332 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1883. 



Coffee to the Fore. — A planter writes :^" No 

 doubt we shall soon restore confidence in Ceylon 

 again, and probably business will be on a sounder 

 footing than it has ever been before. I am still a 

 firm believer in coffee Arabics in suitable localities 

 if you have only the means to cultivate properly, 

 but it 13 only here and there nowa-days tha' you 

 see estates getting anythiuc; like fair play, and I am 

 Bare that quite as much harm has been done by wil- 

 ful neglect and starvation during the past few years 

 as by either H. V. or bad seasons. Eere in Dikoya, 

 in spite of the season, I have as fine a crop as you 

 could really wish to see over a large acreage — whilst 



. However, compcrhoi's are odioim, and folks 



that are letting their est ites go to the wall don't 

 thank you for telling them so." 



The value op eones as a fertilizer and the 

 constant waste of much valuable fertilizing material 

 which goes on in India are well-known facts. Spas- 

 modic efforts have been made from time to time by 

 energetic Collectors like Mr. Halsey, or by Agricul- 

 tural Bepartments, to popularise the use of bones as 

 a manure amongst the agricultural classes, but with 

 very ephemeral success. The latest contribution to 

 the literature of the subject is a letter from Mr. 

 McMinn, C. S., formerly of tliese Provinces, but now 

 a Deputy Commissioner in the Central Provinces, 

 addressed to the Secretary of the Agricultural De- 

 partment to the Government of India. Mr. McMLun 

 reviews all the facts connected with the fertilizing 

 qualities of bones of which indeed there has never 

 been any {(uestiou ; he points out that the probable 

 loss in British India from the non-use of the bones 

 which lie near every village amounts t> twelve mil- 

 lion pounds sterling ; and he grapliically describes the 

 results of misdirected efforts on the part of Govern- 

 ment to improve the cultivation of cotton in 

 the Ward ha district, where "model farms. Special 

 Commissioners, annual reports, introduction o^ foreign 

 cotton, cotton-gins, pumping apparatus, and English 

 ploughs show tiie result only of abandon-d works, 

 crumbling masses of michhiery, and the ridicule of 

 the sm-rounding peasantry. Mr. McMinn .ii-gues that 

 if, instead of trying experiments in " nursing every 

 variety of exotic into a sickly existence," Agricultural 

 Departments were to pay some attention to utilizing 

 the valuable fertilizing materials that are now ab- 

 solutely wasted, the addition to the agricultural weabh 

 would be incalculable. The low outturn of cottdu is 

 simply due to a want of stajnina iu the plant from 

 which the lari^e number of pods decay before reaching 

 maturity : the application of bone-dust would supply 

 the necessary .stimulus, and instead of a miserable outturn 

 of from 40 to 1001b. of cleaned cotton per acre, over 

 400 lb. might be obtained by the use of 3A cwt. of 

 bo:ie manure. If .Messrs. Buck and Bennett can sug- 

 gest any device by which the " phlegmatic Ijut ob- 

 servant and industrious Indian peasant can be induced 

 to stimulate in a distmct and powerful degree the crop 

 he gi'ows, liy means of the waste substances lying 

 round him," a very important problem will liave been 

 solved. Religious prejudice has to be overcome, 

 apathy to Ije aroused, conviction to be established, 

 before Kam Baksh wdl gather the bones from the 

 village Golgotha ; pound them in what .Mr. Pogson 

 calls a dlidinlcp, or the ordinary pestle with which 

 bricks are broken up or rice husked ; convert them 

 into a compost by the addition of ordinary manure, 

 and use them iu his cotton-iields. Tliere is, Iiowever, 

 this much to be s dd, that of the practical ntility 

 and profitable character of Mr. Mcilinn's proposals 

 there can be no question, and no opportunity sliould 

 therefoie be lost of bringing homo to the cultiva- 

 tor at least what can be done at little cost and 

 witli tlie simple means at his disposal. — Phne.cr, 

 Sept. 19th. 



Destritc'tiok of Coffee and Cinchoxa by Hail. 

