MANURES AND MANURING. 2OQ 



this system the cost of a heavy littering, in which each tree 

 has a very heavy coolie-load of grass, is 355. per acre. One 

 such heavy littering, and two light ones of about 2os. per acre 

 each, are sufficient for a year, that is, about 755. per acre per 

 annum for weeding and manuring. I am of opinion that, 

 after two or three years of this treatment, the land would be 

 able to bear several successive crops without requiring the 

 assistance of litter." 



A danger of this litter-manuring is that of fire. 

 Burying the stuff in trenching might be a remedy, 

 or leaving every 2Oth to 24th row unlittered would 

 confine a chance fire to a limited area. 



When we come to the subject of artificial 

 manures, intended to replace those substances of 

 which the land shall stand in need, we come indeed 

 to an extensive subject one upon which discussion 

 has raged for twenty years and is still raging. The 

 chief elements required by all crops are phosphoric 

 acid, potash, magnesia, and nitrogen : the latter 

 either in the form of nitric acid, as it exists in 

 nitrates of soda and potash, or ammonia, as in 

 sulphates and muriates of ammonia, or in the form 

 of organic nitrogen, as in bones, blood, and other 

 animal refuse. 



" What," we recently asked of an Ipswich firm 

 which supplies concentrated fertilizers to estates 

 in all parts of the world, " is the form of fertilizer 

 most generally appreciated and demanded by your 

 clients ? " Replying, they say : 



" DEAR SIR, In answer to your enquiries, we invariably 

 advise our friends to purchase superphosphate, and have added 

 to it, at the estate in India or elsewhere, Bengal saltpetre, 



