486 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



BASIC SLAG. 



The expert evidence heard in the libel action, 

 Gilbertson and Co. v. The Western Counties 

 Agricultural Co-operative Association (Limited) 

 was of vital interest to users of basic slag. This 

 by-product in the manufacture of steel has 

 worked its way into favour on its merits, and it 

 is now one of the chief phosphatic manures. 

 Many of the leading scientific and practical 

 authorities were heard, but their evidence was 

 strangely contradictory. The point in dispute 

 was whether the value of basic slag depended 

 upon the total phosphates it contained, or only 

 upon the percentage soluble in a weak solution 

 of citric acid, known as 



THE WAGNER TEST. 



The importance of the question is shown by the 

 fact that, whereas advocates of the Wagner test 

 estimated the value of a given material at 9a. 

 per ton, the opposing witnesses put its value at 

 as high as 45s. to 48s. The decision in the case, 

 which was one for libel, does not throw any 

 light upon the aspect of it which affects the 

 farmer. He is left to draw his own conclusions, 

 although the matter is of the greatest impor- 

 tance to him. The problem surely is capable of a 

 definite solution. The names of the expert 

 witnesses are sufficient guarantee that they are 

 actuated only by the purest motives, and it 

 might be suggested that they co-operate, perhaps 

 with the assistance of the Development Com- 

 mission, in carrying out an investigation which 

 would settle once for all a question of great 

 agricultural and commercial importance.— Lon- 

 don Times, Oct. 28. 



JAFFNA TOBAGOO AND MR. FREE- 

 MAN'S REPORT. 



Nov. 21st. 



Deak Sir, — In referring to the G.A., N.P.'s 

 Administration report and to his statement that, 

 however it may be improved, Jaffna tobacco is 

 too gross for the European market, you say that 

 Mr Freeman's opinion is likely to have a dis- 

 quieting effect. 



I presume that what Mr Freeman means by 

 " Jaffna tobacco " is not all tobacco raised on 

 Jaffna soil, but the variety of tobacco as culti- 

 vated there for generations. If so, his opinion 

 is the same as that of most people. If aDy 

 attempt is to be made in the North to grow to- 

 bacco there are two conditions necessary:— 

 (1) a new variety of leaf must be grown— not 



the coarse "jat" required for making the 

 Jaffna cheroot, and (2) the application of 

 heavy dressings of cattle manure must be 

 abandoned. With the production of a suit- 

 able leaf it would be possible to teach the 

 Jaffna man how to " mild cure" his tobacco, 

 in place of the barbarous method now in 

 vogue, whereby the most objectionable quali- 

 ties of tobacco are developed in a product 

 that should be classed with such narcotics as 

 " ganja " (Indian hemp). Dr. Chalmers is 

 reported to have said that the Jaffna cigar as 

 found in the bazaar — a black, evil-smelling ob- 

 ject reeking with some added fluid to give it 

 potency — was the chief cause of the degener- 

 ation, physical and mental, of the lower classes 

 in Ceylon ! 



However this may be, I fancy that old Jean 

 Nicot, who gave his name to the plant {Nino- 

 tiana tabacum), would be horrified if he could 

 see to what base uses the leaves are put in the 

 North, of which no one who is not in the secret 

 of the manufacture of the Jaffna cheroot 

 knows. — Yours truly, 



C. 



FISH IN THE PUNJAB. 



Conservation Operations. 

 Attempts are now being made in the province 

 to improve the supply of fish in the Punjab 

 rivers and canals. Mr Howell, C S, has been on 

 special duty in connection with this subject 

 during the past year, and after studying the 

 methods employed in America and Madras, he 

 returned to the Punjab in December. The lines 

 on which the conservation of indigenous species 

 is to be attempted are three-fold. First the 

 provision of adequate ladders at all weirs on the 

 main rivers, which obstruct the free movement 

 of migratory species ; second, the protection 

 of the spawning ground ; third, prevention 

 of the whole-sale destruction of fry and im- 

 mature fish in the canals during closure. A 

 disused supply channel of the Lower Chenab 

 Canal at Chenawan is being adapted as a breed- 

 ing and stock-pond for the more valuable 

 cyprinoid species, such as rohu, catla and nori. 

 There are probably, says the report, few coun- 

 tries in the world which can compare with the 

 Punjab, with thousands of miles of harnessed 

 rivers, as a field for rough-and-ready methods of 

 pisciculture, and the indigenous species are 

 mostly so hardy and so prolific that with rea- 

 sonable protection through egg and larval stages 

 they cannot fail to increase and multiply. Brown 

 trout have been introduced into the Beas in 



