FERTILIZING SUBSTANCES. 145 
season changes, the water is evaporated by sun and 
wind, tue fertilizing matter is left behind in the soil 
not chemically absorbed but in solution in the sensi- 
ble moisture. 
6.—This fertilizing matter, as the ground dries up, 
is given up to the atmosphere and renders the coun- 
try unhealthy. When land is drained it becomes 
fertile and malaria disappears; the fertilizing matter 
can now be chemicilly absorbed by the soil. 
7.—When organic matter is left to decay on the 
ground, rain takes what is soluble down into the soil, 
where it is absorbed up to solution. This is the way 
in which wild vegetation is supplied with fertilizing 
matter, and, as the whole mass of roots derive the 
benefit, it is the best way, provided the fertilizing 
matter is not dissipated in the a’mosphere, or carried 
away by floods. 
8.—The- vital force of the rootlets is able to over- 
come the chemical force of absorption, and due exer- 
cise of the function increases the power of the tree 
to take up its food, as muscular exercise increases 
muscular power, and a good digestion is better than 
a good supply of nutritive soups. 
Jv.—As tne soluble products of decaying vegetable 
matter are carried down into the soil by the rain, as 
also the roots of the trees excrete eff-te matter, and 
as the rootlets themselves are shed like the leaves, 
the humus, though being constantly used up, is as 
constantly supplied. 
10.—Terracing, tile draining, surface manuring, and 
thatching, appear to me the best methods of culti- 
vating coffee, as far as the soil is concernea. The 
first two are expensive certainly, but then the present 
chena method cannot go on for ever. 
11.—Terracing shuld be accompanied by draining, 
for the water having soaked through the upper ter- 
races will have lost all value, and should be let off 
at the sides, 
FERTILIZING SUBSTANCES FOR CEYLON 
COFFEE LANDS. 
(From the Ceylon Observer.) 
Our best thanks are due for a copy of the Report 
for 1870-71 of the Ceylon Planters’ Association. 
Amongst information of a useful neture on subjects 
which have been already discussed to a more or less 
extent, we are surprised to find, for the first time 
published, a lengthy and most important contribu- 
tion to our knowledge of the chemistry of that branch 
