OCT. I, ibHb,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



2S3 



PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION, TRAVANCOllE. 

 To the Editor 0/ Me "■ Tropical Afjru-ulUuist," Colotnho, 



1st September, ISSil. 



^lu., — I'lie members of our Association have ilrawu 

 my attention to the mi-leading nature of the state- 

 ments in regard to Travancore which appear from 

 time to time in your paper and the " Obsers'er." While 

 entirely agreeing with you that Ceylon has little to 

 fear from Travancore, I ^lardly see for instance the 

 necessity for the delibt rate perversion of facts to which 

 the Tropical .UjricuttnriH for April last, pages 704 and 

 712 gives currency. Ouiy two Estates Peushur^t and 

 Nagamallj- were at that time futliciently far advanced 

 to export Tea, whijb teas, unassorted sold @ l/6gd., 

 Pekoe (a) 2 2^d. and averMges of l/OJ. and l,8d. for 

 shipments, prices with which we, in our humility are 

 ^satisfied although you may not consider them to com- 

 pare favourably with Ceylon. — I am, Sir, Yours faith- 

 fully, ItonEKT T. BriLLEK, Chairman. 



[This is the most extraordinary letter we have re- 

 ceived for a long time, and we should be inclined to 

 treat it as a hoax played off on the Travancore P. 

 A. ; for on referring to pages 704 and 712 of our T. 

 A. for our '■' deliherate perversion of facts," we can- 

 not on page 712 find Travancore mentioned at all in 

 the only paragraph that can be pointed to, and this 

 paragraph is not ours but the Calcutta Enjlislunan's ! 

 So agaiu, on page 704, the extract is from the drocer' 

 and all that is .'^aid is •' In Madras and Travancore 

 the plantati)ns remain much the same as before I" 

 This is based on the official figures and report. AVe 

 recommend Mr. Chairmau Miller to send us a report 

 of the facts as they stand in place of accusing us or 

 the editors wo quoted of deliberate perversion. How are 

 the facts to. be known if the Travancore planters do 



not report them ? — Ed.] 



^ 



AGEICULTUBE ON THE CONTINENT OF 

 EUROPE. 



(Special Letter. J 



BKET CULTURE— CHEAP CORN— SUGAR IN BEET — CLOVER 



FUNGI. 



Pahis, Sept. 4. 



Today beet replaces co'za, and autumn sown wheats 

 are the n\ost productive. Lucerne is followe 1 by 

 two consecuti»e wheat crops, then succeeds oats, and 

 next wheat agaiu. This wheat crop suffers from the 

 excess of nitrogen left in the toil, so the straw has 

 to be stiffened 1i_n doses of potash or phosphate manures, 

 which impart 11,^1 lity to the stems and corrects lodg- 

 ing. Red aie generally found to be stronger in 

 stalk th<>u whi e wheats Cultivating in drills, weed- 

 ing and hoeing, produce the largest yieMs of wheat. 

 It is thus th.it Messrs. Nicolas and Kaimon reap 

 !35 to 40 bushels of wheat, and 60 to 70 of oats per 

 acre. Their soils arc analysed before being cropped, 

 and when they indicate a provision of 4,000 to 5,000 

 kilog. of nitroj;iii per acre, no nitrogenous manures 

 arc given, such as sulphate of ammonia and nitrate 

 of soda. About K) fr. per acre is expende 1 on minertil 

 manuring--. 'I'bi; chief varieties of wheat grown are 

 the blue and w.ite Bordeaux, A'ictoria, Autumn reil, 

 ChiddhHU), g'dden drop, and Australian poulard. The 

 above gentleiiijii cultivate a mixture of wheats, the 

 Bordeaux and I'hiddhain. which gives three rows of 

 ears of diff..neut heights, a plan they assert, which 

 secures them 4 bushels more of grain per acre. The 

 Chiddha-n, Vic'.oria and Dattel wh^-ats are remarkable 

 for bfci'tg exemp*} from the attacks of rust. 



At the Prmch Assojiatiou for the ailvancement of 

 Science, just held at Nancy, the chief subject of in- 

 terest was the CDndition of French, indeed one might 

 say, of European agriculture, in presence of the 

 augraentitig competition with the products of the 

 United States, India, Australia, and South America. 

