242 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[October i, 1883, 



COFFEE SENT TO EUKOPE IN PAECHMENT SKIN. 



TO THE EDITOR Of THE " IKDIAN HEKCUKY. " 



lu your number of 27th of April 18S3, Mr. P. Zeper of 

 the Preauger in Java, (see page 121, Vol. Ill, T. A.) has 

 devoted a word to my aiticled idjlished in No. 61 of the 

 Indian Jfermri/, about the results of coffee-peeUng iu Ne- 

 thei-laud. Nay. the esteemed writer declares emphatically 

 that he feels obliged to refute my arguments. 



The civil manner in which Mr. Z. gives his views cannot 

 but meet with acknowledgement from me, as I am also 

 thankful for his practical bints and experiences. 



However, for the present, I m.\}' safely refrain from offer- 

 ing a reply to Mr. Z.'s observations, for those who will take 

 the trouble to compare our two papers, it will become ob- 

 vious that Mr. Z. has not apprehended the drift of my writ- 

 ing, and has even made me pronounce judgmentsor assertions, 

 which I myself now learn for the first time. 



To one dictum, Mr. Z. must allow me to demur. It is 

 where he says: "It speaks of itself that though a European 

 government-official be willing to give himself ever so much 

 trouble to master the details of lapng out, planting, pre- 

 pai"ing, etc, he can seldom succeed undersuchcircumstances." 



All this indeed is not very flattering for the officials of 

 cm- government; but if Mr. Z. has a right to suppose that 

 the official reports and knowledge do not ahmi/s deserve 

 unconditional coiiiidence, we on our side, warn against pre- 

 judice and partiahty, nor desire to deem all so-called private 

 reports and knowledge infallible. Only, be it observed, the 

 diligent and sensible official, who really wishes to master the 

 subject, will not confine himself to informations gained from 

 the native chiefs. He looks with his own eyes and endeavours 

 besides, wherever he can, to be enlightened by the pract- 

 ical esjjerience and Ijiiowledge of European industrials. 



So at least I understood my duty as an official, and Mr. 

 Z. might have ascertained this by reference to our mutual 

 — alas I too soon departed friend, his old neighbour, the 

 quondam m.inager of Parakansalak. Oould it be my intention 

 to retort to a reproach with an accusation, I could adduce 

 many instances of private enterprisers in Java not being 

 always ready and willing to help emViarrassed officials to see 

 their way. 



But now the subject. 



In 1882-83 there were transported to Nelherland from 

 Java 181.005 bags of cofl'ee in the parchment against 150,000 

 in 1881-82, which would again confirm what 1 have before 

 endi'avoured to prove, that the results of peeling in this 

 comitry do not in general, or as yet, deter them in Java from 

 Bending coiTee in the parchment. 



It we see this .still budding industry flouri.sh at home, 

 we have above all an eye and heart for a plentiful and 

 profitable produce and a cordial co-operation of all concerned, 

 whether producers, traders, or industrials. I\lr. Zeper may 

 believe me, for I myself have laboured as a private indivi- 

 dual for eleven years iu Java, and that quite of my own 

 free will because I conceived an abhorrence of ail control — that 

 I am perfectly aware, from experience, as well as my body 

 can be. of what great difficidties and cares free industry 

 has constanly to struggle with in India. Besides, I numbered 

 in Java too many good and intimate friends among practical 

 men, not to have leai'ut from them also that most of them, 

 with all their endless cares and disappointments, are really 

 not to be envied by a single official. 



I have everdeplored,and still deplore, that Government does 

 not evince through its officials, more sympathy for the fos- 

 tering of private industry, for it is this that must make India 

 flourish, that can consolidate her position for the future, and 

 so render the IMother-Country a gainer. Free industry de- 

 mands no protection, but appreciation, and this loses its elo- 

 quence in vexatious intermeddling, in indifference tothe hon- 

 est producer, aud in a sometimes unexam])led laxity in set- 

 tling business. 



In addition to what I have already given, I must offer one 

 more piece of advice to the coffee-planters who send then' 

 products to Europe for peehug. The peelers ought to be 

 timely forewarned of what must be their eudeavoiu"s. In 

 that case they iviU be found better prepared. And now one 

 thing more in conclusion. It is very true that the peelers 

 are paid for their work, and not for the qviality of the pro- 

 duct delivered; but Mr. Zeper is too good a man of business 

 in every respect, not to be aware that the peelers have their 

 own interest to consult, iu delivering a good article.— Van 



GOBEOM. 



