753 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



[May 2, 1887. 



them, he asserted, contaiuing 33 parts in 1000 of the 

 essential ingredieuts— nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 

 potash. 



One of the common sayings of my farmer relatives 

 is that, " Yoa must give back to the land what you 

 take from it, otherwise crops are uuproStabe,'' anil 

 this, in spite of protestation to the contrary is just 

 what a'jriculturists fail to do. The cattle eat the 

 produce of our fields, and the best of the food goes 

 to build up their frames, the bone, the flesh, the 

 blood, the hoof, and the horn. What farmers return 

 to the laud with such unwavering belief in its virtue 

 is simply the waste consequent ou this process, the 

 slag of the iron, so to speak, with the minimum of 

 the valuable ingredients and the largest bulk, but cattle 

 cannot be killed for the purposes of manure, and 

 the circle is broken because the flesh and valuable 

 parts, which in our turn we eat, are not returned to 

 the soil as they ought to be, consequently we cau 

 only fall back upon the equivalent of o.xen, &c., in 

 flesh and bone, viz., fish, which nature has provided 

 for us in abundance, if we will only trouble to avail 

 ourselves of it. 



Sir J. B. Lawes, in writing to The Times, 29th Dec- 

 ember 1S84, said:— "The chemical composition of fish 

 does not differ much in some of thair most importaut 

 ingredients from that of stock fed on our farms." la 

 1000 lb. of sprats, Professor Way found 20 parts of 

 nitrogen, 8| of phosphoric acid, and 4^ of potash. In 

 the animals of the farm at Rothamsted, we found 20 

 parts of nitrogen, 10 to 12 parts of phosphoric acid 

 and 4^ parts of potash. Although varying in their 

 relative proportions, it will be observed that these 

 important ingredients are almost the same in fish as 

 in cattle or sheep, amount! ug iu each case to about 

 33 parts per 1000. In the case of agriculture long 

 experience has shown that exhausted soil can be res- 

 tored to fertility by the application of manures. 



The experience of each succeeding year teaches me 

 that there is more thau sufficient surplusage of fish 

 in the sea to provide this country with all the fer- 

 tilising material it needs. Indeed, in the same letter 

 of Sir J. B. Lawes, he speaks to this effect, viz : — "So 

 long as fish live upon each other, the sea resembles 

 a soil covered by forest untouched by man. A growth 

 of firs will follow a growth of oaks, the hm Is at the 

 game time continuing to iucrea.se in fertility, Cod- 

 fish eat herrings, and they in their turn i at smaller 

 fish, but there is no exhaustion of ingredients." In one 

 square mile of the Loffoden fishing ground, it is cal- 

 culated that the cod-fish devour more herrings in one 

 week than are exported from Norway in one year, 

 viz, 800,000 barrels. 



In my small district alone, the firm of J. Jensen & 

 Co., whose advertisement I notice in your columns, 

 have collected, received, and Converted into a portable 

 manure iu 1885 no less than 19,000 tons of refuse, 

 and it is .^afe to say that double or treble that quan- 

 tity would have been at their disposal had they pos- 

 sessed means of dealing with it. In September and 

 October they could have commanded 1000 tons per 

 week of herrings alone — the surplus from curing sta- 

 tions — had their plant suflSced to deal with it. J. Jen- 

 sen & Co. have grappled with and conquered the 

 innumerable diSiculties attending the manufacture of 

 such intractable articles as fish heads, backs, and entrails 

 into a dry, portable manure, and working day and 

 night for greater part of the year, they cannot at 

 present deal with more than 500 tons of refuse per 

 week, from which 400 tons of water are extracted, 

 leaving 100 tons of dry and portable manure. As far 

 as I can learn, there is not .such another establishineut 

 in the world, but there are places where the trade 

 might easily be conducted, and on a much more 

 important scale, were the same appliances used. 



