464 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December r, 1884. 



ficial to give small and frequent (loses of manure to a 

 tree than large doses at long intervals. The manure must 

 be buried below the surface. When planting, put in each 

 hole a couple hausdful of lime and a pound of poonac. 

 A tree cannot be expected to yield two or three rupees 

 annually, unless its constitution is built up. The writer 

 of the essay, whose dicta the above are, will spend 50 

 cents per tree during the first seven years " m building 

 it up," after which, within four years, it will give a return 

 of three nuts for every five cents of manure used. Mark 

 the confidence and certainty with which results are given. 

 The manure and its price too are known quantities in 

 tlie calculation. There is no practical limit to the yield 

 of a tree ; the writer of the essay is acquainted with trees 

 bearing from 200 to 400 nuts each annually for a series 

 of years, but that is owing to the " individuality of the 

 tree" and suitable soil. The contention of the essayist, 

 which nobody ever did or will question, is that any tree 

 bearing a small crop in any soil, can be made to increase 

 its yield. " A good soil gives a good crop without assist- 

 ance, while a poor one gives a poor return, but the one 

 will respond to manure as readily as the other." Here the 

 essayist delivers himself like a practical planter, and not 

 as usual as a theorist; but he has forgotten one little 

 question, which every practical planter who has a regard 

 for his own or his employer's purse will put, before he 

 undertakes to increase the yield of " any" tree on " any" 

 soil—" Will the increased yield cover the cost of inducing 

 it ?" That is a safe test to apply to all such undertak- 

 ings. I am afraid no practical planter will accept the 

 next statement that " the same amount of manure will 

 result in the same addition to the crop, whether the trees 

 to which it is administered have previously been bearing 

 ten or fifty nuts per annum." 



The next paragraph deals with " the treatment of a 

 single tree and results," and opens with the startling state- 

 ment that a stem of a coconut tree on poor land forms a 

 complete register of the periods at which manure had been 

 applied, the effects it produced, and the time during 

 which it operated and became exhausted. How tin ap- 

 pearance of the stem of a coconut tree could indicate 

 what crops it bore when manured, for the effect of manure 

 is always gauged by the resulting crops, and tin- p. rind 

 of time the crops were affected by the manure, passes my 

 poor comprehension. [The effect on the stem is obviously 

 meant. — Ed. " Ex."] It is well known that on poor soils, 

 neglected coconut trees gradually taper towards the tup. 

 A little attention, not necessarily manuring, causes the 

 stem to bulge out again, so that a practised eye could 

 easily detect if a property had been neglected for any 

 length of time and taken in hand again. But for any one 

 to say he can give the effects of such rem wed attention, 

 or name the period of time the improvement consequent 

 on such attention lasted, is rubbish. 



