February i, 1892.I 
THE TROHVCAL aORIOULTURIST. 
56s 
SINGULAR EFFECT OF CINCHONA. 
Tlie Journal di Pharmaeie of May, 1819, givoa the 
following account of tho singular effect of cinchona 
■ — A French merchant, called M, Delpecb, who 
possessed a rich house at L» Guayra, tho port of 
Cartocas, had stored up in 1806 a very considerable 
quantity of cinchona newly collected. This bark 
filled several apartmouts upon tho ground floor. There 
prevailed at that time in Caraccas a fever of a very 
malignant type. M. Delpech had occasion to receive 
•evoral travellers, and to entertain them with the 
usual American hospitality. The apartments deslined 
for visitors being filled, aud tho number of his guests 
increasing, he was under the neoersity of putting 
Kveral of them in tho rooms occupied by the oinchona. 
Each of them oonlained from eight to ten thousand 
founds of that bark. The heat was much greater in 
these rooms than anywhere else in the bouse, in eon- 
■equence of the fermentation of the bark, which made 
them very disagreeable. However, several beds were put 
mto them, one of which was occupied byatraveller 
u* of a malignant fever. After tho first day, he found 
nim^lt much better, though he had taken no medicine ; 
“Ut he was surrounded with an atmosphere of ciiiohuna, 
which appeared very agreeable to him. In a few days 
ne felt himself quite recovered, without any treatment 
Whatever. This unexpected tneoess led M. Delpecb to 
make some other trials. Several persons, ill of fever, 
Were placed successively in fait cinobona depflt, and they 
ere all speedily cured, simply by the effluvia of the 
o«*“^**n same place with the cinchona, he kept a bale 
carefully selected for his own usej and likewise 
ome large bottles of common French brandy. They re- 
ni.t'n*- rome months in the midst of tho bark with- 
hio f®'?* touched. At fast, M. Delpecb, when visiting 
•n observed one ol the Urge bottles uncorked. Ho 
."PUftsd at first the fidelity of a servant, and detsr- 
*“®u. to examine tho quality of tho brandy. What 
r" astonishment to find it infinitely superior to 
to it been. A slightly aromatic taste added 
**• ?trength, and rendered it mure tonic and more 
Una uncorked the other bottles, which had 
in fiu alteration, but which, by being placed 
an a ® same circumstances, soon acquired ail the 
If ivT ''“‘^‘ties of the first bottle. Ourions to know 
„ “*® ®°ffno had likewise ciranged its properties, he 
smtVi roasted a portion of it. Its 
m.,, * ***** were no longer the same. It was 
ih-i ^®**' m the mouth a taste similar 
We a^lf “f >>»'>'• 
entirntv 40 *°* ,P''®Par6d to believe this story in its 
is mole tllan*^*." '®B«‘*" P"* 
ornat An-i ni j '^.® ^ tfio 'ini' “an swallowed a 
fffAaf s^* A . vUe BiCK man Bwanuwcu a 
tw wme floafi"’* ■““‘1 “i*"**® P“‘*«'e® Of ‘be bark 
be found of '1 ‘b® »ir. If only oinchona could 
imnelua mmht 1“““?*® maturing liquor, a new 
neJdless f^r** us t ‘b® ‘«'i® I' *» PO*'*bly 
cinchona hark Po’nt out in this connection that 
User bLr Ukin„T^ i® ‘b® mauufaotore of 
Deo; Slat ' ^ place of hops.— d/atira.s Times, 
QUEENSLAND. 
civM*n, •®‘‘®r in the Louisiana Plante^ 
& u best account we have seen of the positior 
Rf/ZMov T • ■ September 18th, 1891. 
•u. Ijouxsiana PUintet i Few miahapB amoogsi 
I sermon' ‘bis distriot. and none o, 
Bteadv n nature, have occurred to check thi 
lor ®‘“®biDg operations. Tho wosthei 
too weeks has been uniformly fine 
teauirB*rf^r ®°' '®^®®^' ‘bat a little moisture is nov 
bcffinlln ®“niulate the growing crops, which art 
Bhfnn “°^®'' ‘b® long spell of sun 
u. light breezes. The crop now beint 
harvested is somewhat diBappointing, the late wiatei 
70 
having been an unsatisfaetory one and the yield ol 
the fields turning out to be more and more below 
the expected output as work progreeaes. The dif> 
ferenoe will, of course, be the merest drop in the 
bucket, but to us it is none the less annoying, 
even though it fails to appreoiably aSeot the 
world’s output. 
European labor is plentiful enough this season, 
and wages are not very high. The ordinary mill 
band gets from $5 to $20 a month and his keep, 
while the olarifier, boilers and other hands receive 
a rate from $5 to $10 higher. When wages in the 
mill alone add to the cost ol making a ton of sugar 
by 2 pet cent. ($o), wo consider more economy or 
a greater output is neoessary. 
The small mills are voted a failure, and in this 
district we have only two working this season, 
which will make much under 600 tons ol sugar, 
or 1,120,000 pounds. Five mills will make between 
600 or lOOO tons, and six 1000 tons and upward. 
The faotory at Homebusb, the property of the 
Oolonial Sugar Bcliniog Oompany, making about 
18, '110,000 pounds this last setEon, has made 
ooDBiderable advance in procuring farmers to grow 
oane on the company's land, and now there are 
twenty-three men eettled on 1000 acres of land, 
while small freeholders ol neighboring lands 
are planting oane under five years’ agreement. 
The mill pays from 18 ehillinga to to 14 
shillings a ton lor all canes landed on tram- 
way trucks, which are run into the field. 
The price eeema a high one, and yet it is being paid 
to laimera everywhere. In fact, the European will 
not grow oane lor leas, aa near the tropics ae this, at 
any rate. 
Our millers are all green with envy at the 
handsome bounties their Lonieiana friends are 
getting lor their sugar from the U. B. A. Gov- 
ernment. Aoeording to the figures published hers 
the_ amount received is over £9 a ton, a figure 
which to us would mean colossal fortunes in a 
very few yeare. The little Queensland industry 
bae to fight the world, and is praotioally un- 
protected, ae it makoB more than le required for 
its own oonaumptioD. The market of London 
is open to the world, while those of the other 
colonies in Australia are proteoted by different 
amounts up to £6 a ton. The values ol our eugara 
on the local wharf may be said to range from 
£10 lOe lor beet whites and £13 10a lor bright 
yellows downward. Very low grade sugars are 
praotioally without value here, and neaBlIy go to 
London. Tho prices being eo low the latter place ia 
also the destination of a good deal ol the yellows 
this year, where prices up to £17 a ton are ex- 
pected to be obtained. The Colonial Sugar Betinery 
Company, referred to above, is purobasing or making 
over 23,600 tons of the colony’s output ol 64,000 
tone for the purpose of refining, and pays £11 ifie 
without deductions for 88 per cent sugar on tbs 
local wharf. 
Those selling to this oompany are probably getting 
the beet values for their sugars, but it will be readily 
uuderetood that at euoh a figure the margin of profit 
ia wotully smell. 
I think 1 mentioned in a previous letter that 
an experiment was oontemplsted by some ol the 
large estate owners in settling Italian farmers 
on their lands as cans growers. The matter has 
been discussed in Parliament, and it appears, 
that some 300 men and women have been en- 
gaged in Piedmont and are now probably on 
their way out. These families are under agree- 
ment to work for $16 a month and keep lor two 
years, but *b epeoial clause is inserted by which 
the employer agrees to sell lands on long termi 
