and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



565 



the face of the objections that may be raised 

 by the ryots, and it is impracticable on 

 account of the heavy expenditure it would 

 entail. It cannot, therefore, be undertaken 

 on a large scale, as has been done in the case 

 of the palmyra palm disease in the Godavery 

 District." The coconut palm manures now 

 distributed are caster-cako, coconut-mixture, 

 etc., and it is not intended to recommend any 

 costly experiments to the ryots before the Agri- 

 cultural Officers are in a position to form defi- 

 nite conclusions as results of the experimental 

 measures now being adopted. Mycological in- 

 vestigations of the disease will betaken up when 

 the sanctioned Laboratory is fitted up. 



Crops and Fertilisers. 

 Under this head, there is an exhaustive ac 

 count of the work done in connection with the 

 cultivation of paddy, the most important crop 

 in the State. Experiments with different kiuds 

 of manures were conducted at Parvathipuram, 

 South f ravancore, Trevandrum and Quilon and 

 Kayankulam in Central Travaucore. The ex- 

 periments were conducted in lands belonging to 

 ryots, and the arrangement was that the ryots 

 should do all the cultivation, the manures 

 alone being supplied by the Department, the 

 ryots getting the whole produce ; the object in 

 such an arrangement was to create an interest 

 among the ryots and also to advertise the re- 

 sults of the experiments. The application of 

 nitre has given the best result, the yield being 

 23£ fold on the quantity of seeds sown. The 

 next best yield was from the application of 

 superphosphate and nitre. Cattle-manure comes 

 next in rank, while ashes and Parry and Co.'s 

 paddy fertiliser give equal yield, the last being 

 considered as not better than country ashes. 

 The financial aspect of the matter may be noted. 

 In the ease of nitre the gain per acre was about 

 R27, and in the case of cattle manure the gain 

 was R13 nearly, straw not being calculated in 

 the two cases. It is, however, to be noted that 

 the experiment made was on a small area of 

 33 cents. The figures given above as general 

 conclusions have, therefore, to be taken with 

 caution. The results of the experiments car- 

 ried on at Trevandrum are more or less similar 

 to those conducted in South Travancore and 

 summarised above. The results of the experi- 

 ments carried on under different methods of 

 sowing show that dibbling gives a better yield 

 than broad casting, but it is more costly. 

 Here also the same remark has to be made in 

 regard to the general conclusions drawn, viz., 

 that the plot under experimental cultivation 

 was 10 cents. With a view to study the char- 

 acteristics of different varieties, in order ulti- 

 mately to select the best that are suited to 

 different conditions, more than 150 local varie- 

 ties of paddy were collected, sown in nursery 

 and were afterwards transplanted singly in 

 small plots. The seedlings are all reported 

 to be coming up well. Small quantities of 

 Banku, Badshabog, Ambamore and a Poona 

 variety were got from outside the State and 

 cultivated in the Trevandrum Farm. The 

 crops have not been harvested. But they 

 are reported to have grown well. It is 

 proposed to collect the seeds from these 

 varieties and distributo them among the 



ryots. A.n interesting variety called Taung- 

 dailc-pan, which is said to have great capa- 

 city to resist drought, has been proccured from 

 Burma and has been sown in the nursery. 

 Tapioca, Sugar and Ground-nuts. 



Another staple crop is tapioca. During the 

 past year applications for tapioca stalks were re- 

 ceived from the Director of Agriculture, Punjab, 

 and from Mr. Gustav Haller, Coorg. At the re- 

 quest of the former, an Agricultural subordinate 

 was sent to Lahore to demonstrate cultivation 

 of tapioca. He was there nine days, and gave 

 satisfaction to Mr Milne, Economic Botanist. 



The manufacture of sugar is beginning to en- 

 gage the attention of the people and several en- 

 quiries were made and a young Travancorean 

 has had his training at the Sugar School at 

 Bareilly, United Provinces.* During the year 

 four varieties — Red and white Mauritius, one 

 Bombay, and one local variety— were planted, the 

 object being to study the characteristics of these 

 varieties, with a view to select the best of them 

 for distribution among the ryots. 



Of the exotic crops, ground-nut, which was in- 

 troduced when the Trevandrum Demonstration 

 Farm was opened in 1895 by Mr B S Narayana- 

 swamy Iyer, has become acclimatised to the soil, 

 and is being slowly introduced into the mofussil 

 too, where the ryots are taking to the crop and 

 have begun to cultivate it. Other exotics, which 

 are being successfully grown, are sunn-hemp, 

 jute and maize. — M, Mail, Nov. 18. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CAMPHOR 

 IN JAMAICA. 



An account of experiments with camphor, 

 which were carried out at the Government 

 Laboratory, Jamaica, is given in the Report of 

 the Department of Agriculture for that island 

 for the year 1908. Weighed quantities of dif- 

 ferent parts of the stem, which were obtained 

 froai trees growing at Knockalva Pen, were 

 subjected to steam distillation, and the distillate 

 suitably treated in order to separate oil and 

 camphor, the latter then being heated over 

 quicklime for the purpose of getting the pure 

 sublimate. The highest yield of camphor was 

 obtained from the tips of the shoots. The 

 amounts of camphor-oil and camphor that were 

 obtained on an average, from the whole stem 

 were respectively 23 per cent and - 28 per cent, 

 making a total of - 51 per cent. The West Indian 

 Bulletin, Vol. IX, pp. 275-6, gives an account of 

 somewhat similar experiments that have been 

 carried out at the Government Laboratory and 

 Botanic Station in Antigua. In these, oil only 

 was obtained, and it was found that the wood 

 gave 0'4 per cent of this, while the amount that 

 was obtained from the leaves and twigs was 1"2 

 per cent. Thus in both cases the observation was 

 made that the younger parts of the plant give the 

 largest yields.— WJ. Agricultural News, Oct. 16. 



BANANAS GROWN IN KENT. 



A hothouse at Tunbridge Wells contains two 

 large banana bushes, each heavily laden with 

 ripe, excellently flavoured fruit. Each bunch 

 contains about 200 bananas. A constant tempe- 

 rature of 100 dogrees has to bo maintained.— 

 Lloyd's News, October 10, 



