MANURES AND MANURING. 2O5 



more active and more fitted to meet the wants of 

 quick growing crops. For Coffee and Tea planta- 

 tions a more useful auxiliary manure can scarcely 

 be obtained. This costs about Rs. 15 J per ton, 

 delivered in Madras or Colombo, and perhaps 

 200 Ibs. per acre would be an average allowance. 



Cotton seed, which had been steeped in urine 

 or water to destroy its vitality, is again undoubtedly 

 one of the best manures we possess, and is suited 

 for any crop that will grow. In cotton seed we 

 have a large quantity of fertilizing matter con- 

 centrated in a very little bulk. It is thus well 

 suited for planters, and where, in order to reduce 

 the cost of transit, it is necessary to get a portable 

 concentrated mamire. 



All the different preparations of bones are 

 valuable, whether as boiled bones, crushed bones, 

 bone dust, bone black, or in the form of super- 

 phosphate, chiefly in yielding phosphate of lime. 

 Though in the raw state bones yield a large per- 

 centage of ammonia, still it is as a means of 

 adding phosphate of lime to the soil they are 

 chiefly employed, as it is phosphoric acid and 

 phosphate of lime that all cultivated crops appro- 

 priate so largely. Bones are costly in India, but 

 there seems little probability of their becoming 

 cheaper, as their use is becoming much more 

 general, especially amongst Tea and Coffee planters 

 on the hills. " Our only hope of obtaining phos- 

 phatic materials at a fair price," observe the 



