and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— May, 1910. 459 



rubber branches join overhead. A good story 

 in told of a young Scotish 8. D., who got up a re- 

 gular rebellion with his weeders. The P.D. came 

 out and, asking the meaning of it all, was told : 

 " Can you no see what I am doing ? " He had 

 had all the weeders weeding uphill, a thing they 



simply cannot do. " Well/ 1 said he, "Mr. 



they have been pulling all yer soil down to the 

 river for the last 30 years, and I'm tryin' ma best 

 la get U back for ye" ! 



We are told of one coflee Superintendent 

 who used to pursue tedious searches for his 

 pickers, tracking them in the trodden down 

 weeds ; pickers on that estate had to tread down 

 the weeds round the coflee trees before they 

 could start the picking ! 



"THE FERTILISING ^INFLUENCE 

 OF SUNLIGHT." 



This is the subject of an article in N ttureoi Feb 

 17th, to which our attention has been directed. It 

 is written by Mr A Howard, Imperial Economic 

 Botanist of Pusa Research Institute, and Mr 

 GLU Howard, also of that Institute. It notices 

 what we have already dealt with some months 

 ago, the discovery of Drs. Russell and Hutch- 

 inson that partial sterilisation of the soil by 

 heating or by poisons leads to an increase in the 

 supply of nitrogenous compounds and to in- 

 creased fertility. These discoverers had also 

 asked : — "Is it possible to suppress the phago- 

 cytes, which live on bacteria in ordinary field 

 soils, by any economical and practical process?'' 

 The answer is in the statement that the best 

 cultivators (ryots) in the Indo-Gangetic plain for 

 centuries past expose the alluvial soils of the 

 plains of India to the intense heat and light of 

 the Indian hot weather in April and May. The 

 beneficial result on the succeeding crop is extra- 

 ordinary, and has all the effect of a nitrogenous 

 manuring. Except in market garden crops near 

 the cities and in crops like sugar-cane and 

 tobacco, manures — it is stated — are but little 

 used in India. The extended use of cheap light 

 iron soil-inverting ploughs during the hot dry 

 weather after the rabi harvest would do much 

 to bring about a better exposure of the soil to 

 the sun, and a more complete sterilisation. The 

 wooden ploughs now in use are not adapted to 

 open up the heavier lands unless they are mois- 

 tened by rain, and in consequence a large area 

 of the arable land is not ploughed at all until 

 the monsoon. The Messrs. Howard consider 

 one of the greatest improvements possible in 

 Indian agriculture would be to impress on the 

 ryot the value of weathering all arable lands in 

 April and May to a much greater extent than is 

 done at present. In collaboration with Mr H M 

 Leake, economic botanist to the Government of 

 the United Provinces— the well-known old Dul- 

 wich boy and Cambridge Scientist, youngest son 

 of Mr W Martin Leake (Ceylon Association Secre- 

 tary) — the Messrs. Howard referred to have had in 

 progress for the past five or six months a series of 

 experiments in which the practical effect of 

 weathering during the hot months on both the 

 yield and quality of wheat is being ascertained, 



TEA EXPERIMENTS AT PERADENIYA* 



A most valuable and interesting Peradeniya 

 Gardens' circular, which has just come to hand is 

 one, exceptionally well illustrated, describing the 

 tea plots at the experiment station, Peradeniya. 

 It should certainly be purchased by all the tea 

 planters. After a full account of what has been 

 done at the experiment station, conclusions, 

 pointing conclusively to the great benefit to be 

 derived from green manuring, even without 

 the aid of artificials, are given. The best green 

 manure for the elevation and soil, it is stated, is 

 the Dadap, and the next Crotalaria. It is not 

 advisable, however, to sow the latter unless there 

 is sufficient labour on the estate to cut it at the 

 right moment. The statements that Crotalaria 

 is liable to cause serious diseases if grown as a 

 green manure are misleading ; when cut at the 

 right moment, while soft and green and before 

 flowering, it is harmless. There is no class of 

 green manure that will give so much material 

 in the first twelve months after sowing, nor dis- 

 integrate the soil so completely by its root 

 growth. A plan of the experimental plots is 

 given, there are several tables, and the photo- 

 graphic reproductions illustrate a view of Crota- 

 laria, Dadap and Albizzia plots, a plot manured 

 with cattle manure, showing the rested bushes, 

 and a 'singlo' indigenous plot, showing vacancies 

 from removal of inferior jat bushes. 



"FERTILISERS FOR TEA." 



South Indian Scientific Officer's Paper. 



The information contained in the following 

 notes has been kindly supplied by the proprietor 

 of several South Travancore tea estates for publi- 

 cation for the benefit of tea growers : — 



The estates in question are at elevations ran- 

 ging from 1,200 to 3,000 feet, the temperature 

 ranging from a minimum of 64 65 degrees in 

 December and January to a maximum of 87-88 

 in the same months, the average minimum being 

 68, which is also the minimum from May to 

 November, and the average maximum 83. The 

 annual rainfall is about 168 inches, the dry sea- 

 son lasting from November to March, the aver- 

 age rainfall for the three months from January to 

 March being only 4 - 2 inches. The wet season is 

 from April to November with an average of 161 "2; 

 June, July and August being the wettest months. 



The soil is a fairly free loam containing decom- 

 posing Gneiss and Cabook. It has a fair me- 

 chanical condition, but chemically it is some- 

 what deficient in Nitrogen, Magnesia and 

 Phosphoric Acid. It also contains very little 

 of the lower oxides of Iron, but a fair amount 

 of Potash which would be rendered available by 

 cultivation. The mechanical analysis was : — 



Fine soil passing 90 mesli . . 20-00 



do. do. 60 mesh .. '29-00 



Medium do. 20 ine o h .. 3-00 



Coarse sand and small stones ... 48-00 



108-00 



The essential parts of the chemical analysis 

 showed ; — 



Organic matter ... S'90 



Oxide of Iron and Manganese 7*20 

 Lime .,, U'lU 



