Edible Products. 



408 



[May, 19 j 2. 



ation are Moors, and very energetic 

 cultivators who have done so much for 

 the development of the district. 



During Sip A, Havelock's term the pro- 

 duction of paddy continued to rise and 

 reached the record figure of 10 7 M. B. 

 in 1895, although the rainfall of the agri- 

 cultural year 1891-5 was (at Colombo) 73 

 inches, owing to a very moderate South- 

 West, but fortunately the North-East 

 was ample and general, and tlie crops all 

 over the island wer e good. 



(To be Continued.) 



FERTILIZERS AND THE GROWTH 

 OF RICE. 



Jose Zamora. 



(From the Philippine Agriculturist and 

 Forester, Vol. L, No. 8, October, 1911.) 



A9 a preliminary experiment, to furnish 

 data for the intelligent planning of field 

 experiments on the application of fertil- 

 izers to rice, a set of pot cultures was 

 started in March, 1911. Twenty-one 

 earthen pots were thoroughly cleaned 

 and dried. They were then soaked on 

 the outside with coconut oil, to prevent 

 evaporation from the pots themselves, 

 and consequent gradual removal of salt 

 from the soil. 



900 g. of a mixture of two parts loam 

 and one part sand was put into each 

 pot. Rice seed of an upland variety 

 was germinated between filter papers, 

 February 20, two days after germination, 

 chosen uniform seedlings were trans- 

 planted one to each pot. The fertil- 

 izers were applied at the same time. 



Chemically pure salts were used in these 

 experiments, the preparations being made 

 in the chemical laboratory. Molecular 

 solutions of the various salts were made 

 up ; from these solutions such quantities 



were measured with a burette as con- 

 tained the weight of pure salt stated 

 below in grams. These amounts are 

 based on the assumption that rice is 

 planted 25 cm. apart in each direction, 

 or 160,000 plants to the hectare, and that 

 a hectare is fertilized, in the case of pot 

 1 with 214"4 kg. of ammonium nitrate, 

 and 92'48 kg. of potassium phosphate. 

 The other fertilizers are modifications of 

 that used on this pot, with the same 

 relation to amount per hectare and need 

 no further explanation. 



Ninteen pots were fertilized, of which 

 one was destioyed early in the experi- 

 ment. Two check pots, unfertilized, 

 were kept with these throughout. For a 

 part of the time a number of other pots 

 were kept as checks, and the growth of 

 all these was notably uniform. Through- 

 out the experiment daily measurements 

 were made of the growth of each leaf of 

 each plant. The keeping of such com- 

 plete growth records made it impossible 

 to use such a number of plants as would 

 of course be needed to get results of high 

 reliability regarding the relation of the 

 fertilizers to the yield. The preparation 

 of these complete growth reports, show- 

 ing the differences in the development 

 of the rice under the influence of the 

 different fertilizers, the constant effect 

 of the treatment, was the primary object 

 in making this study. But the necessity 

 of transferring this work to Manila, 

 involving the necessity of growing the 

 plants under somewhab abnormal con- 

 ditions make it appear now hardly worth 

 while to publish the results at such 

 length as to include these measurements. 

 The grosvth tables would more than fill 

 an issue of this magazine. In spite of 

 the inadequate illumination of the plants, 

 the experiment is not without value. 

 Its results are shown in summary in 

 the following table :— 



Plant Salts 



I. 



II. 



III. 



IV. 





VI. 



VII. 



VIII. 



X. 



XI. 



NH4NO3 



1-34 



1-34 



1-34 



1-34 



1-34 



1-34 



1-34 



0-67 



0-67 



2-68 



K2HPO4 



0-578 



0-578 



0-578 



0-578 



578 



0-578 



0-578 



0289 



0-289 



1-156 



CaH4(PO)2 





1-103 



1-103 



1-103 



1-103 



1-103 



1-103 





0-5518 



2 206 



MgCb 







0-8506 

















M g (N0 3 )2 









0-8506 















M g SO* 











0-8506 





0-8506 









No. of leaves 



12 



13" 



13 



13" 



14 





13 



13" 



13." 



13" 



Height in mm. 



721 



1140 



771 



851 



830 



893 



943 



860 



870 



688 



Flowering date 

 Grains, Number 



Jl-6 



Jn. 30 



Jn. 21 



Jn. 26 



Jn. 16 



Jn. 30 



Jn. 12 



Jn. 26 



Jn. 30 



Jl. 3 



61 



75 



68 



67 



73 



68 



71 



60 



56 





