The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



' Yes, I can, but they are too fragmentary to 

 be of any value. I don't think anybody has 

 made definite and extensive measurements of the 

 growth oi the trees, and I have only odd figures. 

 1 don't trust the figures pubhshod by the com- 

 panies. They very olteu pick out trie best trees 

 and are much too liable to take selected rows. 

 When t havd gone to measure the trees on an 

 estate 1 have simply gone right through the 

 whole estate, regardless of the ground, and 

 measured ten or a dozen" rows right through, 

 every tree in these rows." 



"In these circumstances,'' continued Dr. 

 Willis, "ad 1 can say is that I have never yet 

 found an estate that averaged four inches a 

 year over all its trees, whereas you see compauy 

 figures much larger than that, iu these cases, 

 however, i am not certain that they have not 

 picked out the trees." 



In conclusion, Dr. Willis remarked that 

 he thought that Ueylon was in for a 

 period or very considerable prosperity. It 

 had got its eggs in a good many baskets, and 

 most of the baskets seemed to hold the eggs 

 saiely. Ueylon was no longer dependent on one 

 small crop, but had a lot of paying crops, tea, 

 rubber, cocoa, coconuts, cardamoms, and a num- 

 ber of other things. 



Dk. Willis' New Post. 



Dr. Willis goes out to Rio de Janeiro to be 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens there. "It is a 

 post iiRe this was when I came out here," he said. 

 •'.Rio is a large town, and the Gardens are iu the 

 town, and a great public resort, like Kew. The 

 Garueus are eight miles from the actual centre of 

 Rio, but the electric cars pass the gate every two 

 or three minutes all day long, and people come 

 out by scores of thousands." 



Dr. Willis will be responsible for the introduc- 

 tion of new plants, but there will be a difficulty in 

 obtaining anything from (Jey Ion as there is strict 

 legislation against plants from (Jeylon, in order to 

 keep out the coffee leaf disease. Brazil supplies 

 more than three-quarters of the coffee consump- 

 tion of the whole world, and inland from Rio there 

 are nearly a million acres iu coffee alone. There 

 is as much land planted in coffee in South Bra- 

 zil as is planted in everything in Ueylon. The in- 

 troduction of new plants, however, is important, 

 as from them new industries are started. With 

 the exception of coconuts aud rice all the indus- 

 tries in Ueylon were introduced through the 

 Peradeniya Gardens, cinchona, tea, cocoa, rub- 

 ber, and a good many other things. The only 

 thing really native in Ceylon is cinnamon, aud 

 possibly rice, but that is doubtful. As far as 

 fSouth Brazil is concerned all the eggs are in the 

 coffee basket, and they want to get something 

 else. Their difficulty is labour. It is practically 

 a white man's country, where the ordinary do- 

 mestic servants get Rs. 1UU a month, aud all 

 labour is expensive. The coffee estates are 

 worked mainly by Italians, who are far more 

 efficient than the peopie in Ceylon, but they have 

 to be paid correspondingly highly. The labourer 

 there gets Rs. 5 a day. 



vVe wish Dr. Willis a happy and useful time in 

 his new sphere of activity. 



GREEN MANURING. 



A LECTURE BY MR. KELWAY BAMBER. 



The following are extracts from Mr. Bamber's 

 lecture on the improvement of tea by green 

 manuring, careful pruning, and pluckiug, given 

 at the recent meeting of the Dolosbago P.A., 

 reported elsewhere. He said : During the last 

 few years considerable attention has been paid 

 to this subject, and results generally have fully 

 warranted the trouble aud expense incurred. 

 Mistakes have no doubt been made from inex- 

 perience as to the most suitable plants for the 

 soil and district, and from not realising the 

 rapidity of growth of some of the leguminous 

 plants and the amount of labour required to 

 deal with it efficiently. The object of green 

 manuring was, in the first instance, to replace 

 the organic matter in the surface soil. Most of 

 the ongiual jungle soil in Ceylon was rich iu 

 humus from the accumulations of leaf mould 

 and decaying vegetation, which largely ac- 

 counted for the luxuriant growth of coffee or tea 

 when planted in such newly-cleared soil. The 

 want of efficient drainage in the past and the 

 prolonged action of a tropical sun and heavy 

 rainfall soon accounted for not only the actual 

 loss of the original surface soil, but the more or 

 less rapid oxidation of the humus in the sub- 

 soil, from which the nitrogen required by the 

 plant was chiefly derived. With the 



LOSS OF SURFACE SOIL AND HUMUS, 



and the available limes in the soil, bacterial 

 activity must have steadily diminished, with the 

 result that nitrification took place far less rapid- 

 ly, and in many instances practically ceased. This 

 naturally resulted iu slower growth of the tea 

 bushes themselves, more marked hardening of 

 the wood and less capacity tor yielding heavy 

 and abuudant flushes. To remedy this it was first 

 necessary to restore as far as possible the physi- 

 cal aud chemical properties of the original soil. 

 Artificial manures alone could to a large extent 

 restore nitrogen and the essential mineral con- 

 stituents such as lime, magnesia, phosphoric 

 acid and potash; but the comparatively small 

 amounts of organic matter supplied by 300 or 

 4UU lb. of various cake-residues, could have but 

 little physical effect on the soil. Green manuring 

 was, therefore, the only way to restore the origi- 

 nal fertility, and for several years now legumi- 

 nous and other plants, indigenous to Ceylon, 

 and brought from other tropical countries where 

 tea was being grown, have been experimented 

 with at the Government Experimental Station, 

 Peradeniya, and on a larger scale on many es- 

 tates in the Island. Crotalarias of several van- 

 ties have been tried with varying success. 



CROTALARIA STRIATA WAS THE MOST SCUCESSFUL, 



and yielded large quantities, eight to nine tons 

 of green material per acre during the year. It 

 had, however, several objections, oue of which 

 was the difficulty of getting it established in 

 very poor washed soil. This caused a patchy 

 growth, and unless weeding was carefully at- 

 tended to, weeds grew apace and seeded freely 

 in the thinner spots causing an increase in the 

 subsequent cost of weeding. It grew most luxu- 

 riantly during the busy season months, when 

 the labour was not available for cutting and 



