The Imperial Council of Agricultural Research Report on the Prospects of Cinchona Cultivation in India

3. The Government of India accepted the recommendation of the Central Advisory Board of Health and agreed that the investigation subject to the approval of the Governing Body should be carried out under the auspices of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. [...] The two great objects of the experiments are—the provision of an abundant andCINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA 3 certain supply of the bark for the use of hospitals troops and the spread of the cultivation throughout the hill districts in order to bring the remedy within the reach of frequenters of jungles and of the population generally the experment cannot be regarded as a mere money speculatio [...] Although the especial virtues of this kind were not immediately4 CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA recognized still such progress was made with Cinchona Calisaya at Mungpoo that the administration was prevailed on to sanction the discontinuance of the planting of Cinchona succirubra altogether ! In the language of the order of 1874 ' The chemist's analyses confirm the fact that succirubra bark of w [...] The duties which devolved on him were— (1) The possibility of obtaining enough suitable land within the Indian Empire to produce cinchona bark to supply the whole requirements of India and the greater part of the needs of the rest of the British Empire in the matter of quinine ; (2) The necessity or otherwise of reorganizing the present system of cultvation of cinchona and manufacture of quinin [...] The disappearance of the private planter in the eighties and nineties folowing the catastrophic fall in bark prices and the gradual emergence of Java towards the close of last century caused the question of making India self-sufficient to be treated with less enthusiasm than was formerly the ease.