charges 
to all parties interested have been calculated on a 
very low scale and are very much less than in Loudon 
or elsewhere. 
From the subjoined tables it will be sufficiently 
clear how much the trade iu this article has in- 
creased here. When tuking into cousideiatiou tho 
average strength of the Java bark and that of the 
barks offered in Loudon, it will be clearly seen, from 
a comparison of the iurii-over of both markets, in 
which direclion our market is progressing. 
At the end of tho year our stock in first hand only 
consisted of about 2,000 packages, being for the greater 
part arrivals which came too late for tho December 
hales, and partly lots loft over from previous sales. 
This quantity does not comprise the Government barks 
intended for the public sales iu 1891. The stock iu 
second baud is not worth mentioning at least as far 
as the factory barks are concerned, whilst the stock 
of phaims-ceutical barks is if anything smaller 
than at the beginning of the yevr. Notwithstanding 
tlio important increase in the arrivals, we yet find 
here a stock too small to be of any importance, whilst 
the stock in Loudon is continually decreasing. It 
appears therefore that so far the demand for quinine 
has kept pace with Ihe iucreioed productions. 
Whetber this demand owes its origin to an increased 
consumption (as many think) or whether it is attri- 
butable to an increase iu the number of speculative 
buyers, it is difficult to say. 80 much, however, is 
certain that in the first case, the low basis which 
cinchona bark has reached would be perfectly un- 
justifiable, and tho poeiriou would have to be attri- 
buted to al normal relations and influences which 
iiittrfere with the natural course of events. 
Factohv BAriKS. — The handling and l acking iu Java 
now leaves very little to be desired, and the arrivals 
this year were again in both respects much better than 
formerly. Occasionally parcels were met with, which 
bad been insufficiently cleared of wood and fibres 
which causes distrust amongst the buyers. Bales 
insufficiently filled are now very much the exception. 
In Java the imporlaace has been well understood of 
carefully mixing tho barks before putting them in the 
ba’es, by v. hich process the bales of ev^ry parcel show 
equal quality. Shippers whose marks have been treated 
With sptoial care in this respect, will have experienced 
the advantages cf this mole of treatment. 
In January the market was very firm and in the first 
public sale everything was sold at an average unit of 
about 10 cents, quinine was sold in that inomb at, 
fixm ls2|J to Is 4.1 per oz. (f. 25^ to 28 per kilo.) This 
favourable t.ndency continued until shortly before the 
Blaroh auction, when quinine dropped to Is 14d (f. 
23|), and the unit after Laving- reached + lOJ ct. in 
the February sales dropped to -i- 9| ct. In the May 
rales a slow market was experienced with falling 
tendency and the average price realised was only 9jo. 
In Juno and July larger tianfaclions took place in 
quinine at lower pr'ces (12Jf 21) and the two sales 
only realizsd + 8J0. acd 8|c. respectively per unit. Be- 
foie the August sales an improvement set in which 
caused the average unit to rise to -1- 9|c. but in the 
October sales under the influence of low offers of qui. 
nine for forward delivery, the value again fell to a 
unit of about 9Jc. The Noveinler sales the largest 
of tho year were held at a bad time. The financial 
siluatiou was unfavorable, gecerat distrust and want 
of Bctivity was experienced, all of which led to a 
drop and quinine was offered at ll|d (f. 20^). In this 
sale not more than 8c. per unit could be made, at 
which price 703 packages were taken out whilst 409 
packages hsd been withdrawn before the sales. On 
the same day however the greater pait of the 
barks taken out were sold privately at seci-Lt prices. 
In December the tci^deucy became if possible still 
more unfavourable ; quinine was even efiered at lljd, 
but tho low price brought apparently an iuenased de- 
mand. In the last sale (f the year everything could be 
disposed of, at an average unit of 7 Jet. and alter this 
