September r, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



245 



operations, we know but fexo, and even those few 

 very imperfectl.v. The real cause from whioh we suffer 

 may probably be one of whose nature we have uo 

 more idea tliau a deaf-boru could have of sound ! 

 It may therefore, elude our n ost persevering and 

 painstaking research ; but we should not improve our 

 chance of asertaining it by starting on a wrong tack ! 

 It is not consolatory to feel that we are in search 

 of something that may prove to he beyond our reach ; 

 but it may save us from wasting our time and sub- 

 stance in efforts in a wrong direction. The sooner, 

 in fact, thut we cease to regard Ilemileia as the 

 prime cause of the imfruitfulnesa of our coffee trees, 

 and recognize it in its true light, as a consequence 

 which fearlully aggravates the eriU we suffer from 

 some remotrr and potisibly iascrutahU coiidi/ioii, the 

 sooner shall we ceasu to court disappointment by fol- 

 lowing wrong paths. 



It is a wise decision on the part of our Govern- 

 ment to decline to offer a reward for the cure of 

 leat disease, as it will prevent many from diverting 

 their thoughts from their more lefjitimate business, 

 to the pursuit of au ignii fatiius. The coiTimissioii 

 lately appointed by the French Government to con- 

 sider I he merits of a ho^t of claims to the prize 

 offi'red for a cure for Phylloxera, attest, in terms 

 which I regret I cannot quote as the precise words 

 escape my memory, the itiisehlevous effect which that 

 offer of a prize has produced, without any compensat- 

 ing useful re.sult. 



Our hope lies in careful and persevering attention 

 to those strange and accountable exceptions which are 

 to be found in every district, and on almost every 

 estate, where trees, or groups of trees, or even whole 

 fields of coffee, differing in no other apparent manner 

 from those immediiitely around tlieiii, are neverthe- 

 less bearing abundant crop, whilst their neighbours 

 are utterly barren ! However universal and inscrut- 

 able may be the operative cause of infertility, these 

 exceptional trees or sjjots have been favoured by 

 some counteracting influence, potent enough to pre- 

 vail over that cause. Would to God that we might 

 discover this beneticent intlueuce, and restore thofe 

 conditions of fertility and health, the want of which 

 has brought this pest upon our enterprise I 



So long, however, as our trees lack that vital 

 stamina, or essential condition of fruitfulness, be it 

 what it may the removal of Hemilcia, even if that 

 were possible, would leave us stdl open to renewed 

 attack. Even if we were fortunate enough to discover 

 a cure, and to obtain the co-operation of every owner 

 of a coffe tree in the Island, lo carry out, by com- 

 bined action, the total destruction of the fungus, it 

 would find us out again, as it did before ; unless 

 those antecedent conditions which invited its original 

 attack were first removed, or counteracted. As rapidly 

 as it originally travelled from Sumatra to Ceylon and 

 South India, so rapidly would it return. We must 

 go :o the root of the mischief! Our prospect of succei-a 

 may be remote, and our discouragements great, but it 

 is more prodtable to seek the substance, than to pursue 

 its shadow. — W. in the Ceylon " Tim^s." 



LOSS OF NITRATES IN THE SOIL. 



The effect on the planting enterprizc of Ceylon : 

 altogether one million sterling lost per auuum through 

 causes more or less remediable. 



-.iOth July 1S82. 



IH'AR Sir, — I am glad to notice that you have 

 found space in your July number of the Tro/jical 

 A<jricuUurist for Mr. VVaring'on's lecture on " the 

 production ami loss of nitrates in the soil," for after its 

 carviliil re[ierusal I am more than ever forced int 

 the belief that the subject merits the very seiiona 

 attention of agriculturists, of all shades and denomin- 



ations, everywhere, but particularly in the tropici, 

 owing to the (unfortunately) more favourable climatic 

 conditions prevailing, to the iiitrifioatiou of any nitro- 

 gen present in the soil. Here, at all elevations, though 

 more particularly in very hot, moist localities, we are 

 evidently thus especially subjected to the rapid loss 

 of our existing stock, at once on the land being 

 cleared, unless immediate precautions are taken to 

 conserve and reconvert the nitrates, as they become 

 formed again into nitrogen. This, if Mr. Warington's 

 deductions are correct ; and can they be doubted ? I am 

 even inclined to say that the rapidity with which tracts 

 of land, especially at tlie lower elevations, have both in. 

 this country and elsewhere become deprived of their 

 fertility affords conclusively substantiative proof, and 

 that the impoverishment caused by chenaing which 

 we have hitherto most of us, I fancy, attributed solely 

 to the abstraction of fertilizing matter by the crops 

 removed, is to no small extent due to the ruinous 

 loss of nitrogen caused by nitrification. Or I would 

 say this : that if a piece of land of however good 

 quality be cleared and deprived of vegetation of any 

 sort, it will gradually become almost sterile with a 

 rapidity proportionate to the amount of nitrogen 

 present in ii originally and the climatic conditions — ■ 

 favourable or otherwise — to the process of nitrification. 

 I have used the expression almosl sterile, as I believe 

 it is correct to say that the ram falling, whilst it 

 washes out the nitrates that have become formed, 

 at the same time gives up to the soil it penetrates 

 a certain amount of fresh nitrogen in the form of 

 ammonia ; and though insufficient alone for the purpose 

 of profitable cultivation, as the other plant constituents 

 that may exist remain we are told ever present (un- 

 less removed from the land by crops or wash), a 

 certain low state of fertility, it is but reasonable to 

 suppose, will always be maintained. Or is there any 

 reason adverse to the conclusion that it could be 

 either kept up, or restored to its original standard 

 by artificially supplying the waste of nitrogen, in 

 due proportion, as it occurred, or at any time sub- 

 sequently ? Now the question I would ask (that is 

 if the subject be considered deserving of the import- 

 ance I am induced to attach to it, on the strength 

 of Mr. Warir.gton's remarks, and I shall be in 

 particular glad if Mr. Wall chances to think so, as 

 we may be certain then of its being properly handled, 

 and the many pros and cons fairly thought out and 

 explained): — have we not, especially of late years, 

 maintained a system of cultivation, which we have 

 come to think near to perfection, at an almost ap- 

 palling cost in the loss of nitrogen (more particularly, 

 unfortunately, under the prevalent method, of at the 

 outset resorting to, more or less close and deep 

 draining), and this over vast areas of land throughout 

 the country? For the admission seems to me un- 

 avoidable that under it the whole extent has at the 

 commencement had virtually to remain under bare 

 fallow, and subject to periodical heavy falls of rain 

 for the space of tno good years. And I would 

 further ask : After the coffee may be considered to 

 have fully occupied the ground, does reason or proof 

 exist to shew tlmt the trees are capable of taking 

 up all the nitrates as they become formed? If not, 

 is it too much to infer that, on a perfectly clean 

 kept— ai.d more particularly, if ' well drained — coffee 

 Citate, the surplus nitrates are on the setting in of 

 tlie monsoon rains rapidly washed out, and carried 

 oS, first by drain to stream, then from stream to 

 river, and ultnna'ely to sea: unless some more than 

 ordinary intelligent native has, where possible, had 

 the forethought to pass the water, as it came from 

 dram or strram througli Ins pai'dy field, and that 

 thus a p>-rpetual loss of nit r..i/(n (wh-ther it be lirge 

 or small is a pi>int for consideration !) is incessantly 

 going on, apart from crop drafts on it ? 



