748 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[Mav I, 1886. 



salt by measure — a proposal which the Government 

 have after a careful consideration, already negatived, 

 and see uo reason for departing from their decision 

 on the point. The true remedy for the unsatisfactory 

 state of things which exists with regard to the 

 ([uality of the salt non-.'-olJ lies in taking steps as 

 will ensure nothing but good salt being excised or 

 passed oat of monopoly factories or depots. For this 

 purpose a Committee composed of Messrs. J. H. 

 Garstin, c. s. i., and J. F. Price, c. s., Deputy Surgeon 

 General BiJie, c. i. E., and Surgeon Major J. J. L. 

 Eatton, has been appointed by Government, and it 

 mil consider (1) The standard of quality to be fixed, 

 (2) The test of ijaalities to be applied, the officer 

 by whom it should be carried out, and the method 

 of appHcation, and (3) the question how salt rejected 

 should be disposed of, and to such other points as 

 may occur, or be suggested to them in the course of 

 their enquiry. — Madras MnV. 



FISH MANURES. 



It was little more than forty years ago that the 

 first importation of Peruvian guano occurred in Scot- 

 land. About twenty years ago the imports of Peruvian 

 guano attained their maximum, and they have since 

 gradually dwindled away — the rich deposits of guano 

 are now e.xhausted, and there remain only poor 

 deposits, which iu a great measure will not repay the 

 cost of importing. 



To find something that will take the place of a 

 high-class Peruvian guano is of course a great desider- 

 atum, and it has been claimed for fish and flesh 

 manures that they are the modern representatives of 

 Peruvian guano, and the name " guano " has, therefore, 

 been applied to them. Their composition, so far as 

 total phosphates and nitrogenous matters are concerned, 

 lends some support to that opinion, but the resembl- 

 ance is only a superficial one. 



The composition of Peruvian guano was a very 

 complicated one, and the constituents were of a delic- 

 atelj'-balanced kind, capable of easy decomposition 

 in the .soil, and the effect of these upon the crop was 

 very rapid an<l precise. A large proportion of the 

 phosphates were alkaline, and therefore immediately 

 soluble, while the noitrogeuous matter con.iiisted chiefly 

 of ammonia salts or complex soluble substances, which 

 were rapidly converted into ammonia salts or nitrates, 

 and were thus made inimudiaely available for the 

 nourishment of plants. " Fish guano," on the other 

 hand, and flesh manures, such as " Frey-Beutos guano," 

 consist of phosphates which are insoluble in water, 

 and of nitrogenous matters of an albuminoid kind, 

 which are only slowly decomposed in the soil. Before 

 these constituents can be used by the plaut, they must 

 Jirst be dissolved or decimipused, and that is a process 

 which takes some time. The iusolubihty of these 

 manures renders them unsuitable for application in 

 circumstances where Peruviau guano exerted a powerful 

 iulluence, such as in the startingaway of cereals or young 

 grass when applied as a top-dressing. 



Those substances are chiefly valuable for broadcast 

 manuring with the view of raising the general fertility 

 of the soil, or for application to root-crops which have 

 a prolonged period of growth. The utility of fish guano 

 in thcBu respects has been very clearly ilemonstrated 

 at the experimental stations of the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society. The fish guano plot has gone 

 on steadily improving since the beginning of the 

 experiments, and it has been noticed that the Turnip 

 crops havo looked fresh and continued their growth 

 far on in the season. The only year in which a 

 marked ilefieiency in that plot was manifest was iu 

 1884, at the Pumpherstou station, when a crop of 

 Beans was grown. The very backward state of that 

 plot on that occasion pointed out very clearl3' wherein 

 lies the chief deficiency of fish manure. The results 

 obtained with the Bean crop exc-'oded iu interest anj' 

 that had occurred before upon the station, and the 

 one overruling constituent in a Bean manure was shown 

 to be pota.sh. All the plots that had pota.sh applied to 

 them did well, and those that had the largest ilosc of 



potash did best, while those that had no potash applied 

 to them were a failure. The most notable failure 

 was seen in two plots which had been manured with 

 fish guano and fish meal. 



It is characteristic of fish manures that while they 

 contain much phosphate and abundance of nitrogenous 

 matter, they contain scarcely any potash. But it is 

 well known that the abundance of some fertilising 

 constituents in a manure counts for nothing iu the 

 raising of a crop if one of the e.ssential constituents 

 of plant food is absent, or if the one which the crop 

 requires most is present in insufficient amount. AVe 

 therefore found that the plots manured with fish 

 manures produced a smaller crop than any other plot 

 save one, and that was the plot to which no notash 

 bad been applied since the beginning of the ex- 

 periments. 



We thus see that there have been two causes at 

 work to lower the value of fish manures in the estim- 

 ation of the farmer ; in the first iplace he has been 

 led to expect, from the misleading name under which 

 it has been .sold, that it would be a manure resembling 

 in its efficacy Peruvian guano, with whose extra- 

 ordinay fertilising power he had been familar ; and 

 secondly, the nearly total want of potash, which, 

 though not abundant ia Peruvian guano, was never- 

 theless present iu that manure to the extent of about 

 3 per cent. 



What, then, is needed in order to make fish manures 

 once more attractive to the farmer 'i They should 

 be sold under a name that does not raise fals(( ex- 

 pectatious, and they should have potash salts added 

 to them. They would be still further improved if 

 there were added to them some high-class superphos- 

 phate and a little sulphate of ammonia. For general 

 purposes I would recommend a fish manure so mixed 

 as to show from 5 to 10 per cent soluble phosphate. 

 15 to 20 per ceut insoluble phosphate 10 per cent of 

 ammonia partly soluble, and 4 per cent of potash, 

 and I feel sure that if manufactures can produce such 

 a manure it will rapidly become popular with farmers, 

 and produce a good market for a substance of which 

 there is truly an inexhaustible supply, and the result 

 will not only be a gain to agriculture, but also a 

 means of giving greater stability and security to our 

 fisheries, which have lost much in the past from the 

 wholesale destruction of valuable fish material. — Ex- 

 tract from a paper by Dr. A. P. Aitken. in the 

 North British AgricuUurUt, l&a. 27, 1886. — Garieners' 

 Chromcle. 



TEA PLUCKING. 



Plucking has been receiving much more attention 

 during the last few years, and deductions made go to 

 prove that with even greater care, better results could 

 be obtained. AVe are glad to learn that agents are 

 having their eyes opened to the damage done by writing 

 repremands for short outturn when the manager has 

 been adopting a wise policy in sparing Lis bushes, so as 

 to get as large a surface ujion them as possible. Some 

 planters we know aver that tlie tea bush should be kept 

 down to a certain height, and that if allowed to grow 

 beyond this, the flushes cease to be as vigorous, or as 

 frequent. Wo are prepared to admit that tliere is some 

 truth in this, but we think that the height the bushes 

 should be allowed to grow to, as well as the breadth are 

 easily determined by the vigour which they display. 

 According, then, to the vigor of the bush should the 

 style of plucking be suited. It is of course impossible 

 to apply such a system to every individual bush; but 

 but there is no reason why it should not be applied to 

 sectiona of a garden. If bushes are large anil vigorous 

 it stands to reason that they can sui)port a larger 

 number of suckers, and feed a larger number of eyes ; 

 therefore at the beginning of the season it would be 

 advisable to allow the first flushes to grow out longer 

 and leave more axils thau woiUd be the case with less 

 vigorous bushes. No planter of course desires to have 

 weak bushes, but at the same time in uearly every 

 garden a cert^iin proportion of poor bushes are to be 

 found; and generally some sections are more to liable 



