46 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jttlt 2, 1883. 



COFFEE IN JAVA AJMI) BRAZIL. 



(Translated from Java netcspajjers for the 



"Straits Times.) " 



The immense yield of cofl'ee of late years iu Brazil 

 has resulted in quotations for that article falling below 

 the cost of producing the sorts ueually grown in Java, 

 and undergoing very great and frequent fluctuatious 

 from Cui.liicl.ug reports on last year's and the present 

 year's crops in South America. Hence the Batavia 

 Chamber of Commerce recently memorialised the Go- 

 vernor General of Netherlands India in favour of ap- 

 pointing a commission of e.tperts to inquire on the 

 spot into the state and prospects of coft'ee cultivation 

 in Brazil and report on the same, thus supplying 

 capitalists and coffee groivers in Java with trustworthy 

 information likely to result in steadying and im- 

 proving the prices brought by that product. The 

 chief secretary to Government, iu reply, assured the 

 Chamber that the Government, for the same reasons, 

 had already suggested to tne Home authorities to in- 

 struct the Netherlands Consul General at Rio de 

 Janeiro to gain every possible information regarding 

 coffee cultivation in Brazil, and that the result of his 

 inquiries will in due time be communicated to the 

 Chamber of Commerce, the appoiniment of a com- 

 mission of experts for the purpose beiug heuce eou- 

 sidered needless. 



Mr. Moens on Cinchona Prcspecis. 



On behalf of the Society for ihe advancement of 

 medical icience in Netherlands India, the firm of Ernst 

 & Co., at Batavia, has just published a work in the 

 Dutch language entitled The Cinchona Culture in Asia 

 from 1854 to 1882, by Mr. J. C. B. Moens, which 

 is thus noticed iu the Surabaya Courant : — 



"Mr. J. C. Bernelot Moens, ex-Director of Govern- 

 ment Cinchona cultivation iu the Preanger Regencies 

 (Java), sliortly before his departure for Europe, s.aw 

 to the publication of his book on cinchona, upon the 

 preparatiou of nhich he haa worked for years with 

 unflagging energy. Having taken measures to secure 

 his copyright, the autiior, who certainly before long, 

 and with his permission, will be read and consulted 

 everywhere in all languages, has brought oat a splend- 

 id scientiBc work, which by its get up and typo- 

 graph alone, is fully worth attention. Messrs. Ernst 

 & Co. of Batavia have hereby shown that, in this de- 

 partment, Java stands only a little below Europe, 

 if at all. It is also provided that several choice 

 photographs by C. Laug of Buitenzorg, which besides 

 depicting the pl.antations and operations thereon at 

 different periods, comprise distinct photograuis of the 

 Director himselt and his personel, so distinct that 

 different persons are easily recognizable. We quote, 

 from the work only twoobservationa of direct interest 10 

 all cinchona planters, namely Mr. Moens' opinion on 

 possiole substitutes, and on the futui-e of the culture. 

 As to substitutes, he states that, though so often an- 

 nounced to be found (one authority enumerates 136 of 

 them) not one of them muld hold its ground beyond 

 a few months. He foiesees that the now rapidlv ex- 

 tending cinchona cult ire will not, withiu the next 

 four years, be productive enough to affect prices 

 materially. A fall in value after the lapse of four 

 years will so depress the trade in that article in South 

 America that those sources of supply which cau no 

 longer bear the cos! of carriage will cease to flow, 

 thereby pieveuting prices falling too mpidly. The 

 same is to be foreseen, 12 to 15 years hence, when 

 pioduotion in Java will have increased so consi- 

 derably as to meet the demand of the whole world. 

 In ca»e of over producuou, he who grows the 

 varieties yielding the most quiumo will be the best 

 off." 



USE AND ABUSE OF MANURES. 



