April  i,  1896.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  671 
such  at  least  make  sure  that  they  are  going  to  a good 
climate,  and  not  find  themselves  set  down  in  the 
Darjeeling-Terai  instead  of  the  Darjeeling  Hills,  as 
has  happened.  No  one  should  go  out  on  chance  on 
any  consideration,  but  have  an  appointment  assured 
before  setting  sail. 
The  main  qualifications  for  an  assistant  on  a tea 
garden  in  order  of  importance  are  a thorough 
practical  knowledge  of  mechanical  engineering, 
gardening  or  farming,  building,  surveying,  accounts, 
tea-tasting,  correspondence,  medicine.  But  mecha- 
nical engineering  is  not  now  of  the  importance  it 
once  was,  or  which  many  attach  to  it,  because  in 
all  districts  there  at  the  present  day  no  lack  of 
qualified  engineers  devoting  themselves  specially 
to  that  branch,  a smattering  of  engineering  being 
often  worse  than  useless.  The  same  in  regard  to 
medicine  ; a little  knowledge  in  that  line,  as  can  easily 
be  understood,  is  a dangerous  thing  ; and  there  are 
now  numerous  qualified  practitioners,  with  native 
doctors  under  them,  on  tea  gardens.  The  same  applies 
to  tea- tasting,  though  also  an  important  branch 
of  the  business.  To  be  a successful  planter  a man 
need  not  necessarily  be  muscularly  strong,  but  he 
should  be  endowed  with  a constitution  sound  in  every 
fibre,  and  have  good  powers  of  resistance  of  fatigue 
and  contagion.  He  had  well  also  be  a good  pedes- 
trian and  a fair  horseman. 
Though  the  duties  are  not  always  exhausted  through- 
out the  whole  course  of  the  operations,  the  hours 
are  generally  long — often  from 6 a.m.  till  Dor  10p.m. 
during  busy  and  anxious  times ; and  as  a rule  the 
more  a man  can  be  at  his  post  or  in  readiness  to 
drop  into  it,  and  the  closer  his  supervision  of  de- 
tails, the  better.  During  from  five  or  six  months  of 
the  year  Sunday  labour  and  supervision  are  frequently 
unavoidable  in  connection  with  manufacture.  The 
life,  as  a rule,  is  a retired  and  solitary  one,  besot 
with  peculiar  temptations,  and  often  wanting  in  plain 
comforts.  To  resist  the  climate,  the  worries  and  mono- 
tony of  the  life,  a sound  mind  in  a sound  body,  is,  in 
short,  absolutely  necessary. — WctU\j  Scotsman,  Feb.  15. 
THE  COMMERCIAL  STORY  OF  QUININE. 
BY  FRANCIS  B.  HAYS. 
At  the  bark  auctions  in  Amsterdam  Jan.  Ifith  the 
bidding  on  cinchona  augured  a further  advance  in 
the  price  of  quinine,  and  this  naturally  brings  to 
mind  that  perennial  subject,  the  varying  figures  at 
which  that  drug  is  sold  from  year  to  year.  Specu- 
lation as  to  whether  the  price  of  that  universally  em- 
ployed'alkaloid  will  ever  reach  the  figures  which 
were  once  used  in  quoting  it  is  out  of  order,  as  no 
sane  person  dreams  that  quinine  will  ever  fetch  more 
dollars  per  ounce  than  it  has  recently  been  fetching 
cents. 
Although  made  in  the  laboratory  as  early  as  1820 
by  Pelletier  and  Caventon,  quinine  sulphate  re- 
mained little  more  than  a curiosity  for  ten  years, 
during  which  time  it  dropped  in  price  from  jji20 
in  1828  (the  first  year  when  it  was  on  the  market 
commercially)  to  iil.7.5. 
The  physician  Maillot,  to  whom  the  credit  of  in- 
troducing this  drug  as  a popular  remedy  for  fevers 
belongs,  more  than  to  any  other  one  man,  perhaps, 
died  recently  at  the  age  of  91.  He  gave  it  to  French 
soldiers  in  Algiers  in  1834,  reducing  the  death  rate 
from  1 in  34  to  1 in  20  the  first  year. 
In  this  country  the  variations  in  the  prices  of 
quinine  sulphate  from  year  to  year  and  even  during 
a single  year  have  been  phenomenal.  The  readily 
understood  causes  of  the  tariff,  the  opening  of  new 
groves,  cultivation  of  the  trees  and  such  things  have, 
of  course,  exerted  infiuence  on  the  commercial  aspect 
of  the  drug,  yet  some  rises  and  falls  in  the  price 
seem  to  have  been  purely  idiosyiicratical,  as  it 
were.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  ’.50s  the 
low  tariff  brought  quinine  down  to  a lower 
figure  than  it  had  ever  before  reached.  This 
price  held  the  record  until  1884 ; since  then 
we  all  know  the  story.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  war  between  the  States,  owing  partly  to  in- 
cteased  consumption  and  greater  perils  of  naviga- 
tion, the  price  began  a rapid  climb,  until  in  1864 
it  was  higher  than  it  had  been  since  its  general  in 
troduction.  The  tumble  the  next  year  was  sudden 
and  decisive. 
