May 2 , 1892 .] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Sit 
A GKKMAN rROPl'ESSOR ON INDIAN 
DRUO-CUDTUKE. 
About three years ago Dr. Alexander Tiohircb, then 
a ** Privatdoceut,*' or University coach, in Berlin, and 
already well known as an authority on pharmaco* 
logical and botanical subjcots, undertook a voyage to 
the British and Dutch colonies in the East with the 
chief object of gathering on the spot information 
concerning those economic plants, the pioiucta of 
which represent the bulk of the value of the whole 
Eaatern trade. After hie return to Europe Dr. Tachirch 
published several short notes on his Indian expe- 
riences, abstracts of which we have upon several oc- 
casions placed before our readers. It was also an- 
nounced that the doctor (who has since become professor 
at Berne University) was busy upon the regulation 
book of travels, the production of which is as in- 
tegral a part of well-conducted modern travel as the 
jtrocess of rumination is essential to the digestive 
functions of a well-conditioned member of the bovine 
family. The doctor’s book has been long in making 
its appearance, but it has come at last, and we 
hail it with satisfaction as a welcome contribution, 
to the historiography of Indian economic plants. 
The professor on h's travels has preserved an open 
mind, and he shows himself in his book remarkably and 
pleasantly free from the dogmatic assertion of superi- 
ority, which is often so aggressive a feature of books 
written ly scientists upon general eubjects. To describe 
in full detail and from personal observation all, or 
even the majority of Indian rconomic plants, would 
be the task of a lifetime. It is being accomplished 
by scientists in British India ; but Dr. Tachirch docs 
not pretend to have accomplished anything of the 
kind during his limited sojourn in the tropics. He 
claims for Lis bcok no further value than it actually 
dees possess — that is, as an account of a trained 
botanist aud pharmacoguosist in his visits to the 
principal producing ceutres of some tropical product:: — 
many of thorn staple articles of commerce, such as 
cinchuua, coffee, tea, cocoa, rice, cloves, nutmegs, 
and mace, rubber and pepper ; others, articles of mueh 
loss money value, but not ou that account less inter- 
estiugto the pbarmaoist— benzoin, for instauce, oubebs, 
oardamoms, oitronella oil, and oiunamou. Dr. 'Tschirch, 
himself expresses his regret that ciroiimstauces pre- 
vented liim from investigating, as he had wished to 
do, the culture of tobacco in Sumatra, and that of 
Indigo and sugar in Java. Malarial fever, that most 
faithful t-avolling compinion of the IJuropeau in 
tropical travel, seldom permitted the. author to work 
•a he would have wished. Another obstacle to the 
acquisitiou of reliable iutormstion lay in the 
ignorance which prevails, especially in Java, 
concerning all cuUurcs in which the informant 
is not pereonally interested. Cubebs, for instance, 
are much grown in the residency of Bantam, in western 
Java; but although Dr. Tschirch tried as much as he 
oould to get accurate information about the culturo 
of this drug during his sojourn in the adjoining 
residency, or province, no one c nid tell him anything 
trustworthy about it, and Bantam i self he had no 
opportunity of visiting. Steadfastly adhering t> the 
sound principle of describing only what bo aotnally 
saw, the doctor has rigidly excluded all hearsay infor- 
mation from his book— a resolve which mnat often have 
been a painful one to him, though it baa rendered his 
book niQch more reliable. 
Ur. Tschirch, who, be it observed, as a Germau-Swiss, 
travelled without any prejudices in favour of one of 
the two great colonising Powers of the East, the 
British and the Dutch, thus sums up a differ- 
enoe in the planting and trading habits of the 
two nations which struck him most strongly all 
through Ibis travels Both nations vvork with 
the same objeot of utilising their co.ouies to 
the greatest advantage, but they attain this objeot 
jn very different ways, amf they work on 
l?‘»lly different principles. If w? fl'n^e through 
the export lists of the three principal ports of the 
Southern East— Colombo, Singapore, aud Batavia— 
OUT Utention is immediately attracted by the stolid 
103 
teadiness of the Datob, and the almost lightning 
^apidity of the changeablenesa of the English colo- 
nial modes of coltivation, tYbile the Dutohman 
sticks with extreme stubbornness to the callivatiun 
of sny oultnre be has once introduced, and only 
relinquishes it with evident pain and under inoes- 
saiit doubting of heart, the Englishman no sooner 
begins to feel doubts of the sucoesa of bis nndertaking 
than he is prepared to relinquish it immediately. 
