tsS 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1885, 



havings snd leather are very rich iu nitrogen, but they 

 are not readily available, and therefore they have a low 

 value as market articles. The last is excellent for mulch- 

 ing, and iu time will decay and fertilise the ground, 

 but it worked into tillage land it becomes a nuisance. 



The waste of the fisheries is one of the priucipal source 

 from which manufacturers obtain the ammonia iu their 

 fertilisers. The largest portion is from the fish called 

 menhaden, hardheads, moss Ininkers or fat backs. They 

 are caught iu inunense quantities in nets, and boiled 

 to secure the oil, in which they are rich. After press- 

 ing, the pomace or chum is packed in barrels or dried 

 ground. When a surplus of fish is caught they are sold 

 to farmers, who put them directly on the grass land 

 where the effect is very stimulating for a few years, but 

 the final result is that the soil becomes hard and the 

 fish have less and less effect, and finally the crop is 

 almost nothing. The fish are deficient in potash, and 

 the result is what always comes from continuous manuring 

 with any substance that deficient in ary one of the 

 three essentials of plant food. The land can be restored 

 by using potash. Other fish wastes are found in the 

 form of spoiled fish, and the heads, sound bones, and 

 entrails of fish which accunudate at fishing portal. So 

 immense was the waste of heads, bones, &c., of fish at 

 Isles of shoals that the harbour had to be cleared twice 

 by dredging them out. The essayist left a standing 

 offer with a fisherman, a few years ago, of 25 cents per 

 100 lb. tor all surplus pollock ; the result was that 20,000 

 lb. of fine large fish, weighing from 8 lb. to 15 lb. each, 

 just out of the water, was hauled to his manure heaps. 

 AH these substances are, however, very disagreeable and 

 difficult to handle, requiring a vast quantity of soil to 

 compost them. 'Where bay fishing is carried on on a 

 large scale, liver or blubber chum can sometimes be 

 found, and furnishes a very cheap source of nitrogen. 

 It should be cut with sharp sand before composting, to 

 make it fairly fine. Halibut chum is the refuse from 

 the heads of halibut, which are cooked under high 

 pressure to extract the oil, and the bones are left in 

 such a state that they can easily be crumbled. It is 

 especially rich iu phosphoric acid. The skin, bones, and 

 fins of salted fish, stiipp^'d and sold free of bone, are 

 another form of fish waste, and the waste of herring 

 m.ackerel at the fishing stations is sometimes m.ade up 

 into chum. Dogfi.sh, a small species of shark, are caught 

 in immense quantities, and are very rich as manure, 

 t'leir muscles being very firm. The shells and other 

 refuse of lobsters at canning factories are ground up and 

 sold as plant food, and are especially rich in nitrogen. 

 AU fish waste must be composted w-ith a large quant- 

 ity of soil, or the crops will be burned ; and the com- 

 post, owing to its great richness, should be spread 

 broadcast rather than used in the hill. Fish chum may 

 be used broadcast or composted with poor manure to 

 enrich it, or with soil, muck, or sawdust. It is sur- 

 prising how penetiating i.s the ammonia from fish compost, 

 and, therefore, in making a heap, the bottom layer of 

 soil should be a fnot or more in thickness. Oases have 

 been seen when the fish was mixed liberally where the 

 soil was full of ammonia for several feet below the 

 surface. The layer of fish should be thick enougli to 

 just hide the soil, and the next layer of .soil about 

 3 inches, and .so on, scattering raw ground plaster over 

 each layer of fish before covering with soil, at the rate 

 of 50 lb. of plaster to 300 lb. of fish. The heap should 

 be on level gnmn.l, with a little embankment around to 

 catch the liquid that sometimes runs from it when the 

 fish begin to decompose, or may be washed out by 

 heavy rains, and it will be handy to fill up the holes 

 that are apt to show on top as decomposition progresses, 

 letting out bad odours unless closed. Fish containing 

 much oil are bclti-r composted with stable manure, 

 and plaster should be .scattered as before directed. If 

 decomposition is slow to start, unlcached ashes or lime 

 may be mixed with the nuss ; but be sure to cover 

 tlie heap with several inches of noW.—Gimleners' Chronicle. 

 -*■ - 

 CATARRH OF THE BLADDER. 

