Nov. 2, 18S5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



isi 



HOW TO LINE ACCUKATELY. 



.Sir,— When so nnny are enga^eil ia planting, per- 

 haps the following "plan for lining may be of nse, 

 as by adopting it the Hues are liountl to be paral- 

 lel, howt'ver ignorant the coolies may be. 



Give the coolies at each end of the rope a car- 

 penter's sqnare, say 3 ft. x 4 {•:. or ;ii ft. x 3i ft. — 

 A h ('. I'laci- A on any peg in base liiie ami C on the 

 next peg. The next line will run from 13 li, ami 

 ,iiiiil be parallel, as A B cunt be. 



li \ li 



.\ rs It. (' (- -^ 



at less than a right angle to A C. With a simple 

 4-feet stick to measure the wiilth, lines vary con- 

 siderably, ^. ^, ^^ 



I^XOTK nv Ku.— This is a good plan, but unless 

 the squares are held l,ii,-i:ont,illi/. ami not with the 

 slope of the ground, lines will yet vary consi.lerably].— 

 Local "Time.s." 



♦ 



l''lKK-(Mfr,riVATIOX IN THK EAsT INDIAN 

 HIIJ-S. 



Allijemeiiie Fuist lilld Jul/d-Zeitiinff : Tin- (Iriiiyitl 

 ./oiiriuil of Fovesti-ji tnici the Cliasr. Published l.j 

 .1. D. Sauerlaeuder, Frankfort-on-thc-Maine. 



The Foist iiii,l.lagil-/eitiin(j for November contains 

 an article of gre.it interest and con.sideiable length 

 by Dr. D. liraudis, late Inspectator-tiener.al of For- 

 ests in Hritish India. It is entitled, " On Fire-t'ultiv- 

 atioii in the Kast Indian Hills, more particularly in 

 Unrnia." an<l it w:us writtrn to be read at the last meeting 

 of till- Westphalia and Lower Khine Forest Associ- 

 ation on the -':ith of July. It was not, however, 

 read'thi-re, as the author was unfortunately prevented 

 by illness from being present at the meeting. In 

 this paper the country is described, with its veget- 

 ation and the iliffei-ent races who practise nomadic 

 cultivation, with preliminary burning of herbage ami 

 jungle. Toin-^iija (meaning a mountain field), or briefly 

 //a (a field), has come in Burma to imply fire-cuUiv- 

 atioii, and in the forest service the same words 

 are appliiil to plantations raised after the rice crops 

 on the burnt fields, or to forest covert proceeding 

 from sei^d sown simultaneously with the rice. It has 

 thus been contrived to turn the customary and al- 

 most indispensable fire-cultivation to the advantage of 

 forestry. The credit of having thus turned a destruct- 

 ive enemy into a helpful ally belongs undoubtedly 

 to Dr. Hrandis himself, although he docs not here 

 speak of it nor claim the distinction. — Journal o; Forestry. 

 [Where chenaing or henaing is permitted in Ceylon, 

 could not the sowing of forest tree seeds with ''dry 

 grain " be insisted on ? — Ed.] 



MANUKIAL USES OF TAN. 



Has spent tan any manuiial value V Applied to 

 grass land, either in a fresh or rotten state, it gives 

 no good result at all— its presence seems, if anything, 

 detrimental Does it contain any essential plant food ? 

 and if so. do certain deleterious properties counteract 

 any benefit that might otherwise accrue from that 

 plant foody. .Vt inauy leather-tanning establishments 

 throughout the country vast accumulations of spent 

 tan exist, for which there seems to be difficulty in 

 finding suitable use; yet I am impressed with the 

 idea that it .should have its uses in aiding fertility 

 in the soil, or at least in awakening dormant fertility 

 in close difficulty workable .soils. 



