636 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1884. 



mylon, Sassia, aud Jlimusojis, also said to yield gutta- 

 percha. 



The names of varieties of gutta-percha are exceedingly 

 numerous, and many are no doubt synonymous, aud a 

 bare mention of a few of these \vill suffice. In all, the 

 words gutta-percha may be used as a prefix to these names. 



H-'aiiiH/eii. — Borneo. Well spoken of. 



3'c«!(.— Borneo. Said to be of a second quality. 



P(oo(.— Borneo. A third quality. 



This is a Dyak term, and seems to be applied to varieties 

 all alike. 



J'apua. — Borneo. Fourth class. 



iJrt/M.— Borneo. Very low quality. 



Katdla, Jankar and Kladi guttas are only used for 

 adulterating better quaUties. 



Ba,/iiti/.—ln the Malay Peninsula, gutta dagiug is well 

 known, the term dagiug meaning '• flesh," the gutta hav- 

 ing a very gristly character. It is much Uke Balata, and 

 is a capital gutta. 



Jhintrih. — Under the name gutta muntah, or white Borneo, 

 this kind made its appearance in the English market some 

 years ago. Muntah means " raw," and is applied to all 

 ■ guttas which have not been cooked or prepared. Hence 

 the term is appUed to the lowest as well as the best 

 varieties. If not speedily used up, it loses all its value 

 by becoming resinitied. 



In the Brow and Boolongan districts, on the east coast 

 of Borneo, Capt. Lingard informed me that there are three 

 Jdnds ^)f gutta-percha recognised by the natives. 



(1.) Kalapeieh, or Lota lanyut, or '• tough gutta," is 

 the first aud best quality. It is known in the English 

 market as Liugard's " Nina " brand. 



(2.) Kalapeieh, or Lota mooka, or " spongy gutta," yields 

 about 11 1 per cent less gutta, and the tree is more difficult 

 to cut down. 



(3.) Kalapeieh, or Lota kapur, yields about 20 per cent 

 less than No. 1, and in the wet season even 30 per cent 

 less.* — Joiintal of the Societi/ of Arts, 

 {To be contimied.) 



TILLAGE AND MANUEE. 



It is unfortmiate for yoimg farmers that the text books of 

 botany devote but little space to those branches of their 

 suoject which involve the life-history of plants. This should 

 be altered. A science which merely christens plants, and 

 is only rich in names and classifications, cannot be of much 

 service to agriculture. There are, no doubt, several volumes 

 from which youug farmers may derive valuable practical 

 information on plants aud soils. They may learn some- 

 thing of the root-development of plants, and the depth 

 at which they feed, from the experiments at Rothamsted ; 

 and " Plant Life," by Dr. Masters, is a little book most 

 ably written, and quite mthin their reach. But the quest- 

 ion of the depth of tillage is almost invariably treated 

 iu scientific works and agriciUtural writiugs from a general 

 rather than a practical point of view. It has become a 

 habit with many writers to recommend deep cultivation 

 as a matter of course, when in point of fact it is 

 purely a question of expediency. " A soil of double depth," 

 they inform us, " must be of double worth," and this is 

 a proposition one need not dispute ; but at the same time 

 it will be readily understood that such a method of treating 

 a practical subject cannot commend itself to the rent-paying 

 farmer. He would naturally reijly, "Even if it be true that 

 double ilepth means double worth, the fact cannot greatly 

 concern the occupier of land, who can hardly care to in- 

 crease its absolute value, but only its usefulness to himself." 



Mr. Mechi, with all his merits as an agricultural agitator, 

 sometimes brought discredit on his writings by appvoaching 

 practical subjects from a theoretic standpoint. He used 

 to advocate the ploughing up of pastures aud the doubluig 

 of the depths of furrows as matters of patriotic duty, and, 

 at a time when the price of corn compelled the country 

 to increase its pasturage, he still harped on the old string 

 aud lamented the infatuation. "Is it come to this? " he 

 wrote when the London Farmers' Olul) recommended the 

 conversion of unprofitable arable land to permanent past- 

 ure ; and he might just as well have exclaimed of the 5 in. 



