Importance of Good Physical Condition. 25 



means of my contimially observing and studying the 

 eifecta of the presence or absence of good physical 

 conditions of soil. I think it would be difficult to 

 find a more thoroughly practical experience than that 

 which I will now proceed to describe. 



In conjunction with a planter friend in India I once 

 endeavoured to ascertain the consumption by coffee 

 trees 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 virgia forest land, and the other from land 

 immediately 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 ingredients 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 ?" 

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

 in a fine granular state, and iu 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 con- 

 dition." 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 



