Miscellaneous- 



346 



[October, 1909. 



drought, and though some crops may be 

 lost by reason of various calamities, yet 

 a portion of sowings will come to matu- 

 rity, and splendid prices will be realized. 

 In this way, the tenant clears off all 

 debts, builds a better house for himself, 

 keeps better cattle, and finds no trouble 

 in marrying off his children. Altogether 

 a better state of well-being is arrived at. 

 Rents come in regularly, and instead of 

 the headmen felling the mango groves, 

 new plantations are laid out, and 

 new wells are sunk. The population in- 

 creases, the waste lands are reclaimed 

 and brought under the plough. In 

 time, villages comprising a few huts will 

 become quite large towns connected with 

 centres of trade by roads or railways. 

 The advantages derived by Government 

 are most important. The land revenue 

 becomes stable, and advances are not 

 required to tide the tenants over bad 

 seasons. The people who are dacoits 

 and cattle lifters become respectable, 

 law-abiding members of society. In- 

 stead of spending large sums in main- 

 taining peace, the State has to consider 

 schemes for roads, hospitals anil schools. 

 The increased wealth of the people 

 leads them to make long pilgrimages, 

 and the facilities of travelling must 

 exercise a strong educative effect. It 

 has been said with considerable truth 

 that after all a railway engine is the 

 best school master. Railways them- 

 selves benefit enormously by the pros- 

 perity of the cultivators. The exports 

 of produce increase by leaps and bounds, 

 and returns do not fall off in irri- 

 gated tracts, as they do in unprotected 

 countries. India is mainly an agri- 

 cultural country ; nothing is so necessary 

 to her as the development of irrigation 

 facilities, and prevention of the waste- 

 ful escape of river water to the seas. 

 Not only do these protective works 

 afford food and occupation for millions, 

 but the climate itself is modified bene- 

 ficially. Intense aridity is checked, and 

 healthful dews are created, which assist 

 in the growth of herbage and trees. 

 The Monsoon rains descend on levelled 

 fields covered with young crops, and the 

 latter act as powerful agents in prevent- 

 ing denudation, and limiting excessive 

 floods in the main rivers. Mr. Buchanan, 

 Under-Secretary of State for India, has 

 evidently grasped the advantages of 

 developing irrigation works, and has 

 impressed them on the House of Com- 

 mons in his recent Budget Speech. He 

 said : " There is no sphere of work in 

 which the Indian Government has been 

 engaged, which is more satisfactory to 

 contemplate than that of the railway 



and irrigation work." "I have 



given notice of a bill for renewing our 

 power of borrowing money for railway, 



irrigation, and other general purposes, 

 but I have not yet had the opportu- 

 nity of introducing it. It is a measure, 

 however, that will generally commend 

 itself to the approbation of the House, 

 and from it we may expect very excellent 

 results will ensue. Every one will 

 regognize also, that there is no part 

 of our work which reflects more credit 

 on us than the admirable irrigation 

 work, large and small, which has been 

 carried out in recent years. It has 

 been a help to our revenue, tending also 

 to mitigate the condition of the poorest 

 people in their distress. We intend to 

 go on in the future in pursuit of that 

 policy." 



GREEN MANURING. 



(Prom the Supplement to The Nyasaland 

 Government Gazette of 30th June, 1909.) 



This is one of the most discussed Agri- 

 cultural problems of the present day, 

 and has its foundation in Hellriegel's 

 discovery of 1886, when he declared and 

 proved that plants belonging to the 

 Natural Order Leguminosce were cap- 

 able of utilising atmospheric nitrogen. 



This special power of assimilating 

 nitrogen from the atmosphere of the 

 soil surrounding the roots is the result 

 of a symbiotic relationship between legu- 

 minous plants and the bacteria known 

 as Bacillus radicicola. 



If one examines the roots of a legu- 

 minous plant, such as a bean or a pea, 

 it will be noticed that the rootlets are 

 covered with swellings, those swellings 

 or nodules are the result of the irritation 

 set up by the Bacillus radicicola which 

 inhabit them. 



The bacteria enter the young rootlets 

 from the soil, and receive from the plant 

 the starchy food necessary for their 

 lives, and in return give the plant their 

 excreta and dead bodies which are rich 

 in nitrogen. 



If the bacteria received from the plant 

 all their food they would be parasites, 

 but as they have the power of using 

 atmospheric nitrogen for building their 

 own bodies they are not parasites. The 

 relationship between the two is sym- 

 biotic, as each benefits the othei ; 

 the plant supplies to the bacteria the 

 starchy food which they could not make, 

 and in return the bacteria gives to the 

 plant a complex form of nitrogenous 

 matter made from atmospheric nitrogen 

 which the plant could not otherwise 

 utilise. 



Now that the relationship is explained, 

 it is possible to consider the problem 

 from a practical point of view. All 

 plants, no matter whether Cotton, Coffee 

 or Rubber, absorb from the soil nitrates, 



