and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— July, 1919. 79 



of the district wherein such premises are located 

 shall cause such dead coconut trees or stumps, 

 coconut, timber or rubbish heaps, vegetable 

 refuse, or other such matter to be removed or 

 destroyed, and the costs necessary therefor shall 

 be a lieu upon the property and collectable as 

 are other taxes upon real property. 



Sec. 5. — All provincial, district or municipal 

 officers shall have access at all reasonable times 

 into and upon any land whereon any coconut 

 tree is growing for the purpose of inspecting 

 such tree and also into and upon any land or 

 premises where there is reason to suppose that 

 there are kept any such things as in article three 

 hereof are referred to.- -Mindanao Herald. 



LEAF MANURE. 



The question of the provision of leaf manure 

 has been engaging the attention of the Madras 

 Board of Revenue and the District officers 

 during the last two years, and in May last 

 year the Government passed orders on the 

 recommendations of a Committee appointed 

 to consider and report on the question of the 

 supply of green leaf manure by the Forest 

 Department. It was then laid down that its 

 functions were mainly limited to the production 

 and supply of seed of green manure plants, and 

 the Agricultural Department was instructed to 

 arrange for the supply of seed of the different 

 green manuring crops in quantities sufficient 

 to supply the demand at the lowest price com- 

 patible with the avoidance of loss. At the same 

 time the Government directed that the seign- 

 iorage on green leaf manure should be raised 

 so as to .approximate to its real market value. 

 The latter order was sooner carried out than 

 that for the distribution of seed for raising green 

 manuring crops ; in many districts ryots have 

 had to suffer much from what has apparently 

 been felt as a measure of hardship, viz , the 

 sudden raising of the price of forest leaf " to 

 a figure which might prove to be prohibitive." 

 The Board of Revenue has accordingly reduced 

 the scale of prices by about 50 per cent in some 

 districts such as S;>uth Arcot, Nellore, Ohittore 

 and Ramnad, and even lower in the case of 

 others. These revised rates, however, will hold 

 good for a year, subject to report on the effect 

 they have produced upon removals and the 

 extent to which other forms of green manure 

 or seed for raising green manure crops are 

 available in each district. The object of the 

 Government is to put an end to the practice of 

 the ryots relying upon forest leaf, and to induoe 



them to resort to raisingi green manure crops on 

 their own land. There is much to commend in 

 the policy of raising one's own green manure 

 on one's>wn land and ploughing it into the 

 soil ; but the ryot who is intelligent enough to 

 appreciate the value of green manure is not 

 often sufficiently educated to realise the eventual 

 economy of raising it on his-own field. A wrong 

 impression prevails among the ryots, that land 

 sown with a green manure crop is as liable to 

 be assessed as land growing an ordinary crop ; 

 and any misapprehension that may exut on this 

 head must be removed before the movement can 

 become thoroughly established among ryots. 



GROWTH OF CAMPHOR PRODUCTION. 



Abtificial Goods Prove too Costly for 

 Rivalry with Nature. 



The camphor production of this country last 

 year was 2,000,000 kin, a record figure for many 

 years past. Of the total, 650,000 kin were expor- 

 ted, 950,000 kin taken by home refineries, 350,000 

 kin used for the manufacture of celluloid, and 

 the rest consumed for various other purposes. 



The artificial camphor disappeared from the 

 market last year, owing to unremunerative cost 

 of its manufacture. On the other hand the de- 

 mand for natural camphor increased as the re- 

 sult of thediminution of the supply from Fukien 

 province, China, owing to the revolution. It is 

 impossible to increase the domestic production 

 without risking the destruction of the forest?. 



The! demand in the home market is on the 

 increase year after year. Last year 600,000 kin 

 were consumed for the manufacture of celluloid, 

 which promises to increase in future along with 

 the advance of the industry. The demand for 

 other purposes is likewise increasing and, con- 

 sidering that the production cannot be further 

 augmented for the reason stated, the quantity 

 of crude camphor available for export will be 

 necessarily reduced. The plan to raise the price 

 by the Monopoly Bureau is thought impracti- 

 cable, because in that case China could supply 

 the foreign markets with its production, and the 

 higher price would encourage the manufacture 

 of synthetic or artificial camphor. If the demand 

 for the artificial product should continue to in- 

 crease, it would rosult in the invention of less 

 expensive methods, which would be likely to 

 injure the interests of the State monopoly. The 

 authorities are investigating the matter, which 

 is of grave concern. — Japan Times, May 11. 