In  1877  the  enormous  price  of  j^4'50  per  ounce  was 
reached;  this  is  high-water  mark  since  quinine  has 
been  a staple.  These  variations  I have  shown  in  a 
graphic  manner  in  the  annexed  diagram*  which  needs 
no  explanation  further  than  the  statement  that  the 
continuous  tracing  represents  the  highest  prices  at 
which  quinine  sulphate  has  sold  each  year  from 
1829  up  to  the  present  time,  and  that  the  dotted 
line  beneath  represents  the  lowest  prices  during  the 
same  period.  As  it  was  not  possible  to  indicate 
with  accuracy  the  prices  in  cents  on  a diagram  of 
convenient  compass,  we  append  a table  showing  the 
precise  figures.  When  quinine  fell  from  $4-50  in 
1877  to  ^1  in  1884,  speculators  bought  large  quan- 
tities of  it,  expecting  it  to  go  up  again.  Should 
any  of  them  glance  at  this  diagram,  the  mag- 
nificent and  continuous  downward  sw'eep  of 
the  lines  for  several  years  past  will  probably 
produce  a sensation  similar  to  that  made  by 
taking  an  unexpected  and  too  precipitous  io 
boggan  ride.  John  G.  Longdon,  who  died  at  Kansas 
City,  Mo.,  a few  weeks  ago,  was  one  of  the  heaviest 
plungers  into  ,^1  quinine.  He  took  100,000  ounces, 
which  he  was  reported  to  be  still  carrying  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  He  was  not  compelled  to  sell,  and 
declared  that  he  never  would  until  he  could  make  a 
profit,  or  at  least  come  out  even,  A loss  of  $75,000  or 
$80,000  was  not  a very  severe  blow  to  him.  Some 
others  are  less  fortunate. 
PRICE  PER  OUNCif. 
1823. 
Highest. 
. $20'00 
Lowest. 
$16-00 
I860.. 
Highest.  Lowest. 
$1.80  $1-20 
1824. 
14  00 
12  00 
1861 . . 
2 10 
1 80 
1825. 
8 00 
8 00 
1862.. 
2 90 
2 25 
1826. 
7 00 
5 25 
1863.. 
3 25 
2 70 
1827. 
7 50 
600 
1864.. 
3 75 
2 60 
1828. 
6 00 
3 25 
1865.. 
2 40 
2 20 
1829. 
2 90 
2 25 
1866.. 
2 60 
2 35 
1830. 
. 2 50 
1 75 
1867.. 
2 20 
1 95 
1831. 
1 60 
1 35 
1868.. 
2 35 
1 90 
1832. 
2 00 
1 75 
1869.. 
2 30 
2 OO 
1833. 
1 87 
1 70 
1870.. 
2 30 
2 10 
1834. 
1 80 
1 25 
1871.. 
2 45 
2 20 
1835. 
1 65 
1 60 
1872.. 
2 43 
2 40 
1836. 
. 1 58 
1 45 
1873.. 
2 55 
2 45 
1837. 
1 40 
1 40 
1874.. 
2 50 
2 20 
1838. 
1 90 
1 60 
1875  .. 
2 30 
2 15 
1839. 
3 30 
2 75 
1876. . 
2 70 
2 2o 
2 70 
1840. 
3 12 
2 87 
1877.. 
4 50 
1841. 
2 62 
2 50 
1878.. 
3 60 
3 40 
1842. 
2 00 
1 60 
1179.. 
3 60 
2 60 
1843. 
1 80 
1 55 
1880. . 
3 25 
2 25 
1844. 
3 00 
2 00 
1881.. 
3 25 
1 90 
1845. 
2 40 
2 35 
1882.. 
2 50 
1 80 
1846. 
2 40 
2 20 
1883.. 
1 80 
1 60 
18-47. 
2 40 
2 30 
1884.. 
1 80 
90 
1848. 
2 70 
2 60 
1885.. 
1 05 
75 
1849. 
3 65 
2 95 
1886.. 
80 
65 
1850. 
3 70 
3 70 
1887.. 
70 
46 
1851. 
3 25 
3 25 
1888.. 
50 
30 
1852. 
3 00 
2 80 
1889.. 
30 
22§ 
23} 
18} 
17 
1853. 
3 20 
2 70 
1890.. 
32 
1854. 
2 50 
2 60 
1891.. 
24 
1855. 
. 3 00 
2 60 
1892.. 
20 
1856. 
2 60 
2 40 
1893.. 
22J 
17J 
1857. 
2 00 
1 40 
1894.. 
25 
22 
1858. 
1 40 
1 25 
1895.. 
27 
22i 
1859. 
I 50 
1 25 
It  will  be  noted  by  reference  to  the  tables  that 
the  highest  and  lowest  price  in  1837  were  the  same. 
A similar  uniformity  existed  in  1850  and  1851.  and 
again  in  1854,  since  which  time  such  a coincidence 
has  been  lacking.  The  highest  price  did  not  vary 
tor  the  three  years  beginning  with  1845,  and 
several  times  since  then  it  has  been  the  same 
for  two  consecutive  years.  The  lowest  prices,  on  the 
other  hand,  while  not  presenting  such  extremes,  are 
* Not  reproduced.^Ec.  I, A, 
