THE FERTILITY OF SOILS IN THE TROPICS 429 



in holes, made with a crowbar to a depth of from 18 to 

 24 in., all round the banana stool, at a distance of from 

 3 to 5 ft., and the rest of the fertilizer as a top-dressing. 



The Narico-bean, planted as a green-manure crop on 

 the second plot, did not grow too well, although well 

 manured, and this must have been due to the acid nature 

 of the soil and want of lime. The crop was ploughed 

 in and the second series of bananas planted September, 

 1910. 



The results of the experiments, as shown by the yields 

 (Table II), speak for themselves. 



Rows i and 2, of the first series, may be left out of 

 account, as the land at that point is a little low-lying, 

 and suffered from heavy washaways during storms in 

 the first year of growth, and the stools in these rows 

 were also more directly exposed to the cold winter winds. 



The unmanured and lightly manured rows showed from 

 the very start want of vigour in the plants, and demon- 

 strated clearly what to expect when replanting such 

 depleted lands without artificial fertilizers; whereas ex- 

 periments with double quantities of fertilizers gave excel- 

 lent yields. A striking feature on poor land is the 

 formation of so-called "blind bunches/ 7 The banana 

 sucker, as soon as the bunch appears, seems to lose its 

 vitality, the leaves drop off, and the stalk bends over, 

 often breaks off, as if it had not sufficient strength to 

 support even a small bunch of fruit. Most of the bunches 

 in the unmanured and slightly manured rows were of 

 this nature. The heavily manured plots produced good 

 heavy bunches, many with fifteen and sixteen dozen 

 bananas; the plants have a much healthier appearance, 

 and are much more robust to withstand the severity of 

 the cold weather during the winter months. 



In my sixth Progress Report on the experiments 

 {Queensland Agricultural Journal, June, 1913) I stated 

 that the quantities of artificial fertilizers applied, can 

 be well considered a world's record, as in some instances 

 nearly 2 tons of artificial fertilizers are applied yearly, 

 and the cost of the manure, 2(KPN), amounts to above 

 25 per acre, and in the case of experiments where lime 

 was used in addition to the other fertilizers to a total 

 of 29 per acre. 



