cleared a profit of over $38,500 from its cinchona estates, while the same year was, as a rule, a very poor one for planters, owing, Mr. Sijthoff says, to the manipulations of a particularly unscrupulous European trust.

I can not conceive of a better investment than the planting of cinchona in Java. The shortage in production in a few years will be very large, and prices will take a big jump. Concessions of land. are not hard to get here if one is on the spot, and the climate of the interior of Java is as perfect as that of the coast cities is bad. SIDNEY B. EVERETT,

BATAVIA, June 17, 1898.

Consul.

EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTER OF MR. SIJTHOFF TO MR. EVERETT.

I shall gladly give you the information requested. At first it was claimed that no quinine could be made in the Tropics, and that, even in case we could make quinine, we could never sell it, because the quinine trade was entirely in the hands of the manufacturers in Europe.

The first year was for us one of adversity and disappointment; now we have not only succeeded in delivering a good product, but can sell it to advantage, the demand increasing constantly.

Our factory is now producing 90 to 100 kilograms (198 to 220 pounds) of quinine a day, which is sent to America, England, Amsterdam, Straits Settlements, Hongkong, Japan, and Australia.

For a few years after cinchona plantations were laid out in Java, fabulous profits were made. Ceylon transformed all its bad coffee enterprises into cinchona plantations, with the result that the production kept pace with the consumption and prices declined. When the Ceylon plantations were seven to nine years old, it appeared that the soil and climate of that island were not good for the tree. After 1894, Ceylon was entirely exhausted, and the production fell off very sharply. A trust that had been formed in the meantime, and that had already fixed a price for manufactured quinine, fixed also the price of cinchona bark. Thus quinine planters, although coming to the market with a moderate crop and one not satisfying the consumption, always got inferior prices for their product.

Our factory buys no bark and carries on no trade in it, still less in quinine. We work the bark for a commission of 7 florins per kilogram ($2.81 per 2.2046 pounds) of quinine, the actual proceeds of the finished product going to the planter.

Just now the production is considerably short, so that the deficiency is made up from the stock of quinine on hand and bark of very bad quality which has already been lying piled up for twenty years. In another two or three years these stocks will be entirely used up, and the world will have to face a shortage of quinine.

I am firmly and sincerely convinced that now is the time to begin a new quinine enterprise, which, with the benefit of a long experience, will be a model estate and yield in a few years great profits.

Mr. England, in the Chemist and Druggist, says that North America in 1897 imported in cinchona bark and quinine 10,000,000 ounces of sulphate of quinine. The rest of the world needs some also; let us say 300,000 kilograms (661,380 pounds), which makes the total 585,000 kilograms (12,896,910 pounds). The world's output is only 385,000 kilograms (788,771 pounds), of which Java produces about threefourths.

When Africa and China are opened up, the consumption will naturally increase, especially in the latter country with its 460,000,000 inhabitants.

Java has attained its highest crop yield, and it will be some years before we can expect any satisfactory enterprises to be undertaken.

The quinine made by American houses comes from bark which is first sent from Java to Amsterdam for sale and then shipped over to the United States. We certainly could produce satisfactory raw quinine for use in America, which would make that country entirely independent of Europe. The transportation of the crude quinine would be simpler and less costly.

CIGARETTES IN KOREA.

Having been asked by cigarette manufacturers in the United States for certain data regarding the cigarette trade in Korea, I have collected all the information available on the subject and send it in this form to the Department for general use.

The Koreans are great smokers. Both sexes and all classes begin smoking early in life and keep it up most diligently. Tobacco is not used by them in any other method than smoking. The pipe is the constant companion of every Korean man and woman. However poor an individual may be, there always seems to be some method of obtaining tobacco for the pipe which he or she is sure to possess, whatever else may be lacking.

The tobacco used by Koreans is almost entirely home grown. Every farmer or gardener has his little patch of tobacco, much of which is very good in quality, but is injured in curing, being simply hung up under the wide eaves of the houses to dry. It is quite strong. The supply seems to be ample, and the price is very low. No leaf tobacco is imported.

