ON CINCHONA. 
249 
two Indians take one tree, from which they cut or slice down the 
bark with a large knife "as far as they can reach from the ground; 
they then take sticks about half a yard long each, which they 
tie to the tree with tough withs at proper distances, like the 
steps of a ladder, always slicing off the bark as far as they can 
reach, before they fix a new step, and thus mount to the top, 
the Indian below gathering what the other cuts." It is after- 
wards carried in bags to the low country, where it is spread 
out and carefully dried. 
The proper period for cutting the bark is the dry season. 
Arrot says this is from September to November. Ruiz, how- 
ever, states that violent rain continues from October to May, 
when the fine weather commences, and continues to September. 
In order to know whether the stems and branches are suffi- 
ciently mature for barking, Ruiz says one or two stripes are 
cut off with a knife, and exposed to the air. If within three 
or four minutes the inner side of these stripes, as well as the 
part of the branch deprived of bark, begins to turn red, it is 
an infallible sign of maturity, and vice versa. 
When we take into consideration the immense consumption 
of Cinchona bark, (Pelletier alone in one year consumed 2000 
quintals, equal to 200,000 lbs. of yellow or Calisaya bark, in 
in the manufacture of the sulphate of quinia;) that the trees 
yielding it are confined to one part of the world; and that no 
care is taken of their preservation; it is not at all improbable 
that in a few years this valuable drug may totally disappear 
from commerce. Indeed a report has been prevalent among 
the drug dealers, that the Cascarilloes, or bark collectors, 
had arrived at the limits of the forests containing the yellow 
or Calisaya bark, but whether this be true or false, I know 
not, I am acquainted with one dealer who has laid in a large 
stock, on the speculation of the truth of this report. 
"If," says Mr. Stevenson, in his Travels in South America, 
" the government of America do not attend to the preserva- 
tion of the quina, either by prohibiting the felling of the trees, 
or obliging the territorial magistrates to enforce cutters to 
guard them from destruction, before a sufficient population 
vol. v, — NO. III. 32 
