Vol. IX. No. 221. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



325 



GRIDEN MANURES FOR WET LANDS. 



The Trojilcal Agricalturisf fm- March 1910, 

 p. 2.58, reproduces the luUowing infoiuiatiun. concirn- 

 ing suitable plants for green manures on wet soils, from 

 the Madras Agricultural Calendar, Maroh 1910: — 



suKN BEiiP {Croialaria juncea). This is perhaps grown 

 more largely than any other green manure crop. Every year 

 large areas are grown in the Kistna and Oodavari deltas. The 

 seed is sown just before the paddy is harvested, and the crop is 

 cut when 4 to 5 feet high. It is cut at about a foot from the 

 ground, and the stubble is allowed to remain and grow again. 

 The tops are dried, and make excellent fodder. The sunn hemp, 

 however, on account of its extraordinarily rapid growth, can 

 be utilized in many places and under other conditions. In 

 six weeks the crop will attain a height rf .3 to i feet, if the 

 ground is moist. Thus, on wet land, where water is always 

 available, or on wet lands where the seed beds are not 

 prepared until water is available, or again on wet lands under 

 tanks where the latter have been filled by early rain.s and 

 the season for transplanting has not arrived — under all these 

 conditions .sunn hemp can be grown. On the Tanjore delta 

 excellent crops can be raised after the receipt of water in the 

 channels in time to plough in before the seedlings are ready. 

 Again, the heavy summer rains which last year fell in 

 many districts filled many tanks which did not expect 

 their supply till June-July. On the Coimbatorc Agri- 

 cultural Station advantage was taken of this water to grow 

 an excellent crop of sunn heni|i, which was ready to be 

 ploughed in by the time the seedlings were ready to trans- 

 plant. On the West Coast also this can be grown with the 

 April- May rains, and will be ready to ])lou2h in by the time 

 transplanting commences. When grown on only a small scale, 

 people who try this for the first time are apt to be disappointed, 

 as the crop is very liable to be eaten by caterpillars: but on 

 a large scale of .3 to 4 acres, the attack is much less. This 

 remark applies to nearly all green manure crops. Some 

 trial fields are often the only green crop in the neighbourhood, 

 and therefore, are very liable to be attacked by insects; but 

 when once the practice becomes wide-spread, so do the insects, 

 and the attack is not so .severe. 



INDIGO (Indigofera (iiirtoria). This is a very useful 

 crop to grow for green manure. It is very drought- 

 resistant, and at the same time will grow on heavy 

 land even when it is wet, but it will not thrive on land 

 at all saline. It is now largely grown on the Cauvery 

 delta. The seed of this crop can be sown at the time of 

 the harvest of the samba crop. If there is sufficient 

 moisture in the soil for germination, the land can be ploughed 

 and sown as soon as possible after harvest. If it is too dry 

 or too sticky, the seed can be sown a week or two before the 

 paddy harvest, provided the water has been drained off. In 

 the Perambalur taluk there is an excellent practice on tank 

 lands of sowing Indigo with cumbu (bulru.sh millet — Pnini- 

 setum typhoideum) and irrigating from wells. The cumbu, 

 when ready for harvest, is cut, and the indigo is allowed to 

 grow, and gives an excellent crop. This is ploughed in at the 

 time of transplanting the samba crop. 



cowGRAM {Dolichos sp). This promi.ses to be a very use- 

 ful green manure crop on the West Coast. It grows quickly, 

 and is not so liable to insect attacks as sunn hemp. It can 

 be sown with the April- May rains, and will have grown 

 sufficiently to plough in by the time transplanting commences 

 in June-July. 



GEOUND NUTS {Arachis hypogaea). This also promises 

 to be a very useful green manure crop on the West Coast, 

 on single crop lands which are harvested in October. The 



land can be {iloughed after the paddy harvest, and the seed 

 sown behind the plough. The crop should give sufficient 

 nuts to pay for the cultivation expense, while the tops can 

 be ploughed in. This has been tried most successfully at 

 the Taliparamba Agricultural Station, and under similar 

 conditions in the neighbourhood, but it has yet to be proved 

 whether it will do equally well on the lighter and more 

 exposed lands near the coast, which do not get the nightly 

 dews which are experienced in the valleys. 



l>H.\lNeH.\ {Seshania amleata; see AgricuUuril j\ ews. 

 Vols. VIII, pp. 271 and 331; IX, pp. 124, 185 and 297). 

 This plant will prove very useful on lands which are liable to 

 flooding, or are badly drained or slightly saline. It grows to 

 a height of 6 to 8 feet, and will continue to grow for several 

 months. It can, however, be ploughed in within four months 

 if necessary. This should prove very u.seful in the Cauvery 

 delta on such lands which are too wet to transplant with the 

 first crop. 



MANUFACTURE OF PAPER FROM 



MEGASS. 



The Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, Yo\. VIII, 

 p. 151, contains an abstract of a paper read by Pro- 

 fessor P. Cannody, Director of Agriculture, Trinidad, at 

 the recent International Congi-ess of Tropical Agri- 

 culturo and Colonial Development, at Brussels, on the 

 manufacture of paper from megass. This abstract is 

 reproduced below. Reference may be made to another 

 article dealing with the subject, in the Agricultural 

 iVc(r.s,Vol. IX, p. 247. 



Attention has been directed at various times to the 

 possibility of utilizing 'megasse', or sugar-cane refuse, for 

 paper-making, and as long ago as 1839 a process for the pur- 

 pose was patented. Since that time, little advance has been 

 made, and the megasse is generally used as fuel for heating 

 the boilers in the sugar factory. The question was again 

 brought into prominence when the late Mr. Bert de Lamarre, 

 of the Tacarigua Factory, Trinidad, announced that he was 

 able to convert megasse into paper of fairly good marketable 

 quality. It was found that the crude crushed fibre was too 

 bulky to permit of its exi)ortation being profitable, and it was 

 therefore decided either to convert the material into 'half-stufF 

 before shipment, or to manufacture paper from it locally. 



A modern well-equipped paper-making machine has 

 therefore been imported and erected, and has hitherto been 

 used for carrying out experimental trials. These have shown 

 that paper of better quality can be obtained by blending the 

 megasse with other fibrous materials, such as banana leaves 

 and stems, maize residues. Agave, Hibiscus; bamboo, ' bois de 

 canon ' (Cecropia jieltata), sunflower, native grasses, and 

 other products. The best results have been obtained from 

 a blend of megasse, bamboo and Para grass. 



It is estimated that for every ton of cane sugar produced 

 there is a ton of fibrous refuse, and hence in Trinidad, there 

 are 50,000 tons of fibrous material available per annum. 

 This amount would probably yield 40,000 tons of pulp, 

 worth at least £200,000. If a better class of paper pulp was 

 prepared, the yield would possibly be reduced to 30,000 tons, 

 worth £12 per ton, or a total of £360,000; or if the megasse 

 was blended with bamboo and Para grass, the pulp would be 

 worth £15 per ton or a total of £450,000. Much of the 

 paper could no doubt be used locally for wrapping purposes. 

 The utilization of sugar-cane refuse in this manner is regard- 

 ed as well worthy of consideration by those engaged in the 

 cane sugar industry. 