The Korean pipe is a brass bowl of fair size, with a brass mouthpiece. These are connected by a hollow reed stem of from 1 to 4 feet in length, some of these stems being beautifully ornamented and all neat and light. The common people use shorter pipes for convenience in working, but all who can affect the long pipe, both for coolness and for looks. The mouthpieces are often made of jade, amber, or other costly material; and of late, mouthpieces of clouded glass are offered for sale at such cheap rates as to make them more or less popular.

The long pipe can be smoked with comfort only when the smoker is sitting down. Accidents often occur from persons falling with a long pipe in the mouth, the stem of which is driven down the throat, through the cheek, or into the soft palate.

During the reform period that followed the Japan-China war, an order was issued forbidding the use of the long pipe by the common

people. Many short foreign pipes were sold thereafter, and the use of the cigarette became very common. This order is now practically a dead letter, and the long pipe is reinstated again; but cigarettes have become so popular, because of their convenience, that they will probably never be given up, but will increase steadily in favor.

Native cigarettes of the poorest quality are made and sold for something like I cent gold for twenty. Little cigars of about the size of a cigarette are also made and sold for 28 cents silver (14 cents gold) per one hundred.

The most popular foreign-made cigarettes now in use in Korea seem to be brands like the "Ohayo," made in Japan, it is said, of American tobacco, but probably of a mixture of Japanese and American. These sell in Korea for $50 silver ($25 gold) per case of twenty thousand and retail for 3 cents silver (11⁄2 cents gold) per package of ten, with mouthpieces.

A cigarette made by machinery in Shanghai, of American tobacco, and called "Little Sweetheart" is meeting with considerable sale here. They sell in Korea for $170 silver ($85 gold) per case of fifty thousand and retail for 4 cents silver (2 cents gold) per package of

ten.

American cigarettes are used exclusively at the palace, where large quantities are consumed. This makes them popular also with the higher classes. They are kept on sale in the local Chinese shops, and the best retail for 40 cents silver (20 cents gold) per package. of twenty. The most popular brands are called "Straight Cut," "Sweet Caporal," "Old Gold," "Pin Head," etc. Some English cigarettes are now to be found in the shops, and Russian and Egyptian brands are kept for the consumption of the European population.

The import duty on cigars and cigarettes is 20 per cent ad valorem. The import of cigars and cigarettes, chiefly the latter, in 1896, amounted to $57, 112 silver, or $28,556 gold. In 1897, it was $89, 206 silver, or $44,603 gold. The import for 1898, it is thought, will show a marked increase on these figures.

American cigarettes are chiefly imported by the American firm of Townsend & Co., Chemulpo. I hear that a German firm-E. Meyer & Co. is about to handle American cigarettes also. The chief import of this class of goods, however, is from Japan and is in the hands of Japanese importers in Korea.

SEOUL, July 6, 1898.

HORACE N. ALLEN,

Consul-General.

INDUSTRIES IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Commercial Agent Wolff writes from Nouméa, under date of June 7, 1898:

It is understood here that the New Hebrides Islands are about to become a French possession. They were occupied by the French some ten years ago, but never officially. The entire trade of this fruitful group of islands, imports and exports, amounting to about $1,000,000 per annum, has been hitherto in the hands of French and Australian syndicates. A small number of Americans reside there. The commerce is capable of considerable expansion, and I would urge our people not to lose this opportunity to open trading stations. The land is adapted to the cultivation of coffee, cacao, vanilla, tobacco, sugar, rubber, spices-every kind of tropical and semitropical fruit. Land is given free to immigrants, under certain conditions. I inclose a publication of the French Colonial Union, entitled Guide de l'émigrant aux Nouvelles Hébrides.*

Extracts from the pamphlet are translated as follows:

