Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 15, 1901, Page 18

(Copyrignt, 1901, by Frank G. Carpenter.) ANDONG, Je , Aug. 15.--(Special Correspondence of The Bee) The United States government should investigate the pos-iblli- ties of cinchona plantations in he Philippine islands. The climate and ofl there are about the same as those of fava, and the Dutch are making fortunce out of the business They began to p'ant ces only a few years ago and they are now producing more than four-fifths of all the quinine and cinchona bark used in the world Last year's crop amounted to more than 12,000,000 pounds of quinine alone, and the output is steadily increasing. The de- mand is alto increasing and the plantations promise to be more and more profitable in At present they are paying m 40 to 40 per cent dividends and are, | am told, all doing wall. I'he cinchona plantations of Java are managed by the government, by syndicates ind by individuals. The syndicates have the most trees They have eighty-thrie preat estates which are bringing in alto- gether about $4,000,000 a year. The most of these estates are on lands leased from the government for terms of seventy-five years. The planters agree to make certaln clopments and to pay certain rents in lieu of taxes, and they have to carry on their work after the rules lald down by the government The private plantations are managed to some extent the same way They are well cared for and three of th m cach yield about 300,000 pounds of quinine innually The government plantations are conduct d more with regard to the study of the cin- chona tree and the extraction of the quinine from its bark than for profit, although I be- leve they pay. They are now raising about (00,000 pounds of quinine a year and in ad- dition to this are supplylng all the quinine needed for the Dutch army and navy. w * Quinine Origl ted, But before I deseribe the government ex perimeats let me tell you something about the tree whose bark supplies the little pill that takes away the fever. The cinchona tree comes originally trom the eastern side of the Andes, There 1 strip of country about 100 miles wide and over 2,000 miles longg, running along the slopes of those mountainsg from Venezuela as far south as lower Bollvia, which Is spotted with qui- nine greves. The trees are far In the In- terlor and hard to reach. 1 saw some- thing of them during my travels in South America in 1808, The bark Is cut In the forests and hauled for many miles on the Java’s Quinine Industry and Its Commercial Importance grains, or enough to give every man, wo- man child three two-grain pills, an amount which is manifestly not enough to coun- teract the malaria and the mosquito 8. An allowance of one dozen pills per person would quadruple the demand, requiring a product of 86,000,000,000 grains, or enough to build up quinine fortunes in very part of the Philippine islands Mosquite reand Malaria, The scientists here are inclined to the t lief now current at home that the mosqui toes communicate malaria. They tell nu rertain kinds of mosquitoes are full of m larial parasites, germs so small that it takes a billion of them to give a man a bad case of fever, and a quarter of a billion to produce a chill. These parasites breed so rapid'y, however, that a few hours, or most a few days, after being bitten by the mosquitoes the man is full of them and he soon comes down with malaria. The on! thing poisonous to the parasites go far di« covered s quinine. This kills them, the blood throws off the organism and the mu grows well again, T came near dying whil in Ecuador not leng ago from the bites of <uch rosquitoes. I had gone up to the foot of the Andes through a vast tract of floodcd country which swarmed with malarial mos juitoes 1 rode canoe through the tops of the trees being bitten by the insects, and upon my return to Guayaquil was taken down with a bad case of pernicio-o, something lice the Cha gres fever. 1 had a nattws doctor who gave me from thirty to sixty grains of quinine at a time and the quinine I believe killed the organisms and saved my life. Later on I met in Argentina one of our consuls, a Dr. Ayres, who Las been stationed for som years in the city of Ps at the mouth of PREPARING QUININE BARK FOR THE FACTORY. i LS e LSRR 0E By o perience with the fever and also that T was trees first in the botaunical garden at Bui- on the government plantations there are There are steam pipes running through the going up the Amazon. He thercupon warned tenzorg and afterward here at Bandong gingle trees which will vield as muach as vats, which keep the oil just at the boiling me to saturate myself with quinine before 1 cleewhere They experimented tor $64 worth of quinine At this rate a thou- boint, or at almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit. got there, saying that the fever germs time and finally discovered that the best gund would yield §64,000, the greatest profit At this point the dust is dissolved and the could not live in cells which contain quinine tree for them was the red-bark cinchona por aere perhaps of any crop known. Eyven Gulnine atoms scparate from it and go Into 1 did o, and though I traveled 2,000 mile tree, which grows to double the thickness zon 1 had about for two