380 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



the gun and wind to dry up, when women are 

 put on to break up the clods, pick out weeds 

 and roots, and there the preparation of the 

 ground ends. After a few showers shallow tren- 

 ches are taken out with mamootios, a sprinkling 

 of dry manure is put in each trench in which 

 the set is put and the trench is filled in, the seed 

 in very few instances being more than four 

 inches below the surface. In preparing either 

 new or old ground it is imperative that it must 

 be deeply stirred, certainly not less than 18 

 inches. It should then have a good dressing of 

 well rotted manure spread over it, say 20 good 

 cartloads to the acre, and be again forked over, 

 thus turning in the manure. Trenches should 

 now be drawn 9 inches deep and 24 inches apart, 

 in which the sets may be placed 12 inches 

 apart. The advantages of the system are that 

 there is plenty of room between the rows for 

 earthing up, consequently you have a good 

 broad ridge instead of a narrow sharp one, 

 which throws off all th9 moisture, and gets 

 dried out under oar tropical sun. With a good 

 healthy growth of haulm, even 2 feet betwean 

 rows is hardly sufficient, especially if spraying 

 has to be done. And manure is well incorpo- 

 rated with the soil and available wherever the 

 rootlets may extend, aud the quantity men- 

 tioned ample for any average soil. 

 "~ Ridging or earthing up is very often done too 

 soon. 1 like to see a good healthy top 9 inches 

 above ground, which will be about one month 

 after planting with greened seed, and the second 

 can be done about three weeks or so after. The 

 sod should be drawn close to the stems and a 

 broad ridge is preferable to a narrow pointed 

 one, unless in a very wet district, where it might 

 be advantageous to shed the rain off the ridges. 

 In four months the haulms should have dried off 

 and the tubers be ripe for lifting. 



The diseases of the potato are many, but as 

 far as my experience goes we have not the Irish 

 blight " Phytopthora infestans." We have the 

 early and late spot disease, and sclerotium, a 

 bacterial disease which takes tho form of a 

 white mould at the collar of the haulms. All 

 these diseases can be kept in check by spraying 

 with Bordeaux mixture, which is made by mix- 

 ing 12 lb. sulphate of copper, 6 lb. quicklime and 

 100 gallons of water. The effect of spraying has 

 only to be seen to be adopted by every grower as 

 part of the system of culture, but even spraying 

 will not cure the evil of uudrained swamp land. 



The disease to bo most feared is the wart 

 disease, Chrysophlyctis ondobistica, the spores 

 of which lie dormant in the soil for four years. 

 So much is this feared in England that all cases 

 must be at once reported to the Secretary, 

 Board of Agriculture. I would urge all here to 

 be very careful about imported seed. 



Now as to the profits and losses of potato 

 growing. 



The Australian seed imported by Government, 

 which 1 referred to previously, was received in 

 July, 1909, and the varieties were Satisfaction, 

 Cambridge Kidney, and Brownell's Beauty. 



On arrival I had them graded and put into 

 trays to green, and they were put out on 

 September 12th and the crop was lifted on 



January 9th. The varieties were Satisfaction, 

 18 cwt. yielded 73 cwt. Brownell's Beauty 8£ 

 cwt. yielded 36 cwt. Cambringe Kidney 10 cwt. 

 yielded 28 cwt. The total cost of cultivation 

 was R605 which was high Us the land was roush 

 scrub and had to be cleared and revetted. It, 

 however, paid well as the crop realised Rl,220. 



Some gentlemen who purchased seed from me 

 have been good enough to let me have parti- 

 culars of their returns, which are most interes- 

 ting, as showing the difference elevation and 

 aspect make, which of course could not be as- 

 certained unless the same seed was sown. I 

 can now give you three representative records of 

 Ootacamund, Ooonoor and Kulhutty. 



In Ootacamund, Mr. Butcher who had only the 

 smallest seed to grow from was the most success- 

 ful. He planted on April 25th IJewt. Satis- 

 faction and lifted 22| cwt.; 1$ cwt. Cambridge 

 Kidney aud lifed 26ij cwt. ; and 2j cwt. Brow- 

 nell's Beauty and lifted 89£ cwt. This is the 

 best yield of any trials made, and proves what 

 careful and thorough cultivation may effect 

 though handicapped by indifferent seed. 



In Coonoor or rather Hulical, Mr C Gray 

 opened up a bit of new scrub land, well worked 

 to a depth of 18 inches and to which a small 

 quantity of cattle manure was applied in the 

 trenches. 



He planted on May 5th 1 cwt of Satisfac- 

 tion from which he lifted 16£ cwt, and 1 cwt. of 

 Brownell's Beauty from which he lifted 16 cwt. 

 Mr Gray experimented with regard to the dis- 

 tance of sets in tho rows, with the following re- 

 sults. In 6 trenches 26 feet long ho planted 12 

 sets which yielded 127 lbs. In another 6 tren- 

 ches of the same length he planted 23 sets which 

 yielded 142 lb, which shows that the return 

 from the 23 sets should have been 250 lb as an 

 equivalent return. It also shows that areas can 

 be planted with ha'f the quantity of seed, which 

 is a desideratum if seed is expensive. Mr Gray 

 says that had he limed the land, and subse- 

 quently used Sulphate of Potash he would cer. 

 tainly have doubled his return. His reason for 

 not doing this was to test the new soil first, and 

 he has now satisfied himself what his soil requires. 



I will now give ray own returns. On May 5th 

 last I sowed on the same land that I cleared 

 last year; Cwts. 

 6 cwts Brownell's Beauty and lifted ... 80 

 1£ cwts Satisfaction and lifted ... 5£ 



l| cwts Cambridge Kidney and lifted ... 9 

 The land was well forked but no manure was 

 applied. The ro ws were 2 ft apart and the sets 

 1 ft apart in the rows. When the haulms were 

 six inches above the ground, I applied i ton of 

 Parry's Potato fertilizer which was lightly prick- 

 ed in, and a fortnight lator the potatoes were 

 earthed up. In August the wind did a lot of 

 damage, breaking off the haulms and so stunting 

 the growth of the tubers. The total cost of culti- 

 vation, including cost of fertiliser and watchmen 

 at night, amounted to R172-12-0, and the value 

 of the crop is R425 at the average price of Rel, 

 per maund. With the above crop, I made ex- 

 periments with some English seed that received 

 exactly the same cultivation and the returns 

 were ; — 



