August, 1910.] 



151 



Miscellaneous. 



Cyprians, quotes Morrison as saying 

 that where the rainfall is heavy A. 

 mellifica bees cannot be said to succeed 

 at all, and that he would not try to keep 

 bees where the rainfall exceeds 60 in. 



Mr. Campbell, in his letter referred to 

 above, says : "I was always in favour 

 of making use of the native bee, which 

 has tbe hereditary iustinct of avoiding 

 the attacks of its enemies." 



Analyses and Reports.— In reply to 

 an inquiry from a correspondent as to 

 whether barbed wire fixed spirally rouud 

 coconut trees to prevent the theft of 

 nuts would damage palms, the Organiz- 

 ing Vice-President reports that the 

 Goverment Mycologist is of opinion that 

 it is not likely to cause disease. 



In forwarding an analysis of a soil 

 sample taken from a paddy field at 

 Ponativu in Babticaloa District, the Go- 

 vernment Agricultural Chemist, under 

 date June 20, wrote : "The soil is a gray 

 clay in a fine state of division. There 

 is a fair supply of magnesia and potash, 

 but the lime and phosphoric acid are 

 poor, especially the latter. The humus 

 matter and nitrogen are fair, but efforts 

 should be made to increase them with 

 cattle and green manure. As paddy 

 consumes large supplies of phosphoric 

 acid, and this is deficient in the soil, the 

 manure must contain a large supply 

 of phosphoric acid. I would recommend 

 the following manure to be broadcasted 

 evenly over the field : 1 cwt. finely 

 Ground Fish, 1 cwt. Bone Char, 1 cwt. 

 Kainit, £ cwt. Basic Slag ; 3| cwt. to an 

 acre. The mixture is to be thoroughly 

 incorporated with the top soil, followed 

 by a top dressing, as evenly distribut- 

 ed as possible, of £ cwt. Sulphate of 

 Ammonia and £cwt. concentrated Super- 

 phosphate per acre when the young 

 shoots appear." 



The following is the same officer's report 

 on a sample of soil from Dalugama, 

 Kelaniya, made on June 24: "It is a 

 brown sandy soil with a good deal of 

 clayey matter present, which is detri- 

 mental to the growth of coconuts. The 

 mineral plant food is poor in potash and 

 very poor in phosphoric acid ; the lime 

 and magnesia are in fair proportion for 

 this class of soil. To counteract the 

 clayey tendency cultivation should be 

 persevered with forking, draining, and 

 liming, which will all tend to open up 

 the soil and give freer aeration to the 

 roots. Lime should be applied by broad- 

 castiug burnt lime* at the rate of 3 cwt. 

 per acre. 



"As a general manure, I would recom- 

 mend the following to be forked in 



round tho trees at the rate of 14 lb. per 

 tree about 5-6 ft. from the trunk. 



Phos- 

 phoric Potash 

 Nitrogen. Acid. Per. 

 lb. Per Cent Percent. Cent. 



Fish 



Groundnut Cake . . 

 Blood meal 

 Steamed Bone Dust 

 Concentrated Super- 

 phosphate 

 Kainit 



Sulphate of Potash 



350 

 200 

 100 

 100 



50 

 150 

 50 



17-5 

 140 

 11 



3 5 



14 — 



23 



21 — 



18 



25-0 



1,000 46-0 58-0 43-0 



"Some months afterwards an appli- 

 cation of 1 lb. Basic Slag plus lib. Kainit 

 per tree would be advisable." 



The following is an analysis of Tephro- 

 sia purpurea (Sin, Pila ; Tarn, Karalai) 

 received from the Government Agricul- 

 tural Chemist on July 19 : — 



Weight as Weight Mistnre Percentage 



received, of Sun lost of Moisture 



dried, in Sun. in Sun. 



gnis. gms. gms Per Cent . 



Twigs, leaves, 



and pods 2, 125 752 1,373 64 61 



Roots ... 147 66 81 44"89 



Sun Dried Sample. 



Organic 

 Matter 



Moisture Organic contain- 



at 2129 F. Ash. Matter. ing Ni- 

 trogen. 



Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. 



Twigs, leaves, 



and pod* 17-50 3-65 78-85 2"24 

 Roots ,.. 12-50 2-75 84.75 0"84 



Ash Analysis of Ihe whole Plant :— 

 Lime 28-00 %; Magnesia 14-40%; Potash 

 11*96 % ; Phosphoric acid 16 00 % 



Per Cent. Per Cent. 

 Leaves ... 42-00 58'10 

 Twigs ... 30 30 41-90 

 Roots ... 27 '70 — 



100-00 100-00 



Leaves and Twigs. 



Moisture at 212° F. 

 Nitrogen 



Nitrogen on sample 

 dried at 212°F. . 



The subjoined analysis is of Crotalaria 

 juncea (Sin. Hana), another valuable 

 green manure plant (also useful for fibre 

 and fodder), kindly made for the Society 

 by the Government Agricultural Che- 

 mist :— 



Leaves. 

 Per Cent. 



Twigs. 

 Per Cent. 



Leavts 

 and Twigs 

 Per Cent. 



.. 7'00 

 .. 3-47 



6-00 

 1-76 



6 57 

 2'75 



. 3-73 



1-87 



2-94 