THEORY OF M^INUEES. 



BY DH. DANIEL MAECH. 



If water is chemically combined with any of the soil 

 constituents, it cannot be absorbed by plants, until its 

 affinity for the retaining body is overcome. Mechanically 

 likewise, water may be retained, and this sometimes so 

 strongly that plartt roots cannot obtain a sufficient supply 

 to produce a healthful growth. Also if the water is 

 in too great a quantity or not sfficiently united to the 

 earth, its suiierabundance mil injure the fibres of the 

 roots, hence the conditional presence of water is an im- 

 portant iioint in considering the nutriment of plants, and 

 does often determine the ascendency of health or 

 disease. In other words, water may exist in a soil in 

 two states, viz., united by chemical attraction, or simply 

 held by the power of cohesion. Hence if water is chemic- 

 ally combmed with a constituent of a soil or manure, 

 it cannot be absorbed by a plant until decomposition of 

 the retaining body is effected; but what is retained by 

 contact (mechanically) is always iu a condition to be 

 absorbed by the rootlet fibres, and in the mechanical ana- 

 lysis of the soils this is termed the power of retention. 

 In the analysis of soils, the mechanical analysis is of as 

 much im2)ortauce as the chemical ; as the drainage ijower, 

 power of retention and absorbing power are set forth 

 and according to the prevalence of one of these over the 

 other the value of the soil is increased or decreased in 

 its relation to the w^ithslanding of droughts and likewise 

 the over retaining of stagnant water to the injury of the 

 roots. Not many of the mineral or earthly constituents 

 of the soil contain chemically combined water, yet. the 

 saline compounds existing iu soils and manures may be 

 united to water both by chemical and mechanical afliu- 

 ity. ^Vith very rare exceptions docs such influence the 

 relation of soil aud water to each other, the quantity 

 of saline compounds being so very minute ; but when 

 such rise above a certain percentage, the soil through 

 excess of saUue compounds actually becon^.es barren; barren- 

 ness may also arise through the exhaustion of plant food 

 below a certain percentage, and this can only be pre- 

 vented by the use of manures. This brings us to consider 

 three important poiats — 



1st. That plants derive all their mineral constituents 

 and most if not all the nitrogen from the soil. 



2ud. That the constant removal l>y crops of such min- 

 erals results is more or less exhaustion of the soil. 



3rd. The immediately available plant food in good soil 

 is generally less than 0'5per cent of the whole. 



AVe may therefore conclude that if in any soil, the 

 plant-food is lowered by croping below the half per cent, 

 exhaustion must follow, and the aim of manuring is to 

 restore to the soil the plant food which has been taken 

 off by the crops, or by the animals grazing on it, or it 

 may be only reiiuisite to increase the amount of nutri- 

 meut naturally in poor soils. It is often a mattei- of 

 wonder to many how the soils originally obtained their 

 coustit\ients, but before the studies of geology, mineral- 

 ogy and petrology, such amazement nuist give place to 

 adnnration of providence in providing such means for 

 soil formation. The hai'd and apparently unimpregnable 

 granite was fu'st of all attacked by a microscopic like lichen 

 or moss, thi.s in its tm'n died, and was washed off by 

 the rains into creeks and crevices, and became soil for 

 another crop, again and again this gro\vth repented for 

 ages, was deep enough for plants of a larger growth. 

 The felspar of the gi-auite, and also ils mica gave us 

 our potash and soda, and these combhiing with the 

 chloric and sulphuric vapom's evolved from the then 

 active volcanoes everywhere on the face of the earth 

 gave us our potassiiuu and sodium sulphates and chlorides. 

 In the same n»nuer originated our lime aud magnesia 

 .salts from such decompositions aud recombinations, each 

 tiiiling layer upon layer acquiring fresh life giving pro- 

 perties, the water in all probabiUty dissolving large quanti- 

 ties by percolation, and this becoming cv.aporated gave us 

 our salt beds. Hence the frequent occurrence of calcium 

 sidphate (gypsum) with large aud smaU deposits of sodium 

 chloride (common salt.) In water weakly impregnated 

 with saline compounds atinatic plants would grow and 

 aljsorb the potash, more especially upon the' edge of 

 such aqueous basins and on the di"ying up or receding of 

 tlieae waters, would ako decompose into soil. Aud as 