Now for the account of the tree that yielded astonishing 

 results by the application of manure. The tree existed 

 for twenty-five years on such poor and sandy soil, as no 

 other form of vegetation would grow on. The stem was 

 one foot in diameter at the base and tapered to four inches 

 at the five feet to which it had attained. The leaves 

 measured about thirty inches. No worse specimen of a 

 living plant could be selected, but it was operated upon 

 for the sake of experiment. Twenty pounds of poonac 

 and five pounds of steamed bones were mixed and dug in 

 round the tree in a circle twelve feet in diameter. The 

 growth was vigorous, and within a twelve month the new 

 leaves had attained a length of fifteen feet. ► At eighteen 

 months the first flower shewed itself, and the tree again 

 received five pounds of poonac and two of bones. At 

 thirty mouths it began to give a crop so heavy that fears 

 were entertained of the steam snapping at the thin por- 

 tion. The same dose of manure was given for the three 

 succeeding years. At the end of the fifth year the wretched 

 specimen had developed into a handsome tree, with the 

 stem at the top over one foot in diameter, and carrying 

 a crop of 60 to 70 nuts, while the previous crops aggreg- 

 ated over 100 nuts. According to the writer, this hand- 

 some tree was built up and yielded 170 nuts, with an ex- 

 penditure of only 75 cents for the 40 lb. of poonac and 

 1:1 lb. of bones applied over a period of five years. A very 

 handsome return indeed, and a fit reward for five years 

 of patient attention to a tree described as "the most 



wretched specimen of a still living plant." How many 

 owning trees answering to this description will feel cheered 

 by this experiment, and be inspired with hope ! After 

 this no one will deny the essayist the right to raise him- 

 self on a pedestal of his own making, to assert his own 

 superiority over his brother planters, and with a feeling 

 of pity for their ignorance to address them thus t— " There 

 are truths that science has made common property, but 

 which few coconut planters have yet asserted their right 

 in, or indeed become aware of their existence. How few 

 of them know that 187 lb. of poonac contains (sic) all 

 the elements that is (sic) removed from the soil in a candy 

 of copperah? How few of them know that the poorest 

 soil may contain some of the elements of fertility that 

 the plant cannot assimilate from the absence or deficiency 

 of other necessary elements? A few measures of quick- 

 lime may bring into activity a great fund of latent fert- 

 ility : a few ounces of bone dust may be the one thing 

 wanting to put a good crop on a barren tree." A sigh 

 of pity is next heard for the poor ignorant goiya, who, 

 we are told, would pronounce the principles of Agricult- 

 ural Chemistry, if propounded to him, a myth, and the 

 propounder a humbug. N general knowledge of Agricult- 

 ural Chemistry is possible till the Agricultural School turns 

 its graduates "loose on Society." Next comes a fling at 

 Europeans, of whom " not half a score know anything of 

 coconuts." Then an all-round thrust at proprietors, who, 

 though educated and intelligent, "will not deign to look 

 on the scientific aspect of the culture." 

 _ I am not one of those who hold it as " an incontrovert- 

 ible rule " that coconut plants not in bearing should not 

 be manured. What I hold and practise is that laggards 

 should be stimulated and fed to keep pace with the other 

 plants m a field. But I am most decidedly of opinion 

 that plants shewing satisfactory and fair growth should 

 not be stimulated into early bearing, if you wish your plant- 

 ation to be a permanency. Experience and observation 

 alike teach us that precocity and longevity are not syn- 

 onymous, but opposite, terms.— Ceylon " Examiner." 



De. Schtltz has added another article to our already 

 long list of antiseptics. This time it is one that cannot 

 be objected to on the grounds of being poisonous. Citric 

 acid is the new preventive of putrefaction. A 5 per cent 

 solution is claimed to preserve meat. The value of citric 

 acid for this purpose can be easily tested by any one. — 

 Independent Journal. 



Soils. — All attempts to improve the nature of a soil should 

 have for their object the bringing it to a state of loam, by 

 the addition of those substances which are deficient. If there 

 is too much clay, chalk and sand may be added, or a portion 

 of the clay may be calcined by burning, in order to destroy 

 its attraction for water, and thus act the part of sand 

 in forming the loam. Limestone, or calcareous sand and 

 gravel, are still more efficacious for this purpose; they 

 not only correct too great porosity, or too great tenacity, 

 but also act chemically on the organic matter in the soil, 

 rendering the humus soluble, and fit to be taken up by 

 the roots of plants. If there is too much sand, 'marl composed 

 of clay and chalk is the remedy. Good loams require much 

 lcs> tillage than stift'er soils, anil will bear more stirring to 

 clean them thau sands. Hence they are cultivated more 

 economically, and more easily kept free from useless weeds ; 

 while the produce is more certain and abundant. They can 

 be impregnated to a higher degree with enriching manures, 

 without danger of root-fallen crops, or of too great an abund- 

 ance of straw at the expense of the grain. If there should be 

 means of irrigation, no soil is better suited to it than a light 

 loam on a bed of gravel ; or even if the subsoil is clay, provid- 

 ed sufficient under draining prevent the water from stagnat- 

 ing between the soil and subsoil, which, as practical men very 

 properly express it, would poison any land. A loamy soil 

 requires less dung to keep it in heart than either clay or sand ; 

 for while it is favourable to the process by which organic 

 matter buried deep in the soil is converted into insoluble 

 humus, italao permits that part of it which is nearer to the 

 surface to attract oxygen from the air, and thus it is con- 

 verted into a soluble extract, which is to the roots of plants 

 what the milk of animals is to their young — a ready prepared 

 food, easily converted into vegetable juices. — The Garde iieex' 

 and Farmers' Reason Wiiy. 



