24 Importance of Good Phijsical Conditions of Soil. 



In conjunction with a planter friend in India I once 

 endeavoured to ascertain the consumption by coffee of 

 potash, with the view of seeing how far it was advisable 

 to add it to our manures, and there were accordingly 

 taken with great care two samples of soil — one from 

 the virgin forest land, and the other from land immedi- 

 ately adjacent to it, from which twelve crops of coffee 

 had been taken without any manure being applied to the 

 soil. The samples were sent to Professor Anderson, of 

 Glasgow University, and he was asked to spare neither 

 pains nor expense in carefully examining the soils, with 

 the view of seeing how far the cropped soil had been 

 exhausted of potash. The result seemed at first sight 

 to be remarkable ; for the soil from which the twelve 

 crops had been taken was found, from a chemical point 

 of view, to be very little deteriorated except as regards 

 lime, which was rather less than in the virgin soil. But 

 the explanation evidently was that the leaves shed from 

 the shade trees and stones decaying in the soil had 

 supplied the small quantity of potash and other in- 

 gredients removed by the crops. " Why, then," asked 

 my friend, who had called on the Professor to hear the 

 result of the inquiry, " can young coffee plants easily be 

 grown on the virgin soil while we have the greatest 

 difficulty in growing them on the cropped soil 1" 

 "Simply," was the answer, "because the virgin soil is 

 in a fine granular state, and in perfect physical con- 

 dition, while the soil in the plantation, after having 

 been rained upon, and walked upon, and exposed to 

 the elements, has lost its original fine physical condi- 

 tion." In other words, it had become more or less 

 consolidated, and therefore was a bad nest in which to 

 grow young coffee plants. Here, then, we have an 

 important practical illustration of what, I feel sure, 

 must frequently be the case — namely, that what is often 

 attributed to manurial deficiency, or, in other words, 

 poverty of soil, is largely owing to physical defects. 

 And if these tell largely on a, comparatively speaking, 



