238 
Formosa,  the  Home  of  Camphor. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
April,  1920. 
The  population  of  Formosa  is  mainly  agricultural.  The  culti- 
vation of  rice,  and  more  especially  sugar-cane,  is  encouraged  by  the 
government,  and  these  are  grown  in  great  quantities.  However, 
the  most  interesting  industry  is  the  production  of  camphor,  and  it 
can  be  truly  said  to  be  peculiar  to  the  island,  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  Formosa  holds  a  practical  monopoly  in  the  world's  market 
of  this  valuable  drug.  Before  the  war,  Germany,  by  a  secret  process, 
succeeded  in  manufacturing  some  S3Tithetic  camphor,  but  so  ex- 
pensive was  the  labor  entailed,  that  the  artificial  product  could  not 
compete  with  the  natural  camphor,  nor  is  it  likely  to  do  so  for  some 
time  to  come. 
Shortly  after  the  Japanese  came  to  Formosa,  25  years  ago,  the 
camphor  industry  became  a  government  monopoly.  Before  that 
time  there  had  been  a  great  deal  of  ruthless  waste,  both  in  the  cutting 
down  of  trees  and  in  extracting  camphor  from  them.  At  first,  the 
Japanese,  too,  were  careless  in  this  respect,  for  the  supply  of  cam- 
phor trees  seemed  practically  limitless,  but  the  great  increase  in  the 
demand  for  the  product  in  late  years  has  made  scientific  afforestation 
necessary.  Now  large  tracts  of  land  are  given  over  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  camphor  laurel.  The  oldest  trees  are  now  twenty  years  of 
age  and  these,  I  am  informed,  are  to  be  cut  down  next  year. 
According  to  an  article  appearing  recently  in  a  semi-official  pub- 
lication of  Formosa,  the  camphor  produced  in  the  island  at  the  present 
time  is  obtained  entirely  from  natural  grown  camphor  trees,  the  sup- 
ply of  which,  it  is  anticipated,  will  be  exhausted  within  ten  years. 
For  more  than  a  decade,  however,  the  camphor  monopoly  bureau  had 
been  planting  camphor  trees  at  the  rate  of  more  than  3,000  acres  a 
year.  In  191 9  its  program  was  expanded  to  more  than  12,000  acres, 
and  this  will  be  the  annual  acreage  planted  in  the  future.  In  recent 
months  the  demand  for  Formosa  camphor  has  been  exceedingly 
heavy,  especially  among  celluloid  manufacturers.  For  the  first 
three  months  of  1920  the  Japanese  Government  has  allotted  to  the 
United  States  379,635  pounds. 
Paradoxically  as  it  may  seem  at  first  glance,  the  savage  head- 
hunters  of  Formosa  have  been  both  an  impediment  and  a  boon  to 
the  camphor  industry.  As  the  forests  are  cut  down,  the  head- 
hunters  have  to  be  driven  further  back  into  the  mountains.  These 
expeditions  against  the  savages  are  never  very  successful,  encounter- 
ing as  they  do  heavy  obstacles  in  the  way  of  dense  forests,  rapid 
streams  without  bridges,  steep  mountains  without  trails,  and  above 
all,  the  danger  of  sudden  attack. 
