Dec. I, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



447 



SuoAB. — Notwithstanding the depression in the 

 sugar trade, a new liind of sugar is auuounce.I, It 

 is niidefrom tlie date palm by making incisions in 

 the lower branches, and collecting the sap which 

 flows thence contirually from November to ^March. 

 The sap is afterwar.ls clarified and boiled down. — Dr. 

 J. E. Tavloe in Jri/iis. 



CorfEE. — At the Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincing- 

 lane, a meeting ot importers, buyers, and brokers 

 connected with the coffee trade has been held, to 

 consider the advisability o£ alterations of the terms 

 for tlie sale of coffee in London. The chair was 

 occupied by Mr. \V. H. I'eat, and there was a 

 very numerous attendance. There was a long dis- 

 cussion with reference to the abolition or ecjualis- 

 ation ot discounts, the abolition or reduction ot draft, 

 the sampling of coffee, and also a proposal that 

 the dock and wharf companies should be reipiested 

 to alter their rates and reduce their cost of re- 

 weighing and re-housing. The chairman spoke of 

 the great importance of the meeting, owing to the 

 depressed state of trade, and the need of the appoint- 

 ment of a thoroughly representative committee, who 

 would give their attention to the matters wliich 

 affected all sections of the trade. Mr. E. Eucker 

 remarked that whereas in the United Kingdom 

 since IHdO the consumption ot tea had gone ahead with 

 enormous strides and the consumption of cocoa 

 had also very largely increased, that of coffee had 

 diminished very much. The imports, which in 1881 

 ■were (i'J.OOO tons of coffee, had fallen off to 41,000 

 tons ia 188i, which was not much more than half 

 what it was four years ago. He hoped that all 

 connected with the trade will combine together and 

 see it they could find out the cause of the decrease, 

 and do something to improve the trade. He especially 

 hoped that they would endeavour to tackle the 

 question of adulteration, which, he thought, was 

 greatly injuring the trade. After a long discussion 

 the meeting elected a representative committee of 

 importers, brokers, and exporters to consider the 

 questions affecting the sale of coffee iu London 

 for the purpose of reporting to the trade and ob- 

 taining their sanction to any alterations which might 

 be deemed advisable. — L. iC C. E.vpn'ss. 



The Soil. — As all my readers understand, there are 

 few practical applications of modern chemical discoveries 

 of greater value than those applied to agriculture. Hence 

 the eagerness with which our liritish scientific agricul- 

 turists (and I am proud to note there are such 

 men, and al^o that their number is daily increasing, 

 notwithstanding agricultural depression) read any- 

 thing which comes from the jjens of Dr. Gilbert, 

 Sir J. B. l.awes. or Mr. "Warrington. The latter has 

 just published a paper on " Nitrification." As some 

 of my rcadi rs are doubtless aware, ab^-ut two years 

 ago considerable astonishment was createil by Sir 

 John Lawes's expression of o]>inion that nitrogen 

 was made available for the use of plants by the presence 

 of nndlituiliuons 01 ganisnis in the soil. Mr. "NA'arrington 

 uow steps in to corroborate this opinion by further 

 observation, as far as ob.^ervation has gone. He has 

 not himself the slightest doulit that soils contain what 

 he calls ''nitrifying organisms," and he shows that 

 they are ruled by temi?erature. He proves that nitrific- 

 ation does not take place in soil brought up from 

 great depths, where his theort.ticul organism has not 

 penetiatid. Indeed, nitrification seldom takes place 

 at a greatta' depth than nine inches from the sin-face. 

