No. 426, REVENUE, 2ND AUGUST 1898.
3. In parts III and IV of his report the Director discusses the interesting ques-
tions of replanting land which has already borne a crop of cinchona, of regeneration
from coppice, and of the utility of manuring.
With regard to the question of replanting, the results of the experiments made
on the Neduvattam estate appear to establish the inexpediency of endeavouring to
replant old land with success as long as new land is available. The Government,
however, approves of the Director's proposal to try the experiment of replanting old
land under shade.
The facts noted by the Director as to the regenerative power of the stools in
certain plots certainly warrant the hope that under careful cultivation the cinchona
on the Nilgiris will undergo four rotations by coppice without loss of vitality. An
equally important question in working a cinchona estate on a system of coppice
rotation is whether a large outlay on manuring will be profitable. Mr. Standen has
selected three plots bearing 800 trees each. Two of the plots have been highly
manured and the third left unmanured. Careful accounts of the expenditure and
return from three plots will be kept, and Mr. Standen anticipates that not only will the
direct return from the manured trees, when coppiced, be greater than from those
unmanured, but that the stools on these plots will exhibit a greater vitality and re-
generative power. The results of the experiments will be awaited with interest.
4.
Coppicing and thinning operations during the year were confined to sickly
trees on ridges and poor soil and to trees on replanted land. The total amount of bark
harvested during the year was thus only 128,349 lbs. from 118,683 trees as against
186,867 lbs. from 23,840 trees in the previous year. The yield of the plantations was
supplemented by the purchase of 108,934 lbs. of bark in the local market. Adding
the stock of bark on hand at the close of the previous year, the total amount of bark
available for manufacture during the year was 484,034 lbs.
5. The following statement shows the quantities of bark, quinine and febrifuge,
in stock at the beginning of the year, the additions made thereto, and the quantities
disposed of during the year and the balance on hand at its close :—
–
In stock at
the beginning
of 1897-98.
Additions
made
d u r i n g 1 8 9 7 - 9 8 .
Total.
Disposed of
during
1897-98.
Balance.
B a r k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LBS.
246,751
LBS.
237,283
LBS.
4 8 4 , 0 3 4
LBS.
2 4 1 , 8 9 5
LBS.
242,139
• •
Q u i n i n e . . .
• .
4,862
5,092
9,954
6 , 3 3 6
3,618
..
Febrifuge..
1,227
6,389
7,616
1,956 5,660
Work at the factory was much retarded owing to the loss at sea of the fusel oil
and sulphuric acid required for the year's manufacture and to the consequent delay in
obtaining fresh supplies. As the result only 240,584 lbs. of the total stock of 484,034 lbs.
of bark were worked up during the year. The quantity of bark yielded 5,092 lbs. of
quinine and 6,389 lbs. of febrifuge, or 11,481 lbs. of alkaloids in all.
The results of the manufacture show that the factory was most efficiently worked ;
for the total cost of manufacture and distribution was only Rs. 7-3-3 per pound of
alkaloid as against Rs. 8-2-2 per pound in the previous year. Deducting the cost of
the bark worked up, the actual cost of manufacture and distribution per pound of
alkaloid was Rs. 2-0-7 as against Rs. 2-7-7 in the previous year. At the same
time the bark appears to have been thoroughly exhausted and no loss of alkaloids
allowed to occur, the yield from the crown bark being on the average 4.04 per cent.
of sulphate of quinine and 1 . 65 per cent. of febrifuge as compared with 3.32 per cent.
of sulphate of quinine and 1.39 per cent. of febrifuge in the previous year. The
yield from the red bark was 3 . 75 per cent. of febrifuge as against 4 . 45 per cent.
in the previous year. The smaller percentage from the red bark has to be accounted
for by the fact that all the bark was taken from trees on replanted land.
It is also very satisfactory to note that the quinine manufactured was found by
the Chemical Examiner to come up to the standard of purity laid down by the
British Pharmacopœia.
21.