October i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



343 



roughly good, and the trusses of bloom numerous aud 

 richly colom-ed. It is not often a good specimen Lantana 

 is met with, but occasionally one sees a really good speci- 

 men, when it is a telling point in a group. They also 

 make good and useful greenhouse plants, but as they root 

 freely, they require to be gro.vn in thoroughly good soil, 

 in order to get well-furnished with foliage, aud when the 

 plants become pot-bound they bloom freely aud finely. 

 But the plants must be cared for, and not neglected. The 

 dwarfer and closer growing varieties are also very useful 

 for bedding out during the summer. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



NOTES ON JIANURES. 



The value of experimental stations where experiments 

 with a definite purpose can be adequately carried out under 

 the superintendence of competent e.xperimenturs, is happily 

 becoming more and more recognised. The Sussex Associ- 

 ation, for instance, sets out to ascertain for any particiUar 

 crop on any particular the soil, the most efficacious and 

 economical forms of manure, limiting its enquiries in the 

 first instance to the different forms of phosphorous, and 

 the effect of applying with the phosphorous other essential 

 ingredients. From the experiments carried out under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Jamieson at Hassock's Gate, it 

 appears that potassic chloride (muriate of potash) does 

 harm when applied as manure in cases where the organic 

 matter in the soil is in low proportion. The theory is 

 that the chlorine is liberated and injures the plant, unless 

 it can be neutralised by organic matter. The proportion 

 of organic matter is much less in Sussex than in Scot- 

 land, the soils in colder climates possessing more nitrogen. 

 As regards the use of phosphates, the greatest economy 

 was reached by mixing the cheapest phosphate (ground 

 coprolite) with that sold at moderate cost (steamed bone- 

 flour), by which means a saving of one-third might be 

 affected without detriment to the weight or quality of 

 the crop. For rough experimental piu-poses Mr. Jamioson 

 recommends that farmers should procure six or eight bags 

 of manure— one to contain all the ingredients a plant re- 

 quires— e.y., nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, lime, magnesia, 

 sulphur, iron— another all but one, omitting, say, potash ; 

 a third all but one, but this time a different one from 

 the former, say phosphate, and so throughout the 

 series. 



The experiments at Hassock's Gate seem to be most 

 instructive. The soil there is almost pure sand, and as 

 such very suitable, from its poor character, for trying 

 experiments as to the comparative value of manures. On 

 this soil, where no manure was given, the plants never 

 got beyond the first few germinal leaves; when all the 

 ingi-edients except phosphate were given, a crop of half 

 a ton per acre was procured; but when the phosphate 

 was apphed, even in the form usually supposed to be in- 

 operative, the produce rose to 18 — 20 tons per acre. The 

 advantage of steamed bone-flour is that after steaming at 

 high pressure and the extraction of gelatinous matter, the 

 bones could be much more finely ground than raw bones. 

 It is to be hoped that the very interesting experiments 

 at Hassock's Gate may be repeated over and over again 

 under as nearly as possible similar circumstances, using, so 

 to say, plots of virgin soil each year in succession, as well 

 as continuing the experiment on the same plots year after 

 year. The problem is so complex, aud the possible sources 

 of fallacy so numerous that it is only by careful repeti- 

 tions, under as nearly as possible identical conditions, that 

 full coufidence in the result of such experiments can be 

 justified. 



From experiments made at the College Farm of the 

 New Jersey Board of Agriculture it appears that neither 

 sulphate of ammonia nor superphosphate of lime, used 

 alone, increased the grain or the straw in the case of 

 Maize during an average of seven yei-rs. Potassic clilor- 

 ide increased the yield of grain 13 per cent, and of the 

 straw 26 per cent (ten years' average). Farmyard manure 

 increased the grain 36 per cent, and the straw 24 per 

 cent (five years' average). The complete chemical manure 

 increased the grain 26, and the stalks 38 per cent (aver- 

 age seven years). — Gardeneis' Chronicle, 



OUR CULTIVATIONS :-COFFEE, COCONUTS AND 

 CINNAMON IN CEYLON. 



