68 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, x886. 



doubtless, the difficulty ia one that planters can grap- 

 ple with without going macli outside the ordinary 

 groove. As we have said above, a great iuiprovumeat 

 is ah-eady visible iu pric(!s from the extra attention 

 paid to curing this year. It is presumed that this will 

 continue to be given in future seasons, and that 

 whatever improvements may bo possible will bo made 

 in buildings. Cotfee should not be kept longer on 

 estates than is absolutely necessary ; it is often so 

 kept iu order to avoid sending small <iuautities down 

 to the coast, as lb is considered mure convenient for 

 the curing firms to receive a large consignmsut. Bat 

 coffee kept amidst the alternating heat and wet of 

 the planting districts would seem almost certain to 

 deteriorate. The questions of manuring and shade, 

 which have been persistently dragged into the con- 

 trover.sy have, most probably, nothing to do with the 

 question of colour; they are important in themselves, 

 and cannot be too mu';h attended to by planters ; 

 but a study of the prices realised in 1884-85 show 

 that in some cases parchment from semi-abandoned 

 estates commanded as high prices as that from 

 hi;ihly-mauured and well shaded ones. Shade and 

 manuie are two of the chief factors iu making an 

 estate pay now-a-days, but the colour of parchment 

 has nothing to do with them. — Madras Mail. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIBIEXTS. 



At the present time much attention is being directed 

 to the subji^cb of agricultural experiments, an 1 several 

 couuty societies are organising various schem ;s with 

 a view ta verify or disprove the teachings of Rotham- 

 sted and Woburn, as regards their particular localities. 

 Thus the Norfolk County Society are going to ex- 

 periment on root crops ; the Yorkshire Agricultural 

 Society are following in a similar line; whilst the 

 Bith and West of England have induced a large 

 number of their members, in different parts of their 

 extensive country, to go in for what we trust may 

 prove most va'.uable work. At such a time, then, 

 it may interest som of our readers to hear what 

 have been the results of the work of the Sussex 

 Association for the improvement of agriculture in 

 1385. It will be remembered that this association 

 was formed a few j'ears since, partly in order to 

 test the correctness of results obtained by Professor 

 .Tamieson in Aberdeenshire as to the comparative 

 effects of finely ground coprolites and superphosphate, 

 and the question of division or dissolving in ths case 

 of steamed bone flour versus dissolved bones, inas- 

 much as the northern investigation appeared to indic- 

 ate that the use of sulphuric acid was not only 

 unnecessary, but actually injurious. This was indeed 

 a result so surprising, and, if correct, having such 

 an important bearing on future practice, that it was 

 most important that similar experiments should be 

 carried out under climatic conditions as widely dis- 

 sinylar as possible ; hence the Sussex experiments, which 

 have been under the managemfnt of Professor 

 Jamiesoa, whose opinions have naturally met with 

 much opposition from many agricultural chemists. 

 The laying down of permanent pasture and the 

 improvement of oil pasture land were the subjects 

 decided ii be dealt with, as of great importance in 

 a county where tenacious clay prevails to a large 

 extent, and where nearly three-fifths of the entire 

 agricultural area is occupied by pasture. Dry summers, 

 though highly advantageous for most purposes, have 

 not favoured the work either as regards seeding 

 down, or applying manures to ol<l pastures. Thus, 

 at the Harvest Hill Station, where the experiments 

 are on old grass, the drought prevented any bene- 

 ficial influence from drainage; indeed, the undrained 

 plots gave best results. Harrowing in renovating 

 seeds was also a failure. Manuring, however, did 

 good ; the light and active aimual dressings of manure 

 gave bettor results than from the heavy and .slow 

 flressiu'^s, and from dung; and that the best results 

 followed from annual dressings containing dissolved 

 phosphate and nitrates of potash and soda. At this 

 same station, a plot of the worst portion of the old 

 grass has been ploughed out and resown, but, owing 



to climatic conditions, the results so far are anything 



but satisfactory ; the plant is thin, though vigorous, 

 and, in consequence of blank spaces, smothered with 

 weeds. It will be desirable that this experiment 

 should be carefully tested, because we believe that 

 however poor old grass land is, it is capable of im- 

 provement by judicious treatment, which may include 

 well harrowing the surface, and possibly iu some 

 cases subsoiling, rather than by breaking it out. 