In the waters of the West Indies, on the coasts of 

 South America and Africa, around the Mauritius, New- 

 foundland, Labrador, Vancouver's Lslind, and Japan, 

 ft.sh abound in such exhaustible numbers that it would 

 pay to establish factories and employ the natives to 

 catch fish simply for manure. The agriculture of this 

 country is suffering untold things from inadequate 

 fertilising of the soils and unless our farmers bestir 



themselves to obtain manures which will restore to 

 the land what has been taken from it the present 

 unsstisfactory condition of things will remain unchanged. 

 Unless land is made to produce the larger possible 

 crops, there is waste in every degree. Labour, interest, 

 rent and farming here will never hold its own against 

 foreign competition. — I am, &c. Tho. S. Wilson, Bri- 

 tish Vice-Consul. — Indian Agriculturist. 



Drugs. — The most notable features in the drug and 

 chemical markets are the extreme scarcity of carbolic 

 acid, an advance in bleaching powder, and increased firm- 

 ness in opium. Reports from Norway confirm those 

 we have already published of the failure, so far, of 

 this year's cod fishing.* The cinchona sales this 

 week have hardly reah'sed anticipations, and quinine 

 tends flatter. Our special report from Buda Pesth 

 indicates a probable scarcity of belladonna. — Chemitt 

 dan Dn/gr/ist. 



To many mechanical minds' a square hole auger 

 would appear an impossible achievement, but a cirrps- 

 pondent at Wooster, Ohio, saw the machine manu- 

 factured by a company there in operation. It makes 

 a .square hole, 2x2 inches, with smooth walls, clean, 

 sharp corners and no splinters, and works easier than 

 a 2-inch rouwd auger. The cutting is done by a 

 rocking motion of a cutter head with knife attached, 

 which cuts upward. The work is smooth and rapid, 

 all waste being got rid of so that choking cannot 

 take place. — American Grocer. 



Dr. Beterixck, one of the most distinguished 

 naturalists in Holland, has been iuvestigating the 

 origin of the masses of gum coUfctiug on the limbs 

 of certain kinds of trees, especially plum, apricot 

 and others bearing stone fruits. He finds that the 

 exudation is due to a disease produced by the pre- 

 sence of parasitic fungi ; and when healthy trees are 

 inoculated with tho gum thus produced, they speedily 

 contr.ict the disorder, which is highly contagious. 

 The disease is disseminated by the drying of the 

 gum by oxidation, and its circulation in the wind, 

 which thus wafts the germs for many rods, so that 

 one diseased tree may infect a whole plantation. — 

 American Cultivator. 



QXE elementary principle which the many culti- 

 vators fail to appreciate is, the grand and important 

 one of Draining. ^lisconceptions with referencR thereto 

 are common because easy. What is absolutely false 

 often strikes the mind more readily than the truth. 

 What conclusion is more natural than to think if 

 you thoroughly drain a piece of land that it can- 

 not hold water for the same length of time as nn- 

 draiiied land? But it is an immense fallacy never- 

 theless. Countenance is lent to it by the well 

 known fact that if you draw ofr a body of water 

 from a swamp by an open drain, that swamp 

 cannot have water in it so long as if it were nn- 

 drained. This obvious fact notwithstanding, it is the 

 well-drained land that will furnish moisture the 

 longest time during a spell of dry weather to vegeta- 

 tion of any description growing upon it. There aru 

 many who know this ; there are plenty of Queensland 

 facts that demonstrate it; and there is clear logic and 

 sound reason in the premises which support it. Take 

 a square foot of soil that is firm and close and see 

 what amount of moisture it contains; th^n try a similar 

 quantity of open and porous soil and it will be found 

 to contain much more moisture. Nor will the porous 

 soil give out its moisture half as freely as the close 

 soil. But what— .says one — has this to do with drainage ? 

 Everything, Well drained land will be porous, and 

 sodden land closed. The material of a sponge could 

 not hold much water were it pressed into close quart- 

 ers. Close material of any kind is a conductor of 

 heat and gives out its moisture quickly in conse- 

 quence by evaporation ; and hpnce sodden lands 

 rapidly, lose their moisture through evaporntion, when 

 Wfll drained lands will not and cannot.— P^an^er and 

 Farmer. 



•Noted with reference to OodliverOil, of course.— Ed, 



