IS 



poonac or the bone. As regards the availability of bone meal 

 Dr. Kellner's experiments conducted in Japan are probably the 

 most valuable to us. He found that bone meal was, under the 

 conditions which existed in his experiments, much more available 

 than the results of Wagner, Maerker and other German investiga- 

 tors indicated. Kellner found bone meal about as available as 

 Basic Slag, and in that case the after effect is of course relatively 

 small for if the principal part of the fertilizer is used the first year 

 there is not much left of it for the second and third years. What 

 I saw on Mr. Sprott's estate seems to indicate that Kellner's results 

 obtained in Japan are more likely to apply to India than Wagner's 

 experiments made in Germany. Mr. Sprott had put out what ap- 

 peared to me very coarse bone meal to one of his fields about 10 

 months before I visited his estate. This bone meal was left on the 

 surface and only covered by the leaves which gradually dropped 

 from the shade trees and coffee bushes. All we could find of this 

 bone meal was a splinter a little over an inch long and a little less 

 than half an inch thick, and this crumbled to powder when rubbed 

 between the fingers. You will agree with me, I am sure, that this 

 indicates that under the conditions existing on Mr. Sprott's estate, 

 bone meal decomposes very quickly. Possibly the reason for this 

 is that the bone meal is surrounded by decomposing organic 

 matter, and that the carbonic acid produced helps to dissolve the 

 bone. 



Mr. DANVERS : — I think the solubility of Mr. Sprott's bone 

 manure is largely due to the nature of the plots to which it was 

 applied. I am still digging up bones in my estate that were put 

 out 9 or 10 or even 25 years or more years ago. 



I would like to ask Dr. Lehmann whether he has had any oppor- 

 tunity of ascertaining if there is any difference in quality, judged 

 by analyses, between coffee from these manured and unmanured 

 experimental plots ; whether there has been any deterioration in 

 the unmanured coffee or improvement in the manured ? 



Dr. Lehmann : — I have not had an opportunity of determining 

 the specific gravity of the coffee from these plots. I shall do so, 

 with Mr. Harris and Mr. Denne's permission, in future. But as 

 there has been no difference in the average quantity of coffee pro- 

 duced apparently manures have had no effect on these plots ; and 

 I do not know whether it will be reasonable to expect that manures 

 had an effect on the quality if they had no effect on the quantity. 

 In regard to the matter of bone manure, I am very much interested 

 in what Mr. Danvers has told us. It seems to confirm the idea I 

 have given you just now in regard to the reason why Mr. Sprott's 

 results are different from those obtained in Europe. In the expe- 

 riments made in Europe with bones in pot-cultures, the soil in the 

 pots is comparatively poor in organic matter. Although Mr. C. 

 Danver's estate soil contains more organic matter than is used in pot 

 culture it does not contain as much organic matter as there is, or 

 was, on the surface of Mr. Sprott's estates. I may here mention 

 another idea I have ; that is, that the organic matter on the surface 



