May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



897 



much of its volume ; it forms hard clods whereby the 

 roots of the plants become torn and tlie plants 'die. But 

 a soil enriched by stable-dung remains always moist and 

 flexible, and the roots can ramify themselves in it very 

 easily. This is known very well to gardeners, they do not 

 spare stable-dung for tender plants. 



The stable-duug is certainly the most advantageous means 

 for improving soils and tlie farmers will get better crops by 

 producing as much stable-dung as possible. The artificial 

 manures wiU be always very useful for manuring, but the 

 stable-dung and horse or cattle will be the strongest base 

 of agriculture. Finally, stable-dung has the important fac- 

 ulty to condense gases and vapours from the atmosphere. 

 This condensation proceeds of course in the upper parts 

 of the soils, on that account it is very necessary not to 

 bury the stable-dung too deep into the soil. 



INCREASE IN RAINFALL AND DECREASE 

 IN WHEAT PRODUOTION IN ENGLAND ; 

 AND OF COFFEE CROPS IN CEYLON. 

 Our own experience here in Ceylon accords with 

 that of the vast majority of meteorologists all over 

 the world, to the effect that, whatever the aberrations 

 of rainfall may be, a certain average is likely to be 

 established and maintained, if the results of five 

 years, or, at most, ten or eleven years, are analyzed. 

 Whether the influence of sun-spot periods is admitted 

 or denied (and we quite feel the difficulties arising 

 from drought in one part of the earth corresponding 

 with floods elsewhere) certain it is that dry and 

 wet cycles are recognized by observers, and that the 

 periods of such cycles coincide closely with a dur- 

 ation of eleven years. A period of thirty or more 

 rainy years never came under our notice until we 

 read the following letter addressed by Sir J. B. Lawes 

 to the London Times : — 



PKOGRESSIVE INCREASE OF RAINFALL. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 



Su', — At Rothamsted, 30 years ago, a rain-gauge was 

 erected in one of the fields of my farm. As our olijeot was 

 not only to measure the fall of rain but also to ascertain 

 its chemical composition the gauge was made unusually 

 large, having an area of more than 43 square feet. The 

 following figm'es give the average yearly rainfall in each 

 of the five periods of six years : — 1853 — 1858, 25Jin. ; 

 1859— 18G4, 26iin.; 1865—1870, 27 l-3iu.; 1871—1876, 29|in.; 

 1877 — 1882, 33jin. ; mean, 28iiu. The progressive in- 

 crease in the rainfall of each period is very remarkable. 



During the same 30 years wheat has been grown con- 

 tinuously in an adjoining field ; and in the experiment to 

 which I am about to refer the same amount of manure 

 has been applied to the crop each year, the object being to 

 ascertain the influence of the climate of each year under 

 circumstances as nearly parallel as possible. Dividing the 

 30 years into two periods of 18 years and 12 years respect- 

 ively, the average produce of the wheat during the first 

 period of 18 years was between 30 and 37 bushels per acre ; 

 while during the last period of 12 years it amounted only 

 to 27 bushels per acre. From 1870 up to the present time 

 there has been only one year, 1874, in which we have had a 

 really good crop of wheat. 



Since the beginning of last October the rainfall has been 

 far above the average, and the wheat sown in the autumn 

 was got in under the most unfavourable conditions; at 

 present, therefore, the prospects for this year of an abundant 

 wlieat crop are by no means favourable. 



Rothamsted. J. B. Lawes. 



But for the well-known character of Sir J. B. Lawes 

 and his coadjutors for conscientious care in taking 

 their observations, we should have deemed a con- 

 tinuous increase of rainfall for a period of thirty 

 years as simply incredible. But there are the figures, 

 giving an average of 25| inches for the first six years, 

 so that probably the lowest figure was down to 23 

 inches. In that case — the averages shewing a con- 



tinuous and latterly a rapid rise — we have an in- 

 crease of from 2,S inches to prol)ably .35 ; for 33J 

 inches was the arcmge of the six years 1877-1882. 

 The increase of rainfall established in one locality in 

 England in thirty years is therefore, 12 inches, or 

 equal to one- third if we take the extremes, and 8J 

 inches if we take tlie averages of six years. A re- 

 action may be speedily anticipated, for we submit 

 to the better knowledge of experts that a continuous 

 increase in rainfall for a period approaching one- 

 third of a century is outside all precedent. 

 The result of steadily increasing rainfall in the 

 particular locality has been a reduction in wheat 

 produce of considerably more than one-fourth 

 — 27 bushels only per acre in the concluding 

 12 years against 37 in the previous period of 18. 

 When Sir J. B. Lawes wrote, the contest of rain 

 rermx sun, so far from having terminated, seemed at 

 its worst, and it would almost appear as if the stars 

 in their courses had been commissioned to fight against 

 the landowners and farmers of Britain. Not long 

 ago we read a rather fiatulent paper by an American 

 winter, in which it was assumed that American 

 farmers, who but tickled the boundless prairies of 

 the West in order to make them laugh into fertility, 

 were rapidly changing tlie conditions of Society in 

 England, by sapping the foundations on which rested 

 the existence of a landed aristocracy. The very yeai- 

 in which that paper was written, the United .-tates 

 had to indent on Europe for a portion of the food 

 recpiired by nearly a million of immigrants who had 

 come pouring in. As a matter of fact the farmers 

 of Britain, with all the advantages in their favour, 

 especially of nearness to market, would have been 

 able to compete «itli the corn of America, Australia, 

 and now India, had normal conditions of season but 

 remained to them : had the sun but shone as brightly 

 and warmly as was his wont, and had the rain only 

 fallen in normal moderation : in accordance with the old 

 character of the English climate, that it " rained legs 

 of mutton and turnips." But the results of Sir J. B. 

 Lawes' observations only cause us to wonder that the 

 collapse of wheat farming in Britain has been so 

 long delayed. We can but fear that a large portion 

 of the farmers of Britain are in as ba4 case as the 

 coffee planters of Ceylon. With the farmers the 

 owners of land, whether directly farmers or not, also 

 suSer ; and the wise men in England who have chosen 

 this crisis for airing the theory that all burdens of 

 taxation should be borne by the land are comparable 

 in logic, fairness and good feeling to Mr. J. F. Dickson, 

 Government Agent of the Central Province, wlio, after 

 making the case of the planters as bad as possible by 

 placing the coffee crop at the minimum estimate 

 of 150,000 cwt. {evidently gloating over the fact 

 and wh.at it indicated), went on to propose that on the 

 articles cliiefly used by this unfortunate class should 

 be laid the burden of additional taxation ! In 

 his dislike of the European planters this vei-y 

 magnanimous official took care *' to remember to 

 forget ' the truth wliich Sir W. Gregoi-y repeatedly 

 stated in public, that the remote and purely native 

 Province where Mr. Dickson had the opportunity of 

 making for himself a name was created and for 

 years supported by money contributed by the plant- 

 ing enterprize. It is quite possible that the land- 

 holders of England have failed in their duties and 

 deserve the retribution which has come upon them ; 

 but it is surely too much that either in Britain 

 or Ceylon the fanatical enemies of that agricultural en- 

 terprize on which even more than commerce, the well- 

 being of a country depends, should seize the opportunity 

 of a providential visitation to vent their petty spite. 

 The Engli ii figures for rainfall are interesting to 

 us in Ceylon because we have largely suSered from 

 the same causes of excessive moisture and deficient 



