and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society, 



81 



Compounds, of which the most important are 

 seven : nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, iime, 

 ferric oxide, magnesia, and sulphuric acid. 

 Roughly and vaguely speaking, for many of the 

 chemical processes which go on in the soil are 

 still entirely obscure, of three or four of these 

 there is such an abundance that no imaginable 

 process of crop-growing could exhaust them. 

 Three, or perhaps four — nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, potash, and lime— might conceivably he 

 removed by plant-growth to an extent harmful 

 to the soil, and might need to be replaced. Of 

 these, lime may be necessary to assist the 

 presence of nitrogen, but is very little re- 

 quired as a direct manure to the plant itself. 

 Potash, again, need be added in comparatively 

 few cases. But nitrogen and phosphoric acid 

 are abundantly and perpetually wanted, and 

 one of them, nitrogen, has been the subject of 

 some extraordinarily interesting discoveries. 

 Two German chemists, Hellriegal and Willfarth, 

 first established in 1886 that on the roots of 

 certain leguminous plants, vetches, beans, 

 lupins, and so on, there grow little 



NODULES, WHICH ARE THE RESULT OF THE 

 GROWTH OF MICROBES 



within them. The microbes extract nitrogen 

 from the air in the soil round them, and, as it 

 were, build it up into the substance of the root 

 of the leguminous plant which is their "host." 

 That discovery was the beginning of a series, of 

 which we can only guess the possibilities. To 

 it has already been added the discovery that 

 seeds can be dressed with cultures of particular 

 microbes which feed, and help the plant to 

 feed, on nitrogen, and so help it to a vigorous 

 growth, and to vigorous growths in other plants 

 that are to follow it in the soil. The almost 

 certain induction seams to be that all plants 

 have particular microbes which, in feeding 

 themselves, help the plant to feed. 



If that is so, the science of "manuring" a soil 

 will resolve itself, first, into perfect tilth, so that 

 every particle of the soil can be surrounded with 

 its coat of water containing soluble food ; and 

 second, into the 



PROVISION OF THE RIGHT KIND OF MICROBE 



in the neighbourhood of the plant that 

 needs it. Of the four substances known to be 

 absolutely necessary to plant life, and also liable 

 to exhaustion, we still have no better means of 

 supplying phosphoric acid than in the form of 

 manure. But is it to be supposed that Science 

 has yet made all her discoveries? Mr McConnel 

 states, surely a littledograatically, that phospo- 

 ric acid "is the one ingredient that is univer- 

 sally deficient in the soil that is not added by the 

 ordinary farmyard dung of the farm in sufficient 

 quantity, and that cannot be developed or ex- 

 tracted from anywhere by any system of crop- 

 ping or treatment and must be returned by ex- 

 traneous manuring." Is not thaty considering 

 that we knew nothing of nitrogen-extracting 

 nodules thirty years ago, rather too sweeping ? 

 We have not yet heard all the secrets even 

 whispered. The secret of the life of the soil is 

 not to be dragged from her in thirty years, pos- 

 sibly not in three thousand. Our posterity, per- 

 haps, will decide that we were little further on 

 the road to discovery than was Varro. — Spec- 

 tator, May 16. 



SISAL HEMP CULTIVATION PROJECT 

 EN BRITISH GUIANA. 



Capital Subscribed in New York. 

 The news will be received with satisfaction 

 in Georgetown that on the 21st ultimo a wire 

 was received from New York, stating that all 

 the necessary capital had been subscribed for 

 putting into execution the project to extensively 

 cultivate sisal hemp in the tract of country com- 

 prising some 7,000 acres in the vicinity of 

 Bartica granted by the Government for this 

 purpose. Mr Viton stated to a representative 

 that something like $50,000 will be put into 

 circulation in the colony in putting the land into 

 cultivation. — Demerara Chronide, May 1. 



COCONUT OIL AND SOAP— AN SOAP- 

 MAKING EN CEYLON. 



" Cleanliness" being "next to godliness," it is 

 a good sign that the consumption of Soap has 

 so greatly increased of recent years, not simply 

 in Europe, America and Australia ; but through- 

 out the Asiatic and African continents and the 

 Islands of the Sea. But as civilisation and 

 Christianity advance, we may be sure, so will the 

 demand for soap. That there are great possi- 

 bilities of expansion in the trade for many de- 

 cades to come cannot be doubted. Every year 

 should see an increase in the demand and con- 

 sumption and, consequently, in the manufacture. 

 Now, as coconut oil is one of the principal in- 

 gredients in soap-making, there is a good pro- 

 spect that a keen demand for this palm staple 

 will keep up for a long time to come. True, 

 the great soap-making house of "Lever" 

 (" Sunlight Soap ") have gone in for planting 

 coconuts in the Solomon and other South Sea 

 islands, on their own account. But their pro- 

 duction can only bo as a fraction of the world's 

 consumption which again must be a constantly 

 growing quantity. But what we wish to enquire, 

 in connection with this matter, is whether 

 something could not be done in Ceylon in Soap 

 Manufacture. Many years ago an appreciable 

 quantity of soap was made in Hulftsdorp Coco- 

 nut Oil Mills, chiefly for export — and largely to 

 Mauritius, if we remember rightly. Not very 

 much, we believe, was sold locally. " Soap " 

 like the proverbial "prophet", perhaps, is not of 

 much reputation in its own country ; or, per- 

 haps, a sea-voyage improves it ? Be that as it 

 may, it is a fact that between 1S65 and 1892, 

 a not inconsiderable export trade in Ceylon 

 soap took place. The Customs value in 1865 was 

 given at R7,500 ; but by 1880 it had risen to 

 R25,791 ; in 1885 it was R40,005 ; then it fell 

 off and in 1890 was R24, 140— 1891 =Rl 4,180 ; 

 — 1892 = R475 and then the trade and, we sup- 

 pose, the local manufacture, stopped. Mean- 

 while, soap imported was valued at R58.460 in 

 1880 and rose steadily to R128,472 in 1890, and 

 so on, to R269,338 'in 1S99 and year by year 

 steadily increasing until it reached to R423,670 

 in 1906. Last year, the full particulars of the 

 importation may be copiod from the Customs 

 Returns as follows : — 



n 



