OOTACAMUND,
17th May 1897.
(Signed)
W. M. STANDEN,
Director.
11
No. 578, REVENUE, 16TH JULY 1897.
the value of an increased yield of alkaloids. There is no doubt that manure increases
the yield of alkaloids, but it has not been proved that the value of the increased
yield invariably pays for the cost of the manure and its application.
(f) Fuel plantation.—Although there is no immediate fear of a scarcity of fuel
for the factory, it is necessary that steps should be taken to secure an ample supply of
cheap firewood for future requirements. Arrangements will therefore be made to
plant up a few acres at Nedivattam and Hooker with Eucalyptus. It is proposed to make
extensions annually for the next few years and to treat the fuel plantations ultimately
as coppice, on a ten-year rotation.
(g) Subordinate staff.—Mr. H. C. Bonjour, Sub-Overseer at Hooker, having
been pronounced physically unfit for further duty was granted an invalid pension of
Rs. 13-5-4 per mensem from the 1st November 1896. The post was not filled up from
this date pending final orders of Government on the proposed re-organisation of estab-
lishment on the Hooker estate. Messrs. H. V. Ryan and E. Collins, the Superinten-
dents of Dodabetta and Nedivattam and Mr. T. Edie, the Factory Overseer, did good
work during the year and Mr. Donald Campbell, the Manager of the Head office,
worked exceedingly well.
(h) Store returns.—In accordance with G.O., No. 920, Financial, dated 13th
September 1893, an inventory of the valuable stock in the custody of the Superinten-
dents of the estates has been made.
(l) Service boobs.— All the service books have been kept duly written up to date.
ENCLOSURE.
From D. HOOPER, Esq., Government, Quinologist, to the Director, Government Cinchona
Plantations, Nilgiris, dated Agra, 2nd April 1897.
I have the honour to make the following report on the Quinologists Department for the
year ending 31st March 1897 :
—
Work in the laboratory has been much curtailed during the year on account of my duties
as Officiating Government Botanist and Director to the 23rd May, and as Officiating Reporter on
Economic Products in Calcutta for three months from the 1st September. I also had to avail
myself of privilege leave for three months before the close of the official year.
Value of factory bark. —One of the most important subjects in connection with the plan-
tations is a knowledge of the value of the bark which is annually harvested from the trees. In
previous reports. the value has been given of the bark taken from individual trees or from
small plots which had been treated with different kinds of manure and variously situated in the
estates. The experiments resulting in these valuations have contributed to set at rest many
questions which surrounded the cinchona industry on the Government plantations about thirteen
years ago. Now that thousands of pounds are being annually powdered and manufactured into
quinine in the factory, it is easy to notice any fluctuation in its composition. It is desirable in
the first place to use a bark of good quality and in the second place to exhaust it as much as
possible of its alkaloids in the manufacturing processes. The bark used for making quinine
has been hitherto obtained from the Government plantations and has consisted almost exclu-
sively of that kind known as officinalis. Crown or officinalis bark contains a larger proportion
of quinine in its alkaloids than the hybrids and succirubras do in theirs, for while one hundred
parts of the mixed alkaloids of officinalis bark yield 70 parts of quinine, the same quantity of
hybrid alkaloids give about 40 parts, and that of the succirubras about 20 parts. It is obviously
more profitable to make quinine from the first of these kinds, as the cost of working up a pound
of bark is the same whether it is poor or rich in alkaloids.
In the following table there is recorded the value, determined by analysis, of all the
crown bark ground up during the past eight years at the Naduvattam factory. Several analyses
were sometimes made in one year, in such cases the figures for those years are averages of all
the determinations. The first sample of quinine made on the Nilgiris was sent into Oota-
camund on Her Majesty's birthday, 1889. It was made from a bark received from the Doda-
betta plantations containing 4 . 19 per cent. of sulphate. In the year following, the bark on the
whole was not quite so good. When operating upon the bark with sufficient care, it has been
frequently proved that the factory results accord with those of the analytical values. Last year
four batches of factory bark were analysed and contained 2 . 69, 3.09, 3.53 and 4.59 per cent. of
sulphate of quinine or an average of 3.62 1/3 per cent. Considering that a large amount of the