 — We learn from Mr. Robertson, late of Weve- 

 bedde, that a coffee and cinchona field on Uva estate 

 has been greatly injured by a local shower of hail — 

 the succirubra trees were broken in two and the coffee 

 denuded of leaves. The field, in fact, looks as if a 

 fire had passed through it. Although hail-showers are 

 not unknown in Ceylon, it is very seldom damage 

 iu this way is sustained. 



Sugar Cctop.s isf South America. — Our Pei-nambuco 

 correspondent, writing on the 28th ult., says: — "Most 

 of the siigar estates are now at work, but so fir en- 

 tries of new sugars are oa a very limited sc.ile — 

 entries during the fortnight amounting to 5,051 bags. 

 There is only a small amount of sugar in packers' 

 hands, and no sales of importance have yet been 

 effected, although some small parcels have Ijeen taken 

 over, principally for shipment to Liverpool. This 

 seaeou's yield, both here and in the adj.ac;nt provinces, 

 will prove an abundant one. " — London T/wics-, Sept, 1.5th. 



All the Coffee grown in the Xew World has 

 sprung from a single plant, which a French naval 

 officer carried to Martinique in I7"20, depriving him- 

 self of water when parching with thirst in order to 

 nourish his coffee plant. From this one tree it 

 is said, all the American tropical coloniea obtained 

 their seed, which has multiplied to such an extent 

 that Brazil, Mexico and the West Indies pr.iduce as 

 much coffee as Java and Caylon. — Rio Netos. [As much ! 

 Brazil, with the aid of slave labour, unhappdy, pro- 

 duces more than all other countries together. — Ed.] 



A New Manure. — -A correspondent writes : — " I am 

 making some very careful experiments in manures — • 

 chiefly saltpetre, which I believe wUl be found most 

 e£[ect;ive, and being in such small compass, carriage will 

 not amount to much. Experiments on the Government 

 farms at home point strongly to nitre being the chief 

 fertilizer ; also to the necessity of the ground being 

 covered with some quick-growing crop during rains, 

 when the loss of nitrates by dramage is very heavy. 

 I am sowing in Sirgooja oil-seed, which grows very 

 quickly, and I then dig it in a month afterwards. I 

 believe this is one of the cbeipest and most effective 

 ways of manuring."— /KfZiare Tea Gaz'tte, Aug. 14. 



SojiE interesting results of experiments by Dr. 

 Liebfnberg, as to the influence of lime on the 

 gt'rinin.iiion of seeds, have recemly been published in 

 Hie journal of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. It 

 appears that the seeds of many plants require the 

 presence of lime in the soil during the germinating pro- 

 cess, or the seedlings die from want of it. It is like- 

 wise shown that many other plants do not fail to 

 germinate freely and well without ihe presence of lime 

 in the soil. Dr. Liebenberg also points out that plants 

 which fail to grow throuj^h the absence of bmu in 

 the soil do not fail in constqueuce of the injui-ious 

 effects of any other matiers that may be present, but 

 because lime is essential to their healthy growth. — 

 Quee7isla'nf!er. 



Quinine.— The foUowmg extract from the Puhlic Ledyer 

 will be read with interest : — " The last contribution of modern 

 Chemistry to Science is the production of (Quinine from 

 Gas tar. Professor Fischer, of JIunich, has succeeded in 

 obtainuig from distilled coal a white cryst.vUiiie powder, 

 which, us far as regards its action ou the human .system, 

 cannot be distinguished from Quinine, except that it as- 

 similates evKii more readily with the stomach. Its eiiicacy in 

 reducing fever heat is said to be remarkable, even rendering 

 the use of ice unnecessary. The importance of such a dis- 

 covery as this consists, not so much in the actual fact 

 achieved, os in the stimulus given to scientific research by 

 the openiu!; up of a new channel of investigation. The ro- 

 mance lit (las t.ar is evidently far from being exhausted. 

 In addition to the sweetest scents, the most brilliant dyes, 

 the most powerful disinfectants, and even Prussic Acid, 

 are some of the numerous and wonderful products of its 

 decomposition." 