days in a though it required ten years to grow the the oil, being soaked up as water soaks among the mosquitoes of the Amg of a man's body and to a height of about whole crop this would be equal to $6,400 YP salt. After twenty hours all the aquinine 4 ¢jgn of malaria fifty feet. In 1860 they had only 7,000 of has left the dust and become a part of the these trees. They have now many, many oil, while the residue sinks to the bottom. millions, The Java trees are of exactly the The oil is now drawn off into other vats During my stay here T have called upon same variety as those used in India, but where it settles, It now looks for all the the resident governor of the Preanger prov the planters here tell me that the Java world like clear water. It is really Kero- inces, Lord Van Bethem van den Berg bark produces far more quinine than th: sene oil soaked with quinine. The next This man is one of the ablest of the officials India bark and that the trees yield differ thing is to get the quinine cut. This is don: iy the Duteh East Indies and he has one of ently according to soll and climate. by introducing sulphuric acid anl water. the mest responsible positions of this The acid takes up the oll, but rejects the (sland. The provinces over which he rules 2L cHa 4 . % quinine and when the oil and acid are re eXce 1y 1l and y has P . center of the best quinine-producing region (he planters, although I believe they have drawn off the bottom of the vat has a sedi- ”(:,,: \r ...Il.ltli‘\kh |'|: :l 1.”llnln|hl Ihl“h“::“\ “1,“.': - s by 8 O i VOS wder o (3 as ¢ ag per acre per year. Divide this by four and you would still do well You would have $1,600 per acre, which is by no means a bad yield In these days of 4 per cent Interest und 70-cent wheat. The biggest quinine factory of the world Is gituated in this city of Bandong. It is under government supervision, but is run This letter is written at Bandong, in the ag a private enterprise in the interests of Chat with R dent Governor, THE QUININE FACTORY AT BANDONG. backs of donkeys to the rivers or the sea- ports. 1 raw a great deal of it at La Paz, where it was brought to be shipped by stage or rall to the coast, A donkey load welghed from 100 to 200 pounds and $32 worth was about all one donkey could carry. One of the Bolivians offered to sell me & forest of 800,000 trees for $64,000, or 8 cents a tree, and others of whom I in- quired told me they had experimented in working the plantations and lost. Some vears ago there was quite a craze at La Paz for such speculation. The cinchona or Peruvian bark was then selling for about 2 cents a pound, or for thirty times as much as it is bringing there now., A num- ber of plantations were set out and about $3,000,000 was invested {n them by La Pazites alone. Then quinine fell, and now it hardly pays to cut the bark from the wild trees, although the conditions In Java and the Philippines are such that the trees could be raised there at a profit, Fro 1 Andes to Java. Until within comparatively few years it was supposed that the quinine tree would grow only on the Andes. The South Amer- feans thought they had the monopoly of the business. The various governments taxed all exports of the bark, It was all shipped to London, where it was handled by a trust, which raised and lowered quinine prices at will. Then the English govern- ment decided to introduce the trees into Ceylon and India and the Holland govern- ment planned similar experiments for Java Both countries sent scientists to Peru and Bolivia for seceds and plants. The natives there got track of the matter and impeded thelr mission In every possible way. The Peru custom house officers would not let the Englhisn specimens leave the country for weeks and in the mean- time one of the Bolivians poured some boil- ing water over the seeds. After a time, however, both seeds and plants were se- cured for Ceylon and Java, The English get out large plantations In Ceylon and also about Madras. They chose about the same latitude and climates as those In which the South American trees throve and succeeded in producing trees which yielded a falr quantity of quinine. The Japanese government set out {ts D it i L RUoe ot ibUYE mentRotd IRty WHI (S RAnd) T IS RINEokUds Phinkent Miomat liene (sORFouadsANbY: Dalis the cinchona bark. It merely takes toll 1 5 C e r refine h . " oL £ quinine. It is clarified or refined much as .14 giher tropical trees and it was in it for its work. The bark is delivered in we refine sugar and at the e 8 : ALl ; ) we refine sugar and at the end comes out p re! . p o m that he received me when 1 presented my bales of 200 pounds each. These are care- jn the frosted silver, flaky powder known lettars fhom the movernor metia He fully analyzed by the government chemists g pure quinine. It is now packed into tins 4 I.‘ B ; 1 l,ll % " ]I .I“ 3geh f‘ to find the percentage of quinine which of 100 ounces and thus shipped to New ~|I»;“:I "L,;H( ‘;l “,"‘ ALCAGRGBR vien (0T cach bale contains. After this the planter York, Amsterdam, London and the other \'"'KU’HVN ‘,‘:M,x l.l-“‘"‘ I asked Lord V gets a check for the value of the bark less great drug markets of the world, “"”,:,. IL\.‘, ‘|~|| Iy‘.