Aj^wyfihst7.riJ"}      Cinchona  Cultivation  in  Bengal.  47 
CINCHONA  CULTIVATION  IN  BENGAL.1 
The  Thirty-fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Cinchona  Plantations  of 
the  Government  of  India  in  British  Sikkim  and  Bhutan  has  lately 
been  submitted  to  the  Bengal  Government  by  Dr.  George  King, 
C.I.E.,  F.R.S  ,  Superintendent  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Garden,  Cal- 
cutta, and  of  cinchona  cultivation  in  Bengal,  and  Government  quin- 
ologist. 
The  number  of  trees  uprooted  for  their  bark  during  the  year 
1895-96  was  453,000,  comprising  65,000  of  C.  succirubra,  used  for 
the  manufacture  of  "  Government  Cinchona  Febrifuge,"  and 
388,000  of  the  kinds  which  yield  yellow  or  quinine-producing  bark 
chiefly  hybrid  cinchona  and  Calisaya  ledgeriana,  a  large  proportion 
of  the  trees  uprooted  being  small.  The  number  of  plants  was  in- 
creased during  the  year  by  9,200  hybrids  ;  the  total  census  of  living 
cinchona  plants  at  the  close  of  the  year,  including  nursery  stock,, 
was  3,807,701. 
The  crop  collected  during  the  year  amounted  to  467,190  pounds 
of  dry  bark,  consisting  of  53,380  pounds  of  red  and  413,810  pounds 
of  yellow  bark.  The  whole  of  this  crop,  with  the  exception  of 
790^  pounds  supplied  to  the  Government  Medical  Stores  Depart- 
ment or  sold  to  Government  institutions,  was  made  over  to  the  cin- 
chona factory  for  manufacture  into  quinine  and  febrifuge.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  bark  cropped  at  the  Government  plantations,  170,000 
pounds  of  quinine-yielding  bark  was  purchased  from  private  culti- 
vators in  the  district.  Seventy-four  thousand  pounds  of  red  bark, 
worked  up  in  the  factory  during  the  year,  yielded  3,124  pounds  of 
cinchona  febrifuge,  valued  at  Rs.  10  (about  12s.)  per  pound,  and 
from  387,200  pounds  of  yellow  bark,  9,004  pounds  of  quinine  sul- 
phate, valued  at  Rs.  14  (about  16s.)  per  pound,  were  manufactured. 
An  additional  1,500  pounds  of  quinine  were  purchased  from  the 
quinine  factory  of  the  Madras  Government  at  Ootacamund,in  order 
to  meet  the  greatly  increased  demand  for  the  5-grain  packets,  which 
are  issued  to  the  people  at  all  post-offices  throughout  the  province, 
at  the  rate  of  I  pice  each  (less  than  a  farthing). 
The  total  issue  of  quinine  for  the  year  amounted  to  10,287 
pounds,  an  increase  of  2,725  pounds  on  the  previous  year,  1,145 
pounds  of  this  increase  being  due  to  the  growth  of  the  post-office 
1  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  October  17,  1896. 
