84 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



of Proprietors and Agents in Colombo were 

 received and approved by this Committee, 

 and a Special Committee was appointed to 

 promote the formation of the proposed Labour 

 Federation. As a result of the deliberations of 

 the Special Committee a Report was drawn up 

 and circulated among Ceylon Proprietors and 

 representatives in this country, together with a 

 form for signature signifying approval of the 

 formation of a Federation on the lines recom- 

 mended in the Report. Favourable replies have 

 since been received from Proprietors repre- 

 senting 191,478 acres. The papers have been 

 forwarded to Ceylon for the consideration of 

 the Committee there. 



In reply to a letter from the London Port 

 Authority inviting comments on a draft Schedule 

 of Maximum Rates proposed to bo charged, the 

 Committee recommended that the maximum 

 rates for Tea, fixed at 3/4 and for Coffee and 

 Cocoa at 1/6 per ton, should be made the same 

 not exceeding 1/- per ton, and that that for 

 Rubber, fixed at 5/- per ton, should not ex- 

 ceed 2/6 ; also that the import dues on all Colo- 

 nial produce re-exported should be refunded. 



No schedule of working rates has yet been pub- 

 lished, but at an interview granted recently to 

 Mr R K Magor, Chairman of the Indian Tea 

 Association, Mr J McEwan, of the Tea Buyers' 

 Association, and your Secretary, Sir Hudson 

 Kearley, Chairman of the Port Authority, stated 

 that they would be generally only half the 

 maximum rates. Under this arrangement the 

 charge on Tea would be 1/8, Coffee and Cocoa, 

 9d., and Rubber 2/6 per ton. It was also stated 

 that the rates would be subject to revision from 

 time to time. 



An offer was received from the International 

 Exhibitions Department of the Board of Trade 

 of a site for a Tea Room at the Turin Exhibition 

 of 1911. The offer was submitted to the Thirty 

 Committee in Ceylon, but was declined on the 

 ground that, in the opinion of the Tea Commis- 

 sioner, any available funds could be devoted 

 with greater advantage to the opening of a Tea 

 Room in Vienna, similar to that already openod 

 in Munich. 



PASSIFLORA AS A GREEN DRESSING 

 FOR RUBBER. 



In my report upon a tour in Travancore it was 

 Mentioned that when Passiflora foitida is used 

 as a green dressing, it should be planted out 

 from nurseries in beds down the rows and culti- 

 vated. The following account of how best to 

 grow Passiflora as a green dressing in Rubber 

 has been received 



FROM ME. G, ATKINS, OF MUNDAKAYAM ESTATE. 



Mr Atkins has had a good deal of success 

 with Passiflora and by his method establishes a 

 complete covering of it : — 



'About 5 lb. of seed was sown broadcast in an 

 open abandoned Nursery about end of April ; 

 Creepers were taken out in July 9 inches long 

 and planted in the following manner in a field 

 of 20 acres of rubber. Midway between each line 

 a single continuous ridge was raised about 1 foot 

 in height and on this Creepers were dibbled in 

 at 1 ft. apart ; the field had been first forked and 



clean weeded. During August and September 

 growth of Passiflora was very thin ; by end of 

 October, however, it had practically covered the 

 whole ground. I found it necessary to occa- 

 sionally weed to end of December. From Janu- 

 ary to March no weeding was done, but I have 

 now again to go in for occasional weeding. The 

 passion vine appears to thrive better in alluvial 

 than in a gravel soil ; and I think it is necessary 

 to plant it closer in the latter kind of soil. There 

 is no question about it preventing wash, and to 

 a considerable extent it prevents weeds from 

 coming up. It, of course, should be evenly plan- 

 ted, and grown thick if the object is to keep 

 down weeds. 'I cannot say that the rubber has 

 in any way benefited from it so far. My object 

 is to let it grow for the present, and in Novem- 

 ber or January next to cut it up and fork it in as 

 a dead mulch for the wet weather. And I feel 

 certain that I shall then get the full benefit 

 from the creeper. It is such an easy plant to 

 grow and gives such a good cover to the ground, 

 that I mean to give it a very careful trial before 

 condemning it in any way. I shall be very glad 

 to place the results of my little experiment here 

 at your disposal.' 



Probably it would be a better plan to leave the 

 cover growing during the dry season, or if cut 

 over to leave it as a dry mulch on the surface 

 instead of digging it in. It could be forked in at 

 the end of the dry season just before a new crop 

 was planted out to prevent wash during the 

 monsoon. — Rudolph D. Anstead, Planting 

 Expert. — Planters' Chronicle, June 4. 



THE SYNTHETICAL PRODUCTION OF 

 AMMONIA IN GERMANY. 



Important to Planters Manuring Artificially. 



Berlin, May 12. —In view of the rapid increase 

 in the demand for fixed nitrogen and the steady 

 diminution of the Chile saltpetre deposits, the 

 manufacture of ammonia from its elements, 

 nitrogen and hydrogen, would be of enormous 

 industrial importance, and would bo the mere 

 advantageous economically inasmuch as nitro- 

 gen and hydrogen can be obtained at a cost 

 which only amounts to a fraction of the market 

 price of ammonia. 



The synthetical production of ammonia has 

 so far been considered impossible from a tech- 

 nical point of view, the iuertness of nitrogen 

 at low temperatures, and the slight affinity 

 between that element and hydrogen at high 

 tempgratures, seeming to exclude any possibility 

 of practical success. Dr. F flaber, Professor 

 at the Oarlsruhe Technical High School, has 

 shown, however, in a series of experiments 

 carried out with the assistance of Mr. R Le 

 Rossignol, that the direct combination of the 

 two elements can be realised in such a way as 

 to lend itself to commercial utilisation by the 

 aid of enormous pressures far exceeding any 

 so far applied for technical purposes in con- 

 nection with gas reactions. It is true that even 

 at a pressure of 200 atmospheres the com- 

 bination of the elements is always incomplete, 

 but the ammonia as it is formed can be re- 

 moved by the use of a high-pressure circulating 

 system, comprising in a closed cycle a reaction 



