506 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



WATTLE CULTIVATION. 



A planter who has experimented in a small 

 way with the bark of "Acacia dealbata " 

 (wattle), is of opinion that it would prove a 

 profitable investment if taken upon on a large 

 scale on waste land at a certain elevation not 

 suitable for tea, rubber or camphor. Our 

 correspondent is anxious to know " what His 

 Excellency, fresh from Natal, thinks of the 

 Wattle industry there, and the prospect here ? 

 The Governor has no doubt an opinion on the 

 matter." — One thing is certain: that as the 

 jungle barks, on which local leather tanners at 

 present depend, gets scarcer and dearer, there 

 may be a profitable demand for the bark of 

 our wattles ? 



COCONUT CULTIVATION AND SALT. 



April 24th. 



Dear Sir, — To me, who has agitated oft' 

 and on for the past 27 years for the issue of 

 3alt at special rates for agricultural purposes 

 generally and more especially for coconut 

 cultivation, the extracts Mr Petch has placed 

 at your disposal from the "Philippine Journal 

 of Agriculture," and which you have published 

 in your issue of the 22nd instant, (sea page 491) 

 are rather disquieting. 



An ounce of practice is worth more than tons 

 of theory. By a strange coincidence I had a visit 

 on that very day from Mr Tarte, the proprietor 

 of very extensive coconut estates in Fiji, he 

 told me. We were discussing coconut cultiva- 

 tion, and he told me casually that he had a field 

 of coconuts on which the fronds of the trees 

 were yellowing. He applied salt to these trees 

 with very beneficial results. The soil of Fiji, 

 as well as of all the Islands in the South 

 Seas, is volcanic and is deficient in lime, but 

 it cannot be deficient in salt, swept as it is by 

 salt-laden winds and periodic cyclones. Yet 

 an application of salt was beneficial to 

 coconut trees. It may be, as you say, that 

 the deficiency of lime in Ceylon soils accounts 

 for the beneficial results which followed the 

 application of salt to coconut estates in Jaffna. 

 On the estate I am writing from, I applied 

 lime and kainit, which contains 25 per cent of 

 common salt, to backward fields of coconuts, 

 which never responded to ploughing and 

 manuring before, and the soil of which 

 I had had analysed specially by Mr. Bamber. 

 The most encouraging results followed. 

 When the gentleman (i forget his name) 

 who was interested in steam-diggers, was walk- 

 ing round this estate with me, and passed 

 through one of these fields of coconuts, just 

 being tilled, he saw the trees and said he had 

 no idea that cultivated coconut trees could be 

 so bad. The trees now have a full head of dark- 

 coloured fronds and are bearing heavily. I have 

 repeatedly applied lime and kainit to trees 

 whose fronds were yellowing, with invariable 

 good results. With my practical experience 

 detailed above, I must record a most emphatic 

 dissent from the theoretical dictum that " Upon 

 ' coconut soils that are light and permeable, 



common salt is positively injurious. Salt 

 in solution will break up and freely combine 

 with lime, making equally soluble Chloride of 

 Lime, which, of course, freely leach out in 

 such a soil and carry down to unavailable 

 depths these salts, invaluable as necessary 

 bases to render assimilable most plant foods." 

 Practical experience will reveal that in "light 

 and permeable " soils, coconut roots and root- 

 letsare in full possession of the soil (often in 

 too full possession) and manurial substances 

 can not be carried down past these roots and 

 rootlets to "unavailable depths." 



" So injurious is the direct application of salt 

 to the roots of most plants," &e. The roots of 

 the coconut tree do not come under the cate- 

 gory of " most plants," as observation shows 

 that they revel in the seashore and find their 

 way into the sea. 



It being a matter of common knowledge that 

 the natural home of the coconut tree is the salt- 

 saturated seashore, one finds it hard to under- 

 stand that in the inland career of the coconut 

 industry and the records of Agricultural Che- 

 mistry " both conclusively point to the fact that 

 its presence (of salt) is an incident that 

 in no way contributes to the health, vi- 

 gour and fruitfuhiess of the tree." Did not the 

 analyses of Mr Cochran, and published in your 

 columns, show that the husks of coconuts 

 grown in Kurunegala gave more salt than the 

 husks of nuts grown on the seashore ? 1 inter- 

 pret that as an "incident" that points con- 

 clusively to the opposite of what is asserted. 



"The salt water from the sea has no influence 

 on the trees in its vicinity, as amounts of 

 Chlorine so small in quantity as to be negli- 

 gible, were found to be present even at the bases 

 of coconut trees which were actually growing in 

 the beach." The analyses of Mons. Lepine as 

 given in the " Manual of Chemical Analyses " 

 show that all the products of the coconut tree 

 draw annually from an acre of soil 53-78 lb. of 

 Chloride of Sodium. 



To sum up, practical experience is opposed 

 to the dictum of science that "upon coconut soils 

 that are light and permeable common salt is 

 positively injurious " or " that salt in solution 

 will break up and freely combine with lime, 

 making equally soluble Chloride of Lime, which, 

 of course, freely leach out in seed and soil and 

 carry down to unavailable depths these salts, &c." 

 I have applied lime in combination with potash 

 and salt (kainit) and the chlorides "invaluable 

 as necessary bases to render assimilable most 

 plant foods" were not carried to "unavailable 

 depths," but were taken up by the roots which 

 were in full possession of the soil and yielded 

 most encouraging results both in the healthy 

 appearance of the trees and in big crops. 



I heartily endorse your suggestion that the 

 Low Country Products Association should 

 apply for the issue of salt for experimental 

 application on several coconut estates with 

 varying conditions as regards soil, situation, 

 lie, rainfall, &c. It is to be hoped that this 

 application, will meet with more encouraging 

 results than was the application to be repre- 

 sented on the Labour Commission.— Truly yoursj 