 Stinging irritation, iuHnmation, all Kindey and similar 

 Ooraphunts, cured by "liuchn-paiba." W. E. Smith & Co, 

 Madrivs, S ole Agents. 



EUCALYPTUS CULTURE. 



The following communication, forwarded to Mr. A. H. 

 Smee by a correspondent in Chili, will be found of value, 

 especially to our numerous Indian and colonial readers : — 



It is not necessary to enter with great minuteness 

 into those matters on which all are agreed, but rather 

 to accentuate the points regarding which my personal 

 experience partially diverges from, or is found in open 

 conflict with, the current instructions supplied by accepted 

 authorities. These points are: — 



1. The preparation of the seed-hed. 



2. The advisability of rooting the seedlings in pots 

 previously to planting them out definitively. 



3. The use of stakes for propping the recently planted 

 trees, 



4. The space to be allotted to each tree. 



5. The suitability of marsh land for large plantations. 

 1. The Seed-bkd.— The plants are raised from a small 



and exceedingly hard black seed, which should be 

 thoroughly soaked before being sown. As the seed germ- 

 inates with great difficulty, and seems unable to over- 

 come the resistance of a soil even slightly compact or 

 tenacious, it is usually recommended to form the bed of 

 coarse sand or other very light earth ; this plan is, how- 

 ever, attended with the disailvantages consequent on the 

 general poorness of such soils, and the still greater one 

 of the difficulty of remo\ing the seedlings from the bed 

 without detaching the sand adherent to their roots, which 

 is fatal to their life if immediately tran.sported to the 

 plantation, and causes loss even if potted at the edge of 

 the bed. After experiencing these evils, I ultimately 

 prepared seed-beds some six months before sowing, com- 

 posed of some garden earth and a large proportion of 

 leaves (those of the Fig and of the Eucalyptus itself 

 are very good) and of sheep's dung, which I had continually 

 watered and dug over until completely incorporated and 

 rotted. The decayed leaves impart to the composition a 

 peculiar mellowness, and, while the bed is kept damp, 

 that softness so necessary to the successful germination 

 of this delicate seed, as well as a fertility far superior 

 to that of the sand usually recommended ; while by 

 leaving the bed completely dry aud exposed to the sun 

 for a few days previously to transplanting the seedlings 

 the dung causes it to become hanl and tenacious, so that 

 each separate plant may be cut out with a knife, remain 

 firmly embedded in its surrounded earth, and, being as 

 easily transported on trays or in carts as little bricks, thus 

 rendering unnecessary the use of the of ten costly and always 

 pernicious pot. All depen.Is iu this pbm on the proper 

 proportions of the ingredients. .Shui:!il the leaves be 

 deficient or clay be present in the earth, the surface of 

 the bed will lie sticky and the seed will not come up; 

 while, should there not be during enough (it must be 

 sheep's) the bed when dry will not be sufficiently compact 

 to chug to tlie roots of the little trees when removed 

 for transplantation. Above all. both leaves ami dung must 

 be thoroughly rotten, or larv.-e may appear from the latter, 

 and all operations may have to be postponed for a year 

 by the complete ruin of the young plants. 



I (juite agree with the received opinions that the seed 

 .should be sown very light, and rather thin, that the bed 

 should he kept damp by frequent though not too copious 

 waterings, that the young plants ,~hould be continually 

 guarding against the small birds which pursue with pa.ssion 

 the young plants in their early stage, that they should 

 be protected by mats from the chaiu-e of a frostv night 

 and from excessive sunshine. As they may all 'be lost 

 by the slightrst accident, a fresh lot of seed should be 

 sown every fourteen days during the .season (which lasts, 

 I .should iiuagine, everywhere more or less from midwinter 

 till the end of spring), which plan also ensures a succession 

 of suitable plants, as the work of plantation on a large 

 scale progresses. 



2. Seed P.vns.— Should the sand-bed plan be adopted 

 pots are necessary as a means of transportation to the 

 plantation of the young plants, .since the attemjjt to 

 carry them loose would entail the detachment of their 

 adherent soil and their consequent certain loss. They 

 should, however, be left only a few days in tlie :j)ot3 

 under the penalty of incurring a n;i.-'ftirlune gravely 

 compromising to the whole future of the pluni.aiou. The 