 His general conclus-ions are as follows: — Nitrification 

 proceeils far more rapivlly in summer than iu winter; 

 it is most rapid in darkness; the pre^:ence of oxygen 

 is necessary; a solution receiving an abundant supply 

 of the nitrifying ferment willexliibit speedy nitrification ; 

 the latt(;r will not take pbico in acid solutions; 

 alkalis are iiece>s.^ry, and lime appears to be the 

 liest means of inilucing it (hence the pr.actice of 

 " liming the land," now nearly disused, was scienti- 

 fically correct); sewage camiot be nitrified uidess 



abunilant carbonate of lime is present. The strongest 

 solution in which Mr. Warrington has found nitrification 

 commenced contained carbonate of ammonia equal 

 to 3()i miUogramines of nitre per litre (the litre 

 being a little more th.an a quart) wben carbonate 

 of ammonia is in excess (and m\ny people think 

 they can't put too much of a "good thing" into 

 their land), the nitrification of the soil is effectually 

 hindered, .although all the other necessary elements 

 may be present. In the absence of phosphates 

 no uilrific.atioii can take place. If the soil is 

 chloroformed uitrificatinu cea.ses ; if ic be heated to 

 a high degree the .same thing occurs. When sewage 

 is heated to the boiling point it is useless and 

 steiUizeil, although nitrification can be started in it 

 when cold by adding a few drops of a nitrified .solution. 

 The evidence is gaining weight that our soils are 

 nitrified by the presence of multitudinous bacteria. — 

 Dr. J. E. T.4Yr.oi£ in Aiyits. 



The Use of Lime.— it is a sort of axiom among 

 farmers that " where lime is used the land and the 

 farmers are rich." This is .an old but true adage and 

 deserves to be made one of the established axioms of 

 agriculture. It is true in two ways — one, that 

 lime is an exceedingly valuable fertilizing agent of 

 itself, and in addition exerts a most beneficial influ- 

 ence upon the soil as a solvent of the silicates, chiefly 

 of potash, and also in decomposing organic matter in 

 the soil and favoring its nitrification and the produc- 

 tion of the iudispensable nitrates which so greatly 

 enrich the soil, the other that its use is one of thos* 

 higher attributes of skilful farming which is consist- 

 ent only with the best culture of the soil and the 

 most thorough and systematic working of it. It is, 

 in fact, in the farmer's bands, one of those instru- 

 ments which is rarely or never found excepting where 

 every part of the farm work is done iu the most 

 excellent manner, so that it is not so much that the 

 tanner uses lime as that he uses it as a part of a 

 system of farming which is thoroughly e.xcellent, and, 

 of course, very profitable. Lime is thus not to be used 

 in a liaphazard way, and simply to extract from the 

 soil the la.st vestiges of fertihty it can bring out. 

 When thus used another common adage, that "lime 

 enriches the father and impoverishes the son," will 

 surely be found true, because it is like a last turn of 

 the screw which squeezes the last drop of juice from 

 the cider mill. The place of lime in good farming is 

 its application^ to the land at the Fall season when 

 rye or wheat is sown and grass and clover seeding 

 follows. The lanil has then become more or less sup- 

 plied with organic matter from the roots and waste 

 of previous crops, and it has accumulated a store of 

 nitrogenous and carbonaceous matter which cannot be 

 made available until it is decomposed nor until a 

 sufficient quantity of mineral matter h,as been set 

 flee in the soil to balance the supply of plant food 

 required for a new rotation of crops. Besides, at this 

 season and with Fall grain the regular manuring of 

 the land is given, and the manure is generally coarse 

 and uridcciunposed. It is precisely nndcr such con- 

 ditions that lime is of the greatest usu and value and 

 fits the soil for a new round of crojis. 'J'he quantity 

 of lime usually applied is 40 to 50 bushels per acre 

 freshly burned or stone lime. In the air-slacking by 

 which it is prepared for use it swells to three time's 

 its original bulk and becomes a fine [powder which 

 is spread from a wagon, with a long handled shovel, 

 evenly over the soil. This should be done upon the 

 plowed land inunediately before sowing, when it is 

 h.arrowed in previously. As lime is quite soluble in 

 this fine condition, requiring only TOO times its own 

 bulk of water to dissolve it, it should never be plough- 

 ed in, or it will be very quickly carried down into 

 the soil below the reach of the roots of any plants, 

 excepting those clover. Clover is one of the plants 

 which .are wonderfully benefited by lime, and it is 

 for this reason among many others, that its use is 

 to be encouraged, because it provides the skilful farmer 

 with one of the mo.st valuable sources of manure 

 riz., a lioavy clover sod to be plowed in. — Seir York 

 Times, given in Noulliein Plitnter. 



