Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-20

ready the business is ruined everywhere by
overproduction. Mr.. Shucroft received
little gold medal from the Dutch King IN
acknowledgment of his enterprise; Dut at
the same time he lost all his fortune by hav-
ing made valueless his own extensive cas-
carilla plantations.
BOLIVIA AT A DISADVANTAGE.
Bolivia can never compete with those
countries that now take the lead In chlneoua
production, because of her immense dlsad-
vantage in the matter of transportation. On
the other hand, the bark produced in India
and Java yields only two-thirds as much
sulphate of quinine as that grown In TINS
part of the world. As an example OF the
rapid depreciation in the price oil bark may
be mentioned the Erickson plantation,
which was valued at million and a half
bolivianas five years ago, and is now
offered for sale at less than quarter OF
that amount, but cannot find purchaser.
Chincona, at this distance from the equa-
tor, will not grow at a greater elevation
than 5000 feet, nor lower than 5000. The
seeds, which are sown in beds, are so very
small, lighter than the lightest thistle-down,
that the least breeze will blow them away,
neeessitating great care in the handling.
When the plants are about one foot high
they are transplanted, five or six feet apart,
to the sunny side of mountain. 1t is as
serted that virgin soil is absolutely neces-
sary, and that the addition of any kind of
fertilizer would be ruinous. Twice every
year the earth between the tlees is slightly
disturbed by the primitive plows of the
country, and that is all the cultivation"
they require.
At the age of eight years the trees are
ready to strip; or, if the owner is hard up, as
is usually the case, part of them may be
utilized sooner and young plants put in
their places. An 8-year-old tree yields
from II to Is pounds of bark, which in the
present depressed state of trade is worth
only about 75 cents. The trunk of the tree,
after having been peeled, is entirely value
less, not even good for firewood in country
where fuel is scarce. The cost of cutting,
drying and packing the bark is about 81 80
per hundred weight.
LIKE THE GOLD BRICK FRAUD.
There are no fewer than 81 varieties of the
quina tree some worthless, others ranging
in the amount of quinine contained in the
bark from one-half per cent to seven per
cent The buyer must know his business,
for if not an exuert he is likely to be badly
sold. The "gold brick" swlndle has not
been so often perpetrated in the United
States as that of selling for cascarilla the
worthless bark of some other tree. A we'll
known dealer of La Paz, who ought to have
known what be was about after years OF ex-
perience, recently lost $4,000 at one fell
swoop on a shipload of bark supposed to be
cascarilla, but which, when arrived at the
English market. turned out to be a species
OF oak, good for nothing at all. The only
way to test the bark is by tasting it. That
which gives out bitter taste Immediately
on being taken into the mouth will yield a
comparatively small amount of quinine,
while the best must be chewed before the
quinIne taste is apparent.
Not an ounce of Bolivia's cascarilla ever
went to the United States; it is all sent to
Europe via the straits of Magellan. Not
withstanding the vast number OF quina trees
in the country and the cheapness of the raw
material, there is no spot on earth where
quinine, as prepared in the form of medicine
is so expensive. Though the people require
a great deal of it in cases of mountain fever,
terciana etc., none is made in Bolivia.
When the bark that is grown here and ex-
ported for next door to nothing gets back in
the form of quinine, it becomes ''forelgn
product" has exorbItant duties to pay and
sells accordingly. Whereas, in other lands
it yields the druggist profit of about so per
cent when retailed at a cent grain, it sells
in La Paz at the rate of ten cents per grain.
If some enterprising Northerner would set
up an establishment in this country Tor ex-
tracing the alkaloid from the bark, his
fortune would soon be made.
FANNIE B. WARD.