The great progress made in the acclimation of cinchona trees in India,
Ceylon, and elsewhere has awakened the governments of countries where
the plants are indigenous to the necessity of conserving from reckless
destruction, and replanting denuded forests, so as to be able to keep up
the supply of this valuable product.
In Bolivia, since 1878, according to the report of the Netherlands
Consul, private individuals and land owners have taken up the question
with great earnestness, and at the present time on the banks of the
Mapiri, in the department of La Paz, there are over a million of young
trees growing.
New plantations have also sprung up in various other localities, either
on private ground or that owned by Government. The competition of India
and Ceylon in supplying the markets has had also the effect of inducing
more care in collecting and also of revisiting old spots, often with the
result of a rich harvest of bark which had been left on partly denuded
trunks, and the opening up of new localities. The new shoots springing
up from the old stumps have yielded much quill bark, and the root bark
of the old stumps has also been utilized.
The replanting entails very little expense. The Indian tenant on an
estate has a house and land from the owner (hacienda) of the estate. For
this he binds himself to work for two to four days a week, at from 28 to
36 cents per day, women and children obtaining 16 to 21 cents per day.
Thus the planting, weeding, etc., during the first two years is
but nominal in expense; after this period the trees may be left to
themselves.
On Government land the expense is greater, as, after an application
being made, the land is put up to public auction, and may fetch a
very low or higher price according to the bidding. The land secured,
contracts are made with natives of the lower class to clear the forest
and plant cinchona. The contracts are often sublet to Indians. The
young plants are planted from five to six feet apart, with banana trees
between, on account of their rapid growth and the shade the latter
afford. From March to June, after the wet season is over, is the best
time for planting, and the contractor keeps the plantation free from
weeds and in good order for twelve months, when it is handed over to the
owner. The following is given as the cost of the Mapiri River plantation
of an area from 60 or more miles in extent:
Ground. $1,200
300,000 plants at $0.14. 42,000
Superintendent, buildings, etc. 4,400
Interest. 4,800
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Total. $52,400
Till the plants are above two years of age, they are liable to die from
drought or the attacks of ants, and during 1878 many thousands died from
these causes. At the end of the fourth year some proprietors begin to
collect the quill bark by the method of coppicing.
It is feared by some that, should this new venture be successful, it
will prove a dangerous rival to the plantations of India, Ceylon, and
Java, and lower the price of bark considerably.--_Jour. Society of
Arts_.
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