Thus, to give an instance, the market variations and 
the ever-sinking price of quinine have not been able 
to deter the Hollanders from continuing to plant oin- 
choDs in Java upon a scale increasing year by year, 
Tbe action of the English in Ceylon is the precise 
opposite of this mode of prooednre.* The &rat ship- 
meats of Ceylon coffee are sent to London, and fetch 
high prices. Immediately an exodns of Anglo-Indian 
planters to Ceylon oommeiices ; everybody wants to 
grow coffee and does grow it. Result : a ‘ rush 
into coffee,’ with scamped and catele‘S methods 
of cultivation ; t then a ooffoe-diseate declares itself. 
Planter after planter ' cracks up,’ and when it is 
also found that the formerly despised cinchona onl- 
turo, into which, without much ceremony, everyone has 
straightway thrown himself, will not prosper as it was 
expected, tea is taken np efter shoct deliberation. 
What the Uemileia has left standing of cinchona 
and coffee plsutations is uprooted, and replaced by 
tea ou snoh a colossal soale that the tea export rises 
between 1877 and 1887 from 3,600 lb. to 22,000,000 lb. ! 
Needless to say snob haste preoludea the careful 
selection of one’s soil and sitnation ; nor is it possible 
to weed tbe forest ground carefully J This U the 
reason that every visitor notices at onoe an essential 
difference between the plantations in the two islands. 
In Ceylon rotting tree-trunks aud numberless stumps 
all through the plantation, in Java everything neat 
and clean ; the lines more carefully drawn, nowhere 
remains of trees or stump*.” The superior energy of 
the Englishman Dr. Tsoniro'u illustrates by calling 
attention to our ocoiipation of Singapore, the entrance- 
gate to Eastern Asia, and to the commercial life-and- 
death struggle between that port and Batavia. Sin- 
gapore, in spite of its faults as a harbonr, attracts every 
year more products from the Malay Archipelago, It 
is already the most important emporium in the world 
for pepper and gambler, and draws growing snppliea of 
rubber and gutta-percha, damar gum and nut- 
megs, benzoin and rattans. Just ss the har- 
bour of Batavia slowly becomes chokeil with 
sand and rotraote further aud further from the 
town, so the export trade of Batavia runs to 
sand, choked by the powoilul oempotition of Singa- 
pore, 
But though Singapore is very favonrably situated, 
tbe author considers that if a European Power would 
seize the little la’aud of Pulu Way and its two 
snail .sist r is'anda just at tbe north coast of 
Snmatia, at tbe opening of the Straits oi Malaooa, 
and create a go-^d harbour there, Singapore would 
bo doomed in its turn. Pulu Way has immense 
coal-mines, and Dr. Tschirch, who is a oolonial enthu- 
siast, calls upon Germany to seise the group and 
lead the way. Unfortunately for him, his desire is 
not likely to be gratified. Tbe German Government 
has had enough of oolonial enterprise at present, and 
recent information from tbe Dutch Indies states that 
the Netherlands Government have decided tooooupy 
PqIu Way, and explore its coal. mines and that the 
French and Rnssian Governments have already pro- 
mised tbe custom of their msil-steamers to (he coaling- 
station. Singapore, therefore, may again take heaitof 
grace. She is eaved for the present . — Chemist and 
Druggist, 
* For the good reason that the Dutch are in a 
gisition ^to supply the world with the beat species. 
i An utterly unfounded charge. — En. 7\ A. 
There are no plantatiaus in the world belter 
weeded than those of Geylcn, altbongb tbe half-bnrnt 
forest trees are left on tie ground to supply fuel and 
manure.— E b. T’ ^ 
