MANURING COFFEE. 193 
The system which, by means of a copious. use of 
‘artificial manures, M. Ville has inaugurated at Vincen- 
‘mes, the naturally poor soils of which are made to yield. 
large and profitable crops year by year, he calls ‘‘ Free 
and continual rotation: stable manure mixed with 
chemical manure.” The coloured square for this systen 
is, like that devoted to the irrigation system, with- 
‘out any subdivisions. We have instead the words :—- 
“* Absolute freedom 
Meadow or arable 
The crops are double those grown on the other sys- 
tems.” 
By the words ‘‘ meadow or arable,” is of course meant, 
that by the new system either the whole or part of a 
farm can be devoted to meadow for the profitable feeding 
of cattle, the meadow land being heavily manured with 
suitable substances, and the cattle fattened with sub- 
stances other than the grass or clover. But, although 
in such cases the cattle manure may be utilized, its 
effect being enormously increased by the addition of 
chemical manures, the object is not to grow grass &c., 
to feed cattle for the sake of their manure. If convert- 
ing the whole of the land into arable is deemed the 
better and more profitab!e course, byre and stable manure 
can be entirely dispensed with and maximum crops ob- 
‘tained by the use of four substances applied according 
to what is found to be the dominant principle of the 
particular plant. The four substances required, some- 
times the whole of them and sometimes only three or 
even two, are, as We mentioned in our previous article :— 
Nitrogen, 
Phosphoric acid, 
Potash, 
Lite. 
Now, judging by the composition of the ashes of the 
bean, potash ought, we suppose, to be regarded as the 
dominant principle in coffee, But before preparing a 
manure for coffee, Mr. Ville would inform himself of 
‘the composition of the soil to which the manure was to 
be applied, and be would learn that on young estates, 
such as those of Dimbula, Dikoya or Maskeliya generally, 
‘there was a considerable store of potash derived from 
the forest burnt on the ground, in the clay of the soil, 
-and in the gradual'y decomposing felspar of the rocks. 
M. Ville, who distinctly recognizes the value of clay 
asa receptacle of potash, would, we suspect, join Mr. 
Hughes in stating that, for soils like those we have 
alluded to, the application of potash was not so much 
needed as treatment, such as forking and liming, which 
would render the etored-up potash available. We are 
Q 