The total area of the chain of islands known as the New Hebrides is 3,625,957 acres; the southernmost island of the group is about 1,565 miles from Sydney, Australia, and some 230 miles from Nouméa, New Caledonia. The soil, composed of the accumulation of the vegetable débris of many centuries, is of the greatest fertility, covered for the most part with a thick underbrush, which, in places, becomes a dense forest containing a great variety of trees adapted for cabinetwork, shipbuilding, etc., such as the kaori, indian wood, rosewood, and banian. Wild ducks, black pigeons, doves, parrots, and a great variety of birds abound in the archipelago. The climate, like that of all tropical countries, is warm and damp; its unhealthfulness has been greatly exaggerated. The year may be divided into two seasons-during the five months from November to March, inclusive, it is very warm and the islands are subject to typhoons; the months of April and October are cooler, and the intervening five months are of an agreeable temperature, unless the season should be too rainy.

The native population for the whole archipelago is estimated at about 60,000 Canaques, widely scattered. They are savage and treacherous in character, but will not attack foreigners if they see that they are armed or capable of defending themselves. Upon these natives, the European planters—mostly French and English and numbering about 200-must depend for their workmen. There are few real European settlements, except in the Island Vaté, where, at Port Vila, there is a French colony of about 100 inhabitants, including women and children. At Undine Bay, in the same island, there is a small English colony. Here, also, is found the most important station of the French society, comprising a large coffee plantation, a cocoa plantation with 20,000 trees, a banana plantation of 20,000 plants, and fields of maize and tobacco. There is a coffee factory, completely equipped, and an immense reserve dock, with storehouse and sales room. The society also possesses an important station at Port Havannah, in Vaté, and others

*Filed for reference in Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Department of State.

at Port Sandwich, Api, and on the canal of Segond. To every immigrant possessing a capital of 4,000 francs ($772), the society gives 25 hectares (61.8 acres) of land.

The New Hebrides can undoubtedly be developed. Spices and all tropical fruits yield abundantly, as well as vegetables-beans, turnips, carrots, cabbage, eggplant, pumpkins, asparagus, radishes, salsify, water cress-the only exceptions are cauliflower, artichokes, and potatoes. Yams, which yield well, are substituted for the latter. The tobacco is of excellent quality. It is sown in rows like turnips, but before sowing a good fire of brushwood is made, to rid the soil of the parasitic enemies of the plant. At the end of three or four weeks the seedlings are transplanted. In a good year, two or three harvests can be obtained. The yield is from 2,600 to 3,900 pounds to the hectare (2.471 acres), and the price is from 60 to 75 centimes the kilogram (12 to 15 cents per 2.2046 pounds), according to quality. The Sumatra tobacco succeeds the best, but American seeds (Virginia and Connecticut) and oriental tobaccos have been tried.

The cultivation of coffee is remunerative, though not as advantageous as that of tobacco, on account of the expense of manual labor.

The coffee of the New Hebrides is very like that of Caledonia; the kernels are smaller but have a very fine aroma. The price at Sydney varies from 180 to 210 francs ($34.74 to $40.53) the quintal (220.46 pounds). A coffee plantation commences to yield in the third year, but is not in full production until the end of five years. In 1895, 100 tons of coffee were exported; in 1896, more than 150 tons.

Many planters manufacture copra with the cocoanuts, which they buy from the natives. It takes about 8,000 cocoanuts to make a ton of copra. The price varies from 200 to 225 francs ($38.60 to $43.42) the ton at Sydney. The planters, to avoid the risk and expense of transportation, sell them in the islands for 150 to 175 francs ($28.96 to $33.78). About 160 cocoa trees can be planted to the hectare (2.471 acres).

The cultivation of the banana is very easy, and it has assumed large proportions in the last few years; from 10,000 to 12,000 bunches a month are exported to Sydney, where they sell readily at from 1.85 to 3.75 francs (36 to 72 cents) the bunch. The following table gives an idea of the average price of articles in common use in these islands:

AMERICAN FURNITURE IN ENGLAND.

There is an excellent opening in England for American furniture of moderate price. Competition in high-class furniture is out of the question for the present, for several reasons, and what is here referred to is the opportunity to supply the demand of the better paid mechanics and persons in fair circumstances, known here as the "middle classes."