878 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1883. 



^ ause we shall get back mueli of our outlay iu the animals, 

 and we shall have a much more permanent manure ; for, 

 as the reviewer pomts out : 



If there 13 one fact more than another upon which all practi- 

 cal farmers in Great Britain are ab'-olutely agreed it i-^ that of 

 the hi-^tiiig properties of farmyard dung as compared with artifi- 

 cial manures ; and I may add that the general result of the 

 Kolh; m^tead experiemeuts has not only been to confirm the ex- 

 perieiii e of practice but even to extend the operation of the dung 

 to a far longer period, than that gtnt^rally assigned to it. 



This sentence was apjopos of a statement to the effect 

 that the idea that the farmyard niauiu'e iu an experiment 

 of a M. Consard had not been exhausted iu one year, 

 whereas the chemical maume had been exhausted, was 

 " contrary to all the known facts." It may be as well 

 to give the quotation from the preface to the French edition 

 referring to Ibis same experiment, as an illustration of 

 the delightfully vague way iu which matters whose value 

 depends upon exactness, are treated : 



M. Fonyard, president of the Agricultural Chamber of D'Ourcy, 

 in Champagne, made two paralled experiments on a piece of wa.sle 

 land in one of the most barren districly of a proverbially barren 

 portion of that province. He manured one halt of the ground 

 with about 32 tons of farmyard manure per acre, and the other 

 with about half a ton of chemical manure per acre. With the 

 farm manure he obtained about 14 busliels of wheat, whereas with 

 the chemical manure the land yielded about 36 bushels, there being 

 a loss of £19 in the former case, and a gain of £17 in the latter. 



If the figures as to profit indicate the general accui-acy 

 of the whole, we may pass over M. Ponsard's experi- 

 ments as absolutely unreliable, seeing that, whilst 

 M. Ville tells us that the cost of gi'owing wheat 

 (which, under the present system of agriculture, is 5s t3d 

 a bushel) may be reduced to 3s 9d, he yet would have us 

 believe that thirty-six bushels of wheat realised a profit 

 of £17, equal to 9s a bushel ; and this is of course, sup- 

 posing no value for the land, and no expense in its cultiv- 

 ation. 



As regards the important question as to the sources of 

 the nitrogen of plants, W. Ville's statements as to the 

 power of plants to derive a portion of their supplies di- 

 rectly from the air blown t-o the winds by a mass of facts, 

 the result of actual experiments. M. Ville states that 

 nitrogen is assimilated by plants in three different forms, 

 viz., as ammonia, as the nitrate of some base, and as ni- 

 trogen gas ; and that it has been ascertained that " crops 

 always contain more nitrogen than the manure supplied 

 to them, and this excess is derived not from the soil, but 

 from the air." Such a positive statement is proved by Sir 

 J. B. Lawes to be absolutely erroneous in every instance. 

 Wheat most nearly, of all our cultivated crops, accounts 

 for the nitrogen supplied in maniu-e. In every other instance 

 where excess of nitrogen above that contained in the 

 manure is said to be derived from the atmosphere, the 

 very opposite is the fact — the maniu-e contains more nitro- 

 gen than appears in the crop, and a consideraljle loss 

 occurs. In the analysis of the soil in which his experiments 

 were carried out, though ■made with the yreatest care, no 

 mention is made of nitrogen, but he refers to it as similar 

 to that of Rothamsted as to the nitrogenous matter. Sir J. 

 B, Lawes states that within reach of agricultural crops, the 

 arable soil contains from 10,000 lb to 12,000 lb of nitrogen 

 per acie ; but, apparently M. ViUe leaves this out of calcula- 

 tion altogether ; and, because he finds more nitrogen in 

 certain crop s than was supplied in the manure, jumps to 

 the conclusion that the balance was derived directly from the 

 air. In the case of wheat — which, as has been shown, makes 

 the best use of the nitrogen supplied — it is shown by the 

 reviewer that 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda furnishes 17 lb or 18 

 lb of nitrogen, and that if every particle were taken up 

 this woiUd suffice for 11 bushels of extra wheat, and he 

 thinks farmers would be satisfied with 6 bushels on an aver- 

 age ; and that even in 1803. the year of maximum produce 

 at Kothamsted, the amount of nitrogen in the increase 

 of the experimental crop was considerably less than that sup- 

 phedin themanme. 



