Vol. XIII. Xo. .32'.). 



THE AGFJCULTUEAL NEWS. 



393 



THE UTILIZATION OF MANURE WASTE, 

 FOR TROPICAL CROPS. 



The above heading to an article in Tropical Lilt; relative 

 to tea [ilantatious in Noitliein India, sugge.st.s some reflee- 

 tions on the same topic as applied to conditions in the West 

 Indies. There can be no (juestion in the mind of any 

 observer of the manner in which the cultivation, especially 

 that of anntial crops, is carried on in most of our island.s, 

 that there is an enornum.s wastage of valuable manurial 

 matter. If any remonstrance is made, the usual answer is 

 that it doesn't pay to collect the stuff ami apply it to the 

 land: it is better to apply artificial fertilizers in regulated 

 doses. Xo one at this stage of agricultural progress is likely 

 to belittle the u.se of artificial fertilizers at the proper time.s, 

 or in the proper way. The answer above given is fallaciou.s, 

 because artificial fertilizers can never do by themselves, what 

 the use of the waste material referred to can do, i.e., impro\e 

 the condition of the soil, and render it more and more 

 responsive to the stimulating influence of artificial fertilizers. 

 These are inorganic and so can add no organic material to the 

 soil. Constant cultivation, especially wlien the crop harvested, 

 is almost in its entirety removed, depletes the soil of 

 the organic matter originally existing in it, with the 

 result of rendering its Immus contents le.ss ancl less. The 

 soils in many of these West Indian islands are particularly 

 subject to loss of humus, not only on account of occasional 

 heavy rainfalls washing away the lighter ijarticles. but 

 al.sci as a result of l.ar-tcrial action. The result is that 

 many fields, after ha\ing been in cultivation for some 

 year.s, give poorer and pnover yields, in spite .sometimes of 

 a considerable amount "f artificial fertilizers having been 

 applied to them. This might be remedied, and the land 

 restored to, or maintained in a cundition of fertility, by 

 utilizing many sources of organic matter now neglected 

 or wasted. 



.Sugar-cane is one nf the be.st crops for the Tro[iics, 

 because of the amount of trash and tops whic-h find their 

 way back to the soil, either directly, or after ha\ing been 

 incorporated in the manure by having been placed in the 

 pens for the animals to eat what they want, and to trample 

 down the rest. 



In a paper contributed to the Wett [ndian linllHin, 

 Vol. XIV, No. 2, p. 14G, ifr. Tempany, Superintendent of 

 Agriculture for tlie Leeward Islands, clearly show.-., from 

 the record of e.xperhnents made in those island.s, that under 

 tropical conditions the decay of organic matter is rapid, 

 owing to the high degree of bacterial activity existing both 

 in hea\_y and light soils. This indicates the necessity fif 

 maintaining an adequate supply of rjrganic matter by the 

 lil>eral employment of organic manures, as the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture has consistently advocated. 



Many sources of this organic matter might be utilized, 

 morc' than is at present done. On estates the usual source 

 of supply of such manure is the cattle-pen. In few of the 

 smaller i.slands, however, is the amount of manure increased 

 by spreading bush, cut for that purpose, upon the cattle-pen. 

 though regular clearing of the pastures would afford material, 

 and also benefit the pastures. In fact the supply of vegeta- 

 lile matter is practically unlimited. ,^It is good policy to 

 maintain as many animals as possible, cattle especiallj", on 

 an estate, with a view to increasing the pen manure, not so 

 much of their actual droppings, but of the litter which may 

 be accumulated in a thick layer under them, the excreta of 

 the animals hastening the decay fif the uneaten fodder and 

 bush, and bringing the whole mass into a condition .suitable 

 for application to the fields as manure. 



Another source of organic manure neglected in the 

 \\'est Indian islands is sea-weed. After a storm or even 

 a ground swell, there is thrown up on the shores, especially 

 to windward, of these islands, very many tons of sea- weed, 

 chiefly of the Sargasso or gulf-weed. ' Estates near the 

 .sea-coast might well utilize this by partially drying it, and 

 then spreading it as litter on the cattle-pens. The /!,,/ ...ical 

 Journa', October 1914, advocates the u.se of sea-\seed as 

 a manure very strongly. It says that, at a rough estimate, the 

 fertilizing material present in a ton of .sea-weed would cost 

 from 8.5. to 10.*. if purchased in the form of a finely 

 divided manure ready for putting on the land. But apart 

 from the fertilizing chemicals contained in sea-weed, its use as 

 a sort of farm-yard manure has this strong point in its favour: 

 that sea-weed is free from weed-seeds, and from the spores of 

 disease-producing fungi. The writer states that sea-weed, 

 when used as a manure need not be allowed to rot first ia 

 heaps, but may be put straight on to the land, because it 

 decomposes rapidly, and almost completely into soluble 

 substai\ces. 



Potash for fertilizing purposes is likely to become scarce 

 and dear in the near future, as a result of the present war. 

 For soils needing potash, wood or vegetable ashes, as from 

 megass, would possibly afl:brd a supply not to be despised. 



In the neighbourhood of towns, even small ones, 

 valuable organic manures, in the shape of the blood and 

 otfal of the slaughter hou.se, and the urine and night-soil 

 from public- institutions or private houses, which are almost 

 entirely wasted at present, may be obtained for the trouble 

 of collecting them and carting them away. 



This utilization of manure waste, while jjrobably worth 

 the atttiition of the cultivators of large areas, is still more 

 important to peasant proprietors ot cultivators of a few acres 

 of land. The wonderful success of the intensive cultivation 

 of small holdings in France and Belgium is largely due to the 

 utilization by those who work them of every possible source 

 of organic UHinure. The only small West Indian island where 

 there is any .similar attempt made, both by the planters and 

 b\' the cultivators of small holdings, is Baibados. There the 

 result is very striking, both as to the quantity and the quality 

 of the crojis jji-oduced. Probably on account of the attention 

 paid to the continual supplying of organic matter, the .soil 

 seems to have maintained its fertility unimpaired for many 

 years of intensi\-e cultivation. 



Ill Pamphlet No. 47 of the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture for the West Indies, dealing with manurial 

 experiments with the sugar-cane in the Leeward Islands in 

 190-T and 1906, Dr. Watts, the pre.sent Imperial Commis- 

 sioner, who was then in charge of the Department in those 

 islands, emphasized the necessity of a liberal use of organic 

 manures. As an appendix to the pamphlet, he published a table 

 of careful analyses, which he himself had prepared, of pen 

 manures and allied manures. This table shows the percentage, 

 as well as the niunber of pounds per ton, of water, organic 

 matter, ash, phosphoric acid, potash, nitrogen, and ammonia 

 contained in the following manurial substances: pen manure 

 (eleven samples), stable manure, sheep pen manure (three 

 samples), rotted megass and compost from lees' pond, rotted 

 megass, vegetable compost, weeds, leaves, etc., leaves of 

 Agave, .sea-weed, lime skins and pulp, bush, etc., cane tops 

 (three .samples), cane trash, crushed cotton .seed, and cotton- 

 cake meal — in all twenty-nine analyses. Any planter whether 

 of many acres or few, who wants to know just the fertilizing 

 value of the substances mentioned above, may refer to 

 that panijihlet. 



