76 MANURING OF ESTATES. 
MANURING COFFEE ESTATES. 
(From the Ceylon Observer, 5th April 1871.) 
The most interesting topic discussed in this con- 
nection of late has been the .effect of manures on old 
estates, and, in addition to several other communica- 
tions, we have received to-day the following valuable 
_expression of opinion from a very competent authori- 
by 
Kanpy, 4th April. 
Dzar Sir,—Although not one of the shining lights 
whose opinion has been specially solicited by you on 
the all-important question of manuring old estates, 
still as one who has spent some £15,000, and a 
greater portion of his time during the last three years, 
on artificial manures, peradventure you will permit 
me space for a few remarks thereon. 
I am ‘a man under authority,’ having excellent 
superintendents to whom I have only to say: Put 
Sombreorum here or Bones and Poonac there, so many 
ounces to a tree, and it is done—and with all the 
punctuality and care which those most interested 
could desire. The board placed by the wayside in- 
dicates the nature of the application and date thereof. 
For the first year our work was purely experimental ; 
we wasted much money and gained much valuable 
knowledge—if I am right, as I believe I am, that 
the result has been a system of cultivation by which 
we can renovate many of the exhausted properties, 
while we preserve the younger estates from premature. 
decay, you will agree with me the experience has 
been cheaply purchased. 
In all these experiments it is but right to say I 
have had the valuable assistance of the most intelli- 
gent estate managers, men whose apathy towards the 
P, A. is much to be regretted, because there one 
might expect such subjects to be ventilated ; but 
what can any Chairman do if unsupported by the 
experience and intellect of the various districts ? 
We do not go to Yakdessa to learn planting, and 
it is quite as absurd to expect the Chairman of the 
P. A. to enlighten us on cultivation. Much less do 
I presume to come before you with an Essay on 
Manuring. My time is not my own—any more than 
the results of the manure. I merely wish to state, 
briefly but emphatically, that old estates can be reno- 
vated, and that artificial manures do pay. Who among 
us on re-visiting our native land have not seen the 
black moor, where erstwhile our grandfathers dug 
their praties, now transformed into rich fields of 
waving corn, and by what? Simply by artificial man- 
ures; and if such results can be obtained in such a, 
