April i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



74i 



BONE MEAL MANURE. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE " FIELD." 



Sir,— Your correspondent T. P. T. asks me to inform 

 him where pure bones, such as I described last week, can 

 be obtained, and 1 now myself offer to sell to him from 

 one ton up to one hundred tons of pur.- bone meal, 

 guaranteed 52 to 57 units of phosphate of lime, and 1 to 

 5 units of ammonia, at the prices I quoted, namely 

 £ti. 10s. per ton, to be analysed either by Voelcker or 

 Sibson at his option; and I leave this offer open to 

 him for one week, to give T. P. T. time to make arrange- 

 ments for concluding what he describes as a _ "most 

 desirable investment." I, of course, do not expect T. P. T. 

 to be a buyer of bones, and I should not have answered 

 him in this strain except that, throughout the whole of 

 his letter, he throws a doubt upon the accuracy of my 

 statements ; and I think the foregoing challenge will close 

 a correspondence which could only be of an argumentative 

 oVi s\.t *\f* t or 



The valuations T. P. T. gives are very amusing, and he 

 will no doubt have had pointed out to him before this 

 that he is confounding the phosphate of lime in bones 

 with soluble phosphates— that is, phosphates soluble m 

 water (superphosphates), and which have been made so 

 by the aid of either sulphuric acid or citrate of ammonia. 

 There are of course no soluble, phosphates in bone meal. 

 Again. T. P. T. states that the lowest price at which 

 he ever heard of phosphate being sold was "a large order 

 at Liverpool," where soluble phosphate was sold at 2s od 

 per unit. In this remark also T. P. T. is much behind 

 the times. For many months past, and up to the 

 present moment, soluble phosphates have been selling 

 in retail at Liverpool for 2s. per unit, as the manufacturers, 

 there know to their sorrow. 



There never was a time when manures could be bought 

 so cheaply as at present; and landowners and farmers 

 can improve their land and increase their crops now 

 much to their own advantage— the only thing necessary 

 on their part being a fixed determination to buy only 

 such manures as will be sold upon a guaranteed 

 analysis. The question will be asked, "When chemists 

 themselves differ, who will sell manures on a guaranteed 

 analysis?" . f 



This apparent difficulty would at once be overcome it 

 buyers and sellers would agree upon and adopt a margin. 

 Analytical chemists do differ, as all experienced men 

 admit, but only to a reasonable extent ; and any respect- 

 able importer or manufacturer of manures, who has 

 confidence ill the genuineness of his own goods would 

 sell upon an analysis within a margin. A reasonable 

 margin on ordinary manures would be 1 per cent in the 

 ammonia and 5 per cent in the phosphates. For ex- 

 ample, an importer receiving a cargo of- 5U0 tons guano, 

 which on landing analysed 8 per cent ammonia and 5U 

 per ci nt phosphates, would run little risk in guarantee- 

 ing to the retail buyer an analysis within the margin 

 previously named, that is to say, from 7 to 8 per cent am- 

 monia and from 45 to 50 per cent phosphates. Between 

 30,000 and 40,000 tons of manures pass through my hands 

 every year, and my experience tells me that only by 

 an established and ' uniformly recognised margin can the 

 present confusion and mistrust be satisfactorily arranged. 



Bones, 



♦■ 



KALUTAKA DISTRICT. 



I.IBEMAN COFFEE, COCOA AND TEA. 



1 recently paid a visit to one of the first opened estates 

 in the Kalutara district. As a matter of course it, as 

 well as all the estates opened immediately after, was 

 planted with that gigantic swindle, Liberian Coffee. Soil 

 was supposed to bo of little consequence, as long as the 

 elevation did not go beyond 2,000 ft. Thus we find that 

 the stiff, damp, ferruginous laterite of the Kalutara district, 

 which a moderately experienced planter in a calm moment 

 would have condemned as a coffee soil, was thought gout 

 for Liberian coffee as long as the maximum elevation was 

 not over-stepped. Strange to say, even Cacao, a plant 

 that the late Dr. Thwaites informed planters, in a circular 

 issued at the instance of Government, required a deep, 

 rich, loamy soil for its successful growth, was also planted. 