The best methods of manui-ing the land %vill be found 

 on examination to be among the most critical of all 

 questions connected with farm management. All soils may 

 be made productive if a sufiicieut outlay be incurred, the 

 amount of the expenditure differing with the character 

 of the occupatiou and the system of fai-ming. Among 

 several noted plans for the farming of arable land, which 

 have been brought before the public within the past 

 twenty or thirty years, there is the Sawbridgeworth method, 

 and there was" the Tiptiee system — sustaining the fertihty 

 of arable occupations by purchases of artificial manures 

 in one case, and by the use of cattle feeding stuffs mainly 

 in the other case. It may be said at once, without fear 

 of contradiction, that only a consummate master of tji'' art 

 of stock feeding could have made the Tiptree system pay 

 good interest on the capital employed; and, on the other 

 hand, an erpenditme of £2 per acre per annum on hght 

 manures, would hardly prove expedient in the general 

 practice of the agricultm-e of the country. 



The propriety of each of these varieties of high farm- 

 ing has been challenged ; in fact there are critics of all 

 the systems. 



In regard to the Tiptree dogma — which inculcated high 

 farming as a sort of moral duty — the most disastrous losses 

 reported by the sub-commissioners of the recent Agricult- 

 ural Commission occurred on highly farmed land, and tliis 

 is a fact worth pondering in connection with the teaching 

 both of practical and scientific men. It happens that 

 several excellent authorities have contributed to the literature 

 of farming recent essays ou the all-important subject of 

 manuring, and among them Sir .John B. Lawes, ou "The 

 Action of Manures," at the Newcastle Farmers' Club ; 

 Mr. W. Stratton, on " The Management and Application of 

 Manures," at the London Farmers' Club; Mr. Alfred Smet- 

 ham, on " Natural and Artificial Manuring," to a Lanca- 

 shire Agricultural Society ; Mr J. Coleman, on the same 

 subject of Manures aud Manuring, at the Timbridge "Wells 

 Farmers' Club; Professor Jamieson, on " Compensation 

 for Manures, ' Mr. Jamieson having superintended a series 

 of experiments on the effect of manures on various crops 

 in Sussex; and Ur. Voelcker ou the same subject, dm-ing 

 the discussion on the recommendations of the Agricultural 

 Commission at the London Farmers' Club, the learned 

 doctor having superintended the experiments at "Woburn. 



In considering these latest teachings ou manure, it 

 may be well to recall the knowledge we have gained as 

 well as the difficulties we must still encouuter. Dr. 

 Daubeny, Professor of Chemistry at the Unirersity of 

 Oxford," and an able exponent of the science of farming, 

 forty years ago published a paper ou the dormant and 

 active ingredients of the .soil, in which be stated that a 

 ton of phosphate of Ume would supply the neces.sary 

 phosphorus for a huudi-ed and twenty-five crops of wheat, 

 or forty-five crops of turnips; and, those fignres being 

 fairly accm-ate. Sir Harry T. Thompson's maxim, "phos- 

 phorus for turnips, nitrogen for corn," seem at fu'st sight 

 somewhat puzzliug. Sir John Lawes has again given the 

 explanation of this apparent paradox. He has also treated 

 at length the behaviour of nitrogen in the soil aud its 

 pre-emiueut value as a fertiliser. It is remarkable that 

 Dr. Daubeny does not once mention that all-important 

 subsUmce, nitric acid, in his paper. He gives an admir- 

 able explanation of the effects of fallowing aud tillage in 

 admitting air, and thus dissolving inorganic substances and 

 rendering dormant principles active; but the science of 

 forty years ago did uot enable him to notice what is in 

 fact the most active of all the "ingredients of the soil." 

 We have since learned that nitrogen is the prime element 

 in the production of wheat, and that no other constituent 

 of plant food presents to the practical farmer anything 

 like the same diifieulties; it is a substance which he 

 cannot dispense with; which he may readily loose by misap- 

 plication; and which costs lOd. or 11. per lb. The phi'ase 

 "nitrogen for corn" emboilied the experience that soils 

 which are rich iu minerals only requne the addition of 

 the single constituent they are deficient in. The fortieth 

 year's crop of wheat will be grown this year at Rotham- 

 sted, anil the unmauured plots will no doubt yiel<l, as 

 usual, twelve or thirteen bushels per acre. As the soil 

 contains aheady sufficient minerals, the crop will not be 

 increased on those plots where phosphates, potash, or any 