As regards beetroot, M. Ville's statement that there is 

 an excess of 114^ lb per acre over that furnished by man- 

 m'e, which is derived from the atmosphere, appears, to us 

 wideof themark; and this is actually proved from the experi- 

 ments he quotes. Thus, certain manures without nitrogen 

 resulted in a yield of 14 tons 14 cwt. of roots per acre. 

 By adding to the minerals sufficient sulphate of ammonia 

 to supply the respective amounts of 17(3 lb, 220 lb, and x;o'4 

 lb of nitrogen per acre, a respective iuciease was obtained 



of 4 tons 6 cwt., 5 tons 14 cwt. and 9 tons 2 cwt. per acre, 

 Now. as the highest increase could not have contained 

 more than 721b. of nitrogen per acre, and the smallest 

 application of that substance was 176 lb. it is evident 

 that, instead of a gain, there is an enormous loss of 

 nitrogen. Another most remarkable statement is that the 

 profit on an application equal to 12 cwt. of sulphate of 

 ammonia, which caused an increase of 9 tons 2 cwt. of beets, 

 was £9 2s 6d. Numermous other gross blunders, inaccura- 

 cies, and conti'adictions, are pointed out. Thus, in one 

 place we are told of experiments in which artificial man- 

 ures proved more permanent, and in another lectiu-e that 

 farmyard dung, "■ owing to its natm-e and its bulk, necess- 

 arily acts very slowly . . . and becomes the equivalent 

 of a large amoiuit of acqiured riches. 



Perhaps the most amusing part of M. Ville's book — which 

 must be reall}' considered more in the light of a romance 

 of agricultm-al science than a work dealing in facts — is 

 that in which he criticises Boussingault's farming opera- 

 tions and balance sheets. Discovering a mare's nest as 

 respects the value put on the manm-e, he makes out balance 

 sheet No. 2, which, with the correction as to the value of 

 the maniue turns Boussingault's modest i:)rofits at Eechel- 

 bronu, shown in his balance sheet, into a loss. Next, by 

 the use of certain artificial manures, crops are to be trebled, 

 and the balance put on the right side to the tune of 

 £525. lis. 2d. Thus is developed balance sheet No. 3; 

 and in a fourth balance sheet the profits are actually in- 

 creased to £635. 4s. lOd. 



Sir J. B. Lawes points out many other errors which our 

 limits will not allow us to recognise. Enough has been 

 advanced to act as a warning to our readers not to blindly 

 follow the advice of one who, however well-intentioned, 

 is not a farmer, nor a scientific man, but is eyidently 

 profoundly ignorant of agricultural practice. The season 

 is coming on when artificial mamu-es will be in use. They 

 are, when composed of genuine ingredients suitable to the 

 crops and the soil, valuable as additions to the manui-ial 

 resom-ces of the farm ; but, whilst we venture money in 

 such aids, let us take care that we get as much as we 

 possibly can form oiu- home materials. 



REPOKT OF THE BOTANJCAL GARDEN OF 

 JAMAICA FOR THE YEAR ENDED 

 30th SEPTEMBER 1882. 

 It is not one Garden but at least a dozen which 

 Mr. Morris reports on in the Supplement to the 

 Jamaica Gazette of February 22nd, of which an 

 *' early copy" reached us by the French mail. We 

 have read this document of 19 folio pages with 

 much interest, and we shall draw upon it for a great 

 deal of valuable information bearing on similar enter- 

 prize here. Jamaica suffers now as it ever has 

 done from occasionally unfavourable seasons and from 

 a cause of swift and terrible destruction of which w^e 

 in Ceylon know uotliing : hurricane. Tbe island has 

 not yet recovered from the last storm which swept 

 over it, and there has been a trying reaction from 

 floods to drought. On the other hand the West 

 Indian island possesses fertile soil of volcanic origin, 

 and for all the fruit it can possibly grow, in the 

 shape of coconuts, pineapples, oranges, mangoes, 

 bananas, &c., there is a practically illunitable mar- 

 ket close at hand amongst the tifty-five millions who 

 inhabit the United fc'tates, a large proportion of them 

 eminently fruit-eaters. Neither in soil nor in con- 

 tiguity of markets, is Ceylon so favoured, although 

 we cannot doubt that, as steamer intercourse in- 

 creases and refrigerating aj)paratns are perfected and 

 cheapened, there will be a large and increasing de- 

 mand for tropical fruits and for vegetables, not only 

 to supply passenger ships but to supply the Presid- 