I'oor land, v\hether of the light dry sandy or 

 extremely stiff clayey oriler, is greatly benefited by 

 admixture with hninus, although the humus contain 

 no plant fooil in its composition; for humus certaiidy 

 etnds to modify certain defects in both these kinds 

 of land; it lends a retentiveness of moisture to the 



45 



dry sandy, and tends to keep open and pervious to 

 water the stiff close clays, by l)0tli meclianical ami 

 chemical action. That pure humus is not, and does 

 not contain, a plant food, such as plants take in by 

 means of their roots, has long sincti beei> demon- 

 strated by Ijiebig. Psually, however, huuiua is by no 

 means (chemically) pure, and it is c jusidered that 

 great benefit is derived from it by plants, when, on 

 its decay, it yields up these impurities (prob.ibly 

 valuable plant foods) in that soluble eomlitiou in 

 which thev (the plants) can make use of them. 

 What we now want to know is— Is tan, when fully 

 rotted, pure or impure humus? and, if the latter, are 

 the impurities containeil in such humus good plant 

 food, or merely harmlesi, or re.ally deleterious matters? 



Till science has thrown more light on the subject, 

 I hold that ipiile rotten tan is humus, and it is wall 

 known that may kinds of soil are, as before stated, 

 much improved in condition and consequent produc- 

 tiveness, by having hcimus niixe.l into Iheni, although 

 that luimus contains no plant food whatever. 



I have had large heaps of tan jilaced close to a. 

 dead well, and whenever the letter has become full, 

 the contents have been pumped out on to the tan, the 

 water subsequently draining away, while the virtucor 

 at least .some of it, remained in the tan. 



This saturated tan applied to grass land appears to 

 give very good results so far. In the absence of scienti- 

 fically conductel exprements. however, it is of course 

 impossible for me tn judge whether all the goodness 

 out of the dead-well stuff is retained by means of the 

 t.in, or even so much of it as wouhl be retained by 

 using in a similar manner charcoal, dried peat, or earth 

 of some kind. I have also for .some years used tan 

 mixi^d with ordinary farmyard manure, rotted ilown 

 together, as a mulching for F,oses .and fruit trees in 

 hot dry soil, and the result has apiiarenlly been very 

 beneficial. I imagine ground coprolites mixed intim- 

 ately with tan by being thrown on a heap thereof, 

 anil at the same time turning the tan well over, 

 would shortly have the phosphates rendered as soluble 

 as in superphosphate, and in the abovenamed soils 

 (especially where phosphoric acid is deficient) would 

 then make a very valuable manure. Kainit and other 

 potash manures would also have their solubility much 

 increased, and so become mucli more v.dnable by 

 being mixed with the tan some time before its 

 application to land. 



If any of your correspondents learneil in sc entific 

 agii-horticulture would give us. through the medium 

 of your columns, theirj opinions on this subject, they 

 would, I feel .'ure, interest a large class of your 

 readers.— .J. B. E. — Gardeiurs' CliriMicli: 



I'ADDY (RICE) CULTIVATION IN THE 

 CENTRAL PROVINCE OF CEYLON. 

 (Bv a Cei/lone.10.) 

 The soil in the Kandyan fields is a species of 

 black clay. When the ploughing is done, and the 

 water is let in, the whole becomes pulpy, for we do 

 not say muddy. And as the sower walks it, scat- 

 tering his seed, knee-deep in mud, each time he 

 lifts his foot he draws out with it a large clod of 

 clay, so that his footmarks leave, so to speak tiny 

 ))its of water, and not soil. I'nder such conditions, 

 the theory, that making nurseries of paddy and tran.s- 

 plautiug them would be an improvement among the 

 Kandyaos is a dream which will not be realized. The 

 graphic description of grain cultivation in Palestine, 

 as told us in the parable, is but the jjicture of 

 paddy cultivation in the CcEitrol Province. It is note- 

 worthy that the occupation of the sower is the 

 especial privilege of one or two men in a village 

 ■ whose hand is thought to be "lucky." It is not 

 every one who can do the work. 



The preparation of th(^ seed corn is carefully attended 



to. The stalks that stand upright without fallmg 



to the ground, and, not containing damp, are thought 



1 to be the healthy-bearded grain. They are cut; the 



1 grain together with the straw is stacked insL.le Ihi' 