|..,~ ll\;"‘ p ,‘]‘“ the toll, and the vark is now thrown in Dr. Van Linge tells me that 85 per cent land ;I\]\Iv'lnll '..‘r“n o .\'I:H,v\l l’:‘;‘ vl!]n & with the other bark in the warehouse. I of all the world's quinine comes from Java “"I‘h’n:'lm-l 7 '!'I‘ 'K]_"l \ ; I“ tte went with Dr. Van Linge through the dif- and that 65 per cent of this is from the : Tl LR kil ; government and we really have control of ferent branches of the factory watching relghborhood of Bandong. He says that a o 000 TG e inios o them t the processes of reducing the bark to qui- large amount of that made here goes to the hold them f”;~ the l, P (”i\‘:w'““ L'. ,”” ‘“”,l ,,U nine. As it comes from the tree it looks United States and that the demand from lation increases \_““”“[‘“,I,‘l‘\'::,d :‘m!:]]‘“; n‘nY unlike ordinary “bark, but when you '““‘l"" “':”:: ”‘I"I‘I"" """“ S : feed the people. We will then dispose of taste it it is like biting into a pill. Much 3 :'l'."[';'l‘m'i“'”;“ |~llllll:‘! ‘M ‘“"-mh s -)‘ T;;“" them to small proprietors or in some way of it comes to the factory in dust, and it is | 'l“ .l '|< :l b ‘]' e ~.qu ‘,“" fiine give them to the people. We believe it is all reduced to dust before it is carried into !s'and ’s almost as Jlarge as Java. 3% our duty to take care of Java so that it the mill. some of the richest soil of the tropics and will support the natives and to d his we contains mountainous regions not unlike sups nalaves aud L0 4o Lhle W ed In Kerosene Of1, Breanger It the secretary of agrloulture must keep the title to the lands out of the of the world. It is situated in a basin i The dust looks like cinnamon ground fine, should establish an experimental cinchona :’:T:‘: ‘?r "fll."‘l‘::“:'.‘;)'i'l’;:_““l'|,“'sw"‘";'|” :'r th‘o the Preanger, or mouatainous region of It is reddish brown, but each brown grain estate in the mountains near Zamboanga eipld e 8 anxious to get western Java, surrounded by quinine plan- incloses some of the white aloms we know or Davao the matter could be easily tested tations. It has also the goverument fa as quinine. The process is to get the white and it mighi result in exports of enor- tory where the bark is reduced to that bit- atoms out. This is done by mixing the dust mous value. ter powder which kills the malaria. The with water and boiling it in mineral oils At present something like 16,000,000 plantations are in the mountains at about The bolling is done in great vats of steel, pounds of quinine are used in the world 3,000 or 4,000 feet above sea level, You see in which a sort of kerosene refuse {s put. every year. This is about 9,000,000,00n the lands and once in their possession they work them solely for their own benefit, disregarding that of the people. They do not care if the natives are impoverished They will establish stores on their lands (Continued on Seventh Page.) their rich, red color spotting the hills as Pkl Sl .SCOFIELD you ride about and in places you may sce | the natives taking up the trees or stripping | off the bark. The soil here is very rich | and there are frequent rains all the year around, 1 am surprised at the scientific methods which prevall in the cultivation of the aul- CLOAK&.SUITCO. nine estates. 1 have discussed them with the planters and also with Dr. A, R l\l'nn N o1l tei2 ‘e that the trese must be planted A cw Departure just so and the greatest care taken to en rich the soil, Oil cakes and especially cas tor oil cakes are used as manure. The ground s carefully cultivaied and the plants are set out according to the methods which the government experiments have proved 3 - ; beat. MADE-TO-MEASURE The plants are ralsed from the seeds, which are sown in seed beds. The seeds . 1) . r . are much ke muvsce, s0 ittt oo | adjos” Fine Tailored Garments plants. After the sprouts have grown about = ; i 4 four inches high they are transplanted and We o are lbl"il.\l‘tl to announce lll:l' we opened in connection with our Cloak, Suit and Fur Business where they are to stay. A Ladies’ Tailoring Department have At first the trees were set out wide apart, but now they are planted at every three or four feet, and as they grow alternate trees are cut out from year to year to glve the others more room. The bark of those cut out is used, so that the planta- tion begins to produce something “‘”‘:" a and arve prepared to take orders for ladies Suits, SKkirts, short time. The first cutting is at about Ealaeta ' TR A ) the third year, and the cutting continues Jackets, Capes and Cloaks until the tenth year, when the trees "fi pert men tailors and perfectly fitted to your form. We § e ces bot > K 7 Py . 5 . :;:ll :.l.:::n.u.‘lhn\‘.-.:’::;;:: ::‘rl.' :(?n-‘:.r for they haVe 2 lary d ssortment of the most fashionable fabries to select from and will make them up in both yield quinine, although the best qui- any style desired at reasonable prices. We also sell our suiting materials by the vard at A pine comes from the bark of the stem. oo than usual tailors' prices. May we not have the pleasure of showing you what we can do? The bark is dried iu the sun or in evapo- 0. K. Scofield Cloak and Suit Co. rators and then packed up and sent to the 1510 DOUCLAS STREET made to measure by ex- factory to be made into quinine Dr. Van Linge tells me that about a thou- sand trees are planted to the acre and that