In seeking for some possible reason for the present 

 shortness of our coffee crops, it has been attempted to 

 be shewn that in the first place wo have all along made 

 a great mistake in cultivating coflfee at aU, for that it has 

 been manifest that the climate on the western half of the 

 island, at any rate, is far too moist for the successful 

 cultivation of fruit-bearing trees, and that what we should 

 look for is some cultivation, such as tea, in which the pro- 

 duct is essentially leaf, which proves in present results a 

 very marked success. 



Those who advance such arguments must have forgotten 

 the indisputable fact that coffee was at one time as great 

 a success as tea is at this moment, and not only was it 

 a .success, but that it continued a success for fully a quarter 

 of a centm-y, durmg which period enormous coffee crops 

 were yielded by some estates, and very abundant crops on 

 the majority of properties. Unless, therefore, it can be 

 demonstrated beyond a doubt that on the western half 

 of the island great and complete climatic changes have 

 taken place, this argument cannot be fairly held. 



There is, however, a strong argument against the theory 

 of the non-fruit-bearing capacity of the land under exist- 

 ing climatic conditions, to be found in the great low- 

 country industry of the coconut palm, which is is an es- 

 sentially fruit-producing tree, as distinguished from leaf- 

 producing, and which has not suffered any diminution of 

 crops where ordinarily suitable soil and fairly good cult- 

 ivation has existeil. Were a calculation made of the 

 weight of produce in the shape of husk, shell, and dried 

 kernel, from one acre of moderately healthy coconut trees 

 annually, the total amount would surprise those who ad- 

 vance the theory to which we have alluded. This mar- 

 vellous productiveness too, has, in the majority of cases, 

 existed hand in hand with a neglect of anything hke what 

 is understood as high cultivation. By far the greater porti- 

 on of _ coconut estates in the country never have any- 

 thing in the nature of manure applied to them, by which 

 their powers of production are maintained, and, as a rule, 

 the coconut palm flourishes on land which tor most other 

 cultivations would be deemed poor and unsuitable. 



There is yet another theory m-ged by some as a cause 

 of the present infertility of our coffee estates. It is that 

 we have caused too large aud continuous an area of land 

 to ho brought under one cultivation, and that, as we have 

 seen in the case of the great stretch of vineyards in 

 France, and of potatoes in Ireland, disease and unfruit- 

 fulness have been the results. Here there is a contra- 

 diction m the undoubted fact that all the vineyards in 

 France are not aftected by the phylloxera, and that vast 

 tracts of vines arc stiU growing in that country, Germany, 

 and other parts of the world, unaft'ected by the pest. 



We can, however, find an argument against this theory 

 without leaving the island, and we have it iu the cultiv- 

 ation which has already been noticed in reference to the 

 previous theory, viz. that of coconut cultivation, and we 

 may add that of cinnamon. Both of these have been 

 carried on in the low country for generations, and over 

 large uninterrupted stretches of country without any ill 

 consequences. The coconut tree and fruit have their 

 enemies, but not in the form of pests, and it is an un- 

 doubted fact that neither iu the case of the cinnamon 

 plant or the coconut palm does any disease or unusual 

 decay jirevail ; they are in fact both marvellously long- 

 lived, though but rarely aided by manure in any form 

 A native will tell us that the coconut palm bears abund- 

 antly for a hundred years, whilst there appears to be no 

 limit to the productive years of the cinnamon bush In 

 the latter case it is the more noteworthy because, for the 

 proper yield of cinnamon bark, the tree has to be kept 

 in an artificial condition,— no longer a tree in short but 

 a coppiced bush, sending up any number of straight shoots. 

 Left m a state of nature the cinnamon tree woidd attain 

 a great size and be valueless as a producer of marketable 

 price. 



We have, therefore, in two of the oldest and best es- 

 tabhshed staples of the country, measureable arguments 

 against the theories advanced by a correspondent iu our 



^^"S?"^ '•"*""' *^ ^ell as by other at various times.— 

 C Times. 