* See also some remarks ou Malayan varieties by the late 

 ilr. Muitou, " Journal of the Society of Aits," Oct. II, IS7S. 



or 6 in. furrows at Rothamsted — and Sir J. Lawes never 

 exceeds 6 in. — " Is it come to this? " 



A young farmer' seeking information as to the depth 

 of tillage best adapted for his particular soil, finds too 

 frequently that theoretic writers recommend deep tillage 

 as sound in principle apart from any other consideration. 

 The fertiUty of the soil, they say, is proportioned to the 

 depth and quantity of the substance to which the roots 

 of plants have access, and they give this as a reason for 

 increasing the depth of the staple under all circumstances. 

 On the contrary, young farmers and others seeking in- 

 formation ou this subject ought to be warned of the 

 propriety of proceeding experimentally. As a matter of 

 fact, it rarely happens that the crops are increased by 

 deeper tillage without the use, at the same time, of 

 larger quantities of mauiure; aud on this point there is 

 undoubtedly a great deal of misimderstanding in the pubhc 

 mind. Certain pohticians might be named who constantly 

 advocate small holdings, and the reclamation of our waste 

 lauds by means of the spade, without being aware that 

 manure is qiute as necessary as tillage, and that the difficulty 

 of obtaining it is a bar to small plots under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances. Mr. Jesse Ceilings, tor example, seems to be 

 ignorant that plants, like people, live by food, and that 

 tillage is not a substitute for manure. Mr. Joseph Arch 

 has evidently been misled in regard to the effects of tillage. 

 At a recent meeting of the Trades Union Congress intro- 

 duced, as he has done ou previous occasions, the subject of the 

 waste lands, and repeated one of those transparent fallacies 

 which the text books of our schools should prevent any 

 person from entertaining. It is time that the humblest 

 class of school boys were taught enough of soils and of 

 plants to be able to refute the economic errors of such 

 politicians as Mr. Arch and Mr. CoUings. Every school- 

 boy should know that a virgin soil may coutain the remains 

 of many crops that have grown and decayed on the spot, 

 and that mere tillage, without maimre, may si^ce for 

 such soils during several years; but he should know too 

 that virgin soils are by no means all ahke. Woe betide 

 the man who settles on an American "pine barren" or 

 an English heath ! And he should also know that the arable 

 land of an old country does not usually coutain much 

 unexhausted fertility in the remains of former crops, and 

 will not produce the four or five crops of a single rotation 

 without liberal apphcations of manure to most of them. 



The example of gardeners has been urged upon farmers; 

 but ou this point it may be said briefly that the great 

 crops of the market gardeners of Barking and the neigh- 

 bouring district are solely due to the large quantities of 

 manure obtained from the Loudon stables. They plough 

 generally to a depth of six or seven inches. The method 

 of cultivating flower gardens need not be noticed here, 

 the object being the attamment of beautiful specimens 

 of the horticultural art, iurespective of the cost. The truth 

 is, that practical farmers must regard the subject of deep 

 tillage solely from a practical point of view, and, so far 

 from being guided by general principles, they should con- 

 sider each particular case iu detail on its merits. It does 

 not concern them that the roots of plants are sometimes 

 found at a great depth, or that the subsoil might in most 

 cases be decidedly enriched by manuring it. "Look," says 

 the enthusiast, "at the miserable pale subsoil immediately 

 below your six or seven inches of cultivated land ! Why 

 don't you manure it as gardeners do? " Perhaps the best 

 reply to the teachers of such doctrine is, " Have you tried 

 the i)lan you recommend, and what was the result from 

 a money point of view?" In the tillage of the soil about 

 one hundred tons per acre are moved for every inch of 

 depth, and, making allowance for the weight of the bearing, 

 the cost of cultivation increases in a higher ratio than 

 the depth; and its efl'ect on the increased yield of crops 

 should increase in like manner, or the operation cannot 

 be profitable. 



Baron Liebig has explained that jilants assimilate food 

 in proportion to the extent of root surface, and as the 

 mineral food is fixed in the soil and has to be fetched, 

 so to speak, it can only be available when the roots como 

 mto actual contact with it. A plant possessing double 

 the root development of another plant vvill grow m a soil 

 which, so far as the plant with only one half the root 

 sui-face is concerned, is exliausted. It will do sobecau.sr 

 it possesses double the chauce of meeting with fooil It 



