December i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURIST. 
401 
Bl&ughteir of gatno, ond wo trust that without Btop- 
ping the collection of the fruits of the pala! and 
htreliyanddun trees and of honey it may be possible 
to prevent the damaging or destruotion of valuable 
timber trees. 
We feel Buro the larger proportion of our readera 
will share the interest we have felt in this report, — 
which so largely supplements the information con- 
tained in reports of the Botanic Gardens,— and will 
feel that we only performed our duty, espooially to 
the agrieultural enterprise of the colony, in com- 
menting so fully, and quoting so freely as we have 
done. Hitherto the operations of the Forest De- 
partment of Ceylon has been mainly tentative and 
preparatory, while the obstacles to bo overcome 
have been and are many and aerioua. But now in 
each sucoeesive year we may look lor increasingly 
better roBults, not only in immediate money returns, 
but in the foundations laid lor future wealth, in 
existing foreats improved in respeot to natural 
reprodnotion and plantations formed not only of 
such valuable exotica as mahogany, teak, padonk, 
the gums and acacias of Australia, and the codara 
and pines of the Himalayas, but of the choicest of 
our numerous indigenous trees, such as ebony, satin- 
wood, halmilla, dun, &e. Amongst the indirect 
bonoftta of the oiierationa of the department we 
must class the largely sanitary effects of running 
ro.ads and paths through the forest and letting light 
and air into pestiforoua jungles where previously 
No boniii of the smi or the sweet moon has entered 
with clieorful and purifying efloet. 
Already at the end of 1890, there were forest cart 
roads opened equal in mileage to V75 in^the Oentral 
Province and 92-6 in the Northern. Bridle^ paths 3 
milcfl in the Central Province and 7’05 in TJva. 
Inspection and export paths 8-9 in the Western Pro- 
vinoe, 3 in the Central and 4 in Uva: a grand total 
of roads and paths equal to llS-df) miles. And 
this process must go on at an accelerated rate as 
the forests are exploited and their produce conveyed 
to the various ^pots, Ceylon is already one of 
the beat roaded countries in the world, and what 
with railways and principal roads formed by borrow- 
ed money, votes from revenue and apjiropriations 
of money and labour under the provisions of the 
Thoroughfares Ordinance,— with grant-in-aid roads 
and now roads and paths opened by the Forest 
Department, the railway and road map of Ceylon 
for 1900 ought to bo a scene of ramified scorings, 
suon only as the maps of very advanced countries 
can equal or surpass. Buildings constructed by the 
Forest Dcpirtment will meanwhile follow the roads 
in opening up and imparting life and health to the 
jungle solitudes, which, by and by will be solitudes 
no longer. ^ 
A VISIT TO WALDHOF NEAR 
MANNHEIM : 
tub gbeat quinine and chemical 
WORKS OF MESSRS. 0. F. BOHBINGER 
& SOEHNK. 
I remember when on a visit to John Eliot 
Howard of Cinchona fame, during which the good 
old host treated mo with the utmost hospitality 
and kindness, hinting at a wish to seo over his 
far-famed Quinine-preparing Works, and very 
quickly realizing that the rule of “ no visitors 
allowed " was not likely to bo broken through in 
this case. All the greater therefore was my 
appreciation of the cordiality with which in 
response to tho letter of introduction from Mr. 
Bohtinger of Colombo, forwarded from Munich, his 
cousin, the head of the Waldhof house, intimated 
his readiness to meet and show us his extensive 
works. Of course, when Quinine was from IGs to 
Cl 
£1 an ounce, these were no doubt weightier 
reasons for guarding the process of manufacture 
or extraction as loll owed by the best houses 
from tho observation of outsiders ; while now that 
the valuable febrifuge has tumbled down to a 
fraction of its former value, and that only largo 
capitalists with expensive machinery and a skillea 
stall capable of manufacturing large quantitieo 
very cheaply can hope to make any profit, is 
matters very little who is taken through the 
works. Still, there are very delicate procoases at 
work, and tho rule is followed of privacy in 
most chemical manufactories, the staff being 
specially bound in their terms of service. All 
the more courteous, therefore, was the readiness 
with which wo wore permitted and convoyed 
through tho very extensive and interesting 
establishment to which we are now about to refer. 
We learned incidentally that the grand- 
father of the present head of tho house 
lived in Stuttgart, and there interested him- 
self as a practical chemist, but it was his son 
who first established a Quinine and Chemical 
Manufactory and who at length located himself 
at Mannheim until a large fire destroyed his 
establishment there, and the firm of Messrs. 0. 
F. Bbbringer & Soohno opened in Waldhof on 
a site facing the Rhine and admirably adapted 
for tho purpose in view. Mr. Bdhringer, senior, 
died last year, leaving his sou, now in the prime 
of life (about 33 years), at the head of the very 
extensive and responsible business assooiated with 
his firm. 
On OUT visit, we travelled in the early afternoon 
of a pleasant sunshiny day— tho last in September 
— from Heidelberg to Mannheim. There we wore 
met, and leaving our impedimenta at this station, 
took another train to Waldhof — a wayside station 
chiefly lor the service of two or throe largo 
factories (of glass as well as chemicals) and the 
village connected therewith. Tho country was 
everywhere flat though backed by tho hill-ranges 
in and beyond Heidelberg seen in the distance. 
In walking from the station to the great Obemioal 
Factory, wo drew near to the Rhine, hero by no 
means so important a river as it is lower down. 
We notice that the soil is extreuely poor and 
shallow, and even where under cultivation, there 
are numerous patebos inteminglod, apparently 
useless for crop-bearing and left untouohed. On such 
soil, a site for Chemical Works may well be found. 
The Waldhof establishment has formed a village 
of its own ; for notwithstanding improved processes 
by which one worker can now do tho work of 
twenty, tho firm has altogether, some 300 em- 
ployees in this its loading establishment, apart 
from its branches at Milan and Amsterdam, a 
mercantile house reooutly established in New Totk 
and tho Ceylon Agency. Tho first noticeable 
feature as we approach the works is a huge mass, 
almost hill, of dark brown refuse which is being 
constantly added to from trucks carried by a wire 
tramway across tho roadway from the works to 
tho top of tho long mound. "That we call Ceylon" 
— said Mr. Buhriugor — '* for indeed it may all be- 
long to your island, representing in fact the greater 
part of tho cinchona bark imported from Ceylon, 
—the bulky residuum alter tho extraction of tho 
quinine alkaloids. No other evidence was needed 
as to tho exteusivo ox’erations of the firm 
than was presented in this great mass — equal in 
length and height to one of tho larger embank- 
ments on the Ceylon railway — and all the result of 
about seven years’ work. I learned afterwards 
from tho loading Dootor-Chemist of the Works 
that everything possible had been done to utilize 
this Stull, but in vain : it does injury rather than 