 1 need not detail the sequel. Suffice it to say that Kalutara 



is at the present moment a Tea district. The generality 

 of the soil is not what one would call rich in the general 

 acceptation of the term. But being moist, and ferruginous, 

 it makes what is called a good Tea soil. For rocks, com- 

 mend me to the Kalutara situated. If the rocky hills had 

 been situate in the vicinity of the capital, the owners 

 thereof would have netted a considerable sum, by supply- 

 ing the breakwater with stone. The first introduction to 

 the district is through a clearing which on a moderate 

 computation contains three-fourths rock. Stone, stone we 

 see on every side. Every estate seems to have its "Rocky 

 field" of larger or smaller size; but, strange to say, the 

 usual accompaniment of rocks — a rich and free organic 

 soil — is not met with here. A thin layer of mould over- 

 lies the rocks, which when displaced by the first rain-storm, 

 reveals the usual laterite formation. Tea grows luxuriantly 

 here, and on the estate I visited, the rolling hillocks of 

 the same lay as Mariawatte, which forms the better part 

 of the estate, grows as fine Tea as can be seen anywhere. 

 Tea seems to be as fond of moisture as the coconut tree, 

 if one is to judge by the truly magnificent growth in tin- 

 drained swamps, where the bushes were in advance of 

 the Tea planted the previous year on the hillsides. Moisture 

 must 0e ever present at the roots, and yet the bushes 

 seemed to revel in it, while Coffee under similar conditions 

 would have succumbed to "wet feet." The estate I write 

 of has been most carefully and intelligently opened. It 

 is well roaded and drained, and amongst the rocks, where 

 systematic draining is impossible, the ground has been 

 terraced with the rocks, on a level trace, with drains cut 

 wherever practicable to carry off the water of storms. 

 Wash has been minimized, and a neat and finished ap- 

 pearance given to the place. I have seen a few good 

 estates, in my wanderings, but a cleaner estate than this 

 I never saw. I walked over the better part of its 250 

 acres, and all the weeds I saw would have not filled half 

 a cooty sack, and these were met with on the damp sides 

 of ravines in the form of grasses. 



The great want of the district is a cart road. A tolerably 

 fine cart road runs as far as Tebuwana and ends with a 

 wide bridge over the riv*r. Beyond is a bridle path, a 

 sop granted by Government to stop the outcry raised by 

 the planters for a cart-road. Till Arapolakanda, the first, 

 estate, is reached, the road runs, except in two instances 

 where embankments have been thrown over lowlyiug land, 

 through Hat meadow land. The only cost incurred here 

 is in cutting drains without outlets, and thus limiting the 

 width of the road-way. From Arapolakanda and beyond, 

 the road runs through estates. Almost one of the first 

 sights that meets the eye of the traveller on entering 

 this planting district, is a clearing of rubber, planted about 

 eight feet apart and leafless. The trees if not dead, are 

 next door to it. This, the result of about a twelvemonths' 

 neglect. The jungle growth under is only a few feet 

 high, sparse, and cannot in any sense be said to have 

 choked the rubber trees, which are over twelve feet high. 

 Taking science as our teacher, one would be inclined to 

 argue'that the shading of the soil by this undergrowth, 

 would, by preventing its caking under taropical sun, and 

 being washed by tropical rains, be of benefit to the Larger 

 growth. In practice we find that such a tree must be 

 cultivated the same as other products.— "Examiner." 



PRUNINC 

 In continuation of our remarks upon the rationale of 

 Pruning, it may be repeated that its successful manage- 

 ment depends upon the nature and mode of growth of the 

 plant, varying in each case, and upon the object proposed 

 to be obtained. Suppose, for instance, timber to be the 

 object in view, theory and practice alike concur that as 

 a general rule, subject to exception in particular cases, 

 no more pruning should be done than can reasonably be 

 avoided. Cut away the diseased parts, and those which 

 are disproportionate or misplaced, secure the proper balance 

 of growth, and ensure its right direction, and leave the rest 

 to Nature, remembering that if meddlesome pruning be bad, 

 negligent pruning may be worse. When Nature prunes she 

 does it. not by the removal of large limbs, but by the removal 

 of a large number of small twigs, which die or lose vigour 

 by being over-shaded, as in the case of so many Thuias, and 

 even in Oaks and Poplars. Tile recommendation, then, to 