There are many interesting matte s treated of in 

 the report, the question of cost of different grass 

 seeds for example. A table is given stating jjrice 

 per lb. and per milli m germinating seeds, which show 

 that whilst catstail (Phleum pratense) costs only 3d. 

 per miilion seeds, meadow foxtail (Alopecurus praten- 

 sis), which is at the other eud of the tal)le, cost 7s. 

 lid. per million seeds, and prices range from 2.Vd. to 

 Is. 6d. a lb., the lowest rate being that of Italian 

 and perennial rye grass, which sufficiently explains 

 why these grasses figure so largely in many seeds- 

 men's mixtures. A table is given showing the cost 

 per acre of different grasses for a full seeding of 

 eight million seeds per acre, equal to one seed to 

 three-quarter square in A: Pnleum p'-itense, 2s. 3d. ; 

 Poi trivialis, 7s 2d. ; Ljlium perenne, 7s. 9d. ; Dactylis 

 glom>'rata, 13s. 41. ; Cvnosufus cristatus, 19s.; Festuca 

 pratensis, 33s.; Alopecurus pratense, tl3s. 7d, 



The experiments of tae Sussex Society are not 

 confined to grasses. On very pojr sand at Hassocks a 

 series of experiments are in progress, to prove the 

 comparative durabdity of different manures on a 

 rotation of crops comprising turnips, barley, hay, 

 grass and oats. The results on the turnip crops in 

 18 ia were as follows: — 



Weight in tons 

 lier acre. 



(1) 10 cwt. |in. bones 12-61 



(2) 15 „ dissolved bones 1S\S(3 



(3) „ steamed bone flour 15-84 



(4) I) „ steamed bone and 1 cwt. 



nitrate of soda 16'9G 



(5) 1 „ nitrate of soda and 1§ civt. 



nitrate of potash 5 "13 



(6) 10 „ ground coprolites 1(M8 



(7) 22 „ dissolved coprolities 



(superpho.sphate) 17"18 



(8) No manure '53 



/"o cwt. bones, 3 cwb. dissolved "^ 



,Q\J bones Cir. IS 



■'Ih » Nitrate potash and 12 tons r^'^^'' 

 V, dung ...) 



{6 cwt. steamed bone flour, | nit- \ 

 rate of soda ............. L^g. 

 k ,. nitrate of potash, 12 tons i 

 dung - j 



The interesting features of these results are .- — First, 

 the absolute necessity for phosphorus ; secondly, the 

 effect of ground coprolitis, and the very slight^ in- 

 crease when they are dissolved, as seen by comparison 

 of Nos. 6 and 7. 



A subject of even greater interest is the comparative 

 tendency to disease iu the crop when treated with 

 coprolites and dissolved coprolites, which was shown 

 by similar experiments in Aberdeenshire, where in 

 two plots, each lOOth of an acre, that treated writh 

 coprolites contained only five diseased plants, a similar 

 plot with superphosphate gave twenty-three diseased 

 plants, We know that some sheep breeders have 

 attributed increased tendency to diseases in their 

 flocks to the use of artificial manure. It may possibly 

 prove that, as regards one form, which contains 

 free acid, there may be some truth in this idea. 

 Experiments as to the comparative value of finely- 

 ground coprolites, and similar quantities of coprolites 

 dissolved, and steamed bones against dissolved bones, 

 are so easily carried out, and the results are financially 

 so imoortaut, that local societies will do well to 

 advocate such tests. Yield of crop, proportion of 

 disease, and chemical composition are the questions 

 to be answered. Farmers are only beginning to under- 

 stand the importance of such questions, or to have 

 an idea of what a correct knowlelge of manure, 

 values means financially. We recently met with a 



