54 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE chap. 



Leguminoui has been tried with success in the West Indies in cane 



green crop Cultivation ; pigeon peas and what are called Bengal beans 



manure. jj^ g^^ Kitts have been raised and then cut down and 



ploughed into the land ; but the system is not followed so 



widely as it deserves. Another way in which the plan could 



be employed would be by burying in the ground the heavy 



crops of weeds that the abundant rains of the West Indies 



do not fail to make the land produce. The weeds should be 



Weeds not to hoed up before they seed, for "one year's seeding makes 



toseed?^'^ Seven years' weeding," as. the old proverb says, and to bury 



the seeds in the soil is to preserve them for future 



germination. 



Sea-weed, fern foliage and all other similar vegetable 

 materials that may be obtainable, make excellent green crop 

 manures, and those West Indian planters whose lands lie 

 near to forests, or to a shore strewn with sea-weed, should 

 not neglect the opportunities thereby offered, of a plentiful 

 and cheap supply of manure that contains many if not most 

 of the elements necessary for the food of cultivated plants. 



Cheap Special Manures are often called artificial, not because 



manures. ^^^^ ^^^ ^lj made artificially, but in order to distinguish 

 them from farm yard or natural manure. There are many 

 kinds of special manures, but they may be all referred to 



Four classes four principal classes, namely: — i. Nitrogenous manures. 



manured' -' Phosphatic manures. 3. Calcareous manures. 4. Potash 

 manures. If farm yard manures could be obtained by all 

 planters in sufficient quantity for their lands, there would 

 be no necessity at all for special manures ; but it is very 

 rarely the case that enough general manure can be obtained 

 on an estate, and the successful agriculturist is forced to 

 fall back on the various special manures that chemical science 

 has shown to contain the elements of fertility wanting in his 

 soil. 



Nitrogenous Manures, as their name implies, are rich 

 in nitrogen, which, as we have seen, is an important plant food 



