76 MANURES AND MANURING. 



while lime must never be in a caustic state; when applied 

 its best forms are gas-lime and gypsum. 



The manure most freely applied and most relied on in 

 countries where it is available, is cattle dung, and with 

 the view of keeping up a regular supply of it, many 

 estates keep a considerable stock of cattle for this pur- 

 pose alone, and which are, in many instances, stall-fed 

 with grass and oil-cake. But in many of the coffee-grow- 

 ing countries this form, owing to a fatal obstacle in climate 

 is not obtainable, for while, in some countries, grass can 

 be readily grown all the year round, in others it is found 

 impossible to provide any quantity of grass for even any 

 part of the year, and cattle have to be grazed all day to 

 support them at all. Besides the fatal objections to the 

 foregoing kind of manure, there are others which serve to 

 show that it is only under very favorable circumstances that 

 cattle manure could be used with advantage. The first 

 is the bulky nature of the manure and the consequent 

 cost and labor of application, and the second, and by no 

 means the least, is the great risk run of losing stock by 

 disease. The latter consideration should be sufficient to 

 deter the planter from depending on a manurial source 

 which is liable to be suddenly cut off at any moment. 



Another form of manure in use among planters is bone 

 manure, the value of which for all crops and in all 

 countries, combined with its extreme portability and 

 cheapness of application, renders it by far the most im- 

 portant of fertilizers for coffee. This form, mixed with 

 the pulp of the coffee is a popular one on many planta- 

 tions. The pulp being moist prevents the bone dust 

 from being blown away, and when heaped up before 

 using, the heat that is thereby generated seems to exercise 

 a considerable effect upon the bone dust. Still another 

 excellent manure is made from alternate layers of farm 