 The concensas of .tlie meeting incline'l to the belief 

 that the fu'urc of French farming depended not 

 on fiscal measures, but in the augmentation of yield, 

 aod in the adoption to culture of scientific methods, 

 parallel with such as havij benefited industry. The 

 freight per hundredweight of corn bag fallen since 1 



some years from 5, to 1 fr. for United States, and 

 10 to 4 for India. This reduction is due to the gen- 

 eral employment of,Sind improvements in steamers to 

 the Suez Canal r.in.e, the ameliorations in harbors, the 

 machinery for the loading and unloading of cargoes, 

 and the multiplication of railwa3's. These facilities 

 cannot be undone, so lower prices must be expected 

 in the case of grain, as in every other industrial pro- 

 duct, Russia, at Odessa has tried the lialf-and-half- 

 plan. On the qu.ays of that port the railway waggons 

 can shoot the grain direct into the holds of the ships ; 

 but in order to conciliate the prejudices of the porters, 

 the lifting machinery is put aside, so that porters 

 may carry the grain on board. In the employment 

 of improved implements of cultivation, much remaius 

 to be done in the reduction of expenses. The old 

 plough, still so general, only performs in the day of 

 ten hours one-fourth of the work that a modernised 

 plough easily accomphshes. Sowing grain in lines 

 permits the use of the scarifier or hoeing machine 

 to stir the soil and cut down the weeds, which, like 

 parasites, appropriate the nutrition destined for other 

 plants. Nearly one-half the quantity of seed is saved 

 by machme as compared with hand sowing. Similar 

 economy is to be obtained in harvesting ; one man 

 will mow say two-thirds of an acre of corn daily, 

 while a reaper will cut down 12 to 1.3 acres. In 

 threshing with the flail too, a laborer can beat out 

 4 to 5 cwt. of grain per day, while a machine does 

 its 550 bushels. Large and small proprietors can alike 

 benefit by the-e economic processes ; the first, by his 

 large capital or his credit, and the others by group- 

 ing themselves into co-operative societies to obtain the 

 best and cheapest goods that certain payments and 

 independence of sellers always command. France has 

 plenty of home wealth to develop yet; she has 6 

 millions of - cres to bring under irrigation; she has 

 80,000 to enclose from the sea, and 2| millions to 

 break wp and reclaim. M. Benoit, of Bousqueb, has 

 practically tested several of these guiding ideis by 

 furnishing precise information to wheat-growers — a 

 grain occupying one-seventh of the cultivated surface 

 of France Now several reasons concur that France 

 must rely on wheat as her staple, her national crop ; 

 hence the necessity to raise it better for the future 

 by the choice of the best seed and the application 

 to the soil of phosphate and nitrogen, wherever these 

 indispensable agents are wanting. And these essen- 

 tial conditions are limited neither by dim ite nor 

 soil. Where they have been applied," the yield of 

 wheat per acre has risen from 15 to 35 bushels per 

 acre. i\I. Benoit's soil is a calcareous — clay, poor in 

 all the elements of plant-food, save lime. He tried 

 no less than 17 diflferent varieties of wheat to as- 

 certain which suited his district best. He prepared 

 the soil by four ploughings and two harrowings; sowed 

 in autumn with an application of phosphates, and 

 ill spring top-dressed with 130 lb. of nitrate of soda par 

 acre. The average yield of wheat in the neighbouihood 

 of Bousquet is only 13 bushels per acre. M. Benoit 

 obtained by improved processes 28 bushels with the 

 Dattel, Bloid red, and Bordeaux varieties of wheat ; 

 while the AVhite Hunter. Square head, and Chi Idam 

 yielded only 12 to 15 busheh per acre. Now in other 

 regions these varieties have given rs high as 40 bushels 

 per acre ! Hence, the importance of selecting the ap- 

 propriate seed grain for a locality. B^- employing 

 natural phosphate in powder, the phosphoric acid will 

 not cost more than seven sous per lb.; and the nitric 

 acid about fourteen sous. It is only natural from 

 these facts that the French government is fully just- 

 ified in organising, as in Germany, a c )rps of ambul- 

 atory farming instructors, to impress on agi-icuiturists 

 to prepare the land well for wheat, to choose the 

 best an 1 most appropriate seed, and advance to the 

 land phosph!\tes and nitrates. At the same tinif\ t.lie 

 banks will stretch in my points in favor of small pro- 

 prietors uniting themselves into .syndicates for th'j 

 purchase of the best materials for their industry. 

 M. Aimc CJirard continuf^s his experiments relative 

 to the formatioi\ of su-^ar in the beet. He concludes 

 thit the pivot and radicals of the bulbs only serve 

 to pump up and convey to the organism the mjc' 



