January, 1909.] 



68 



Scientific Agriculture- 



matter, giving over 6 tons per acre. 

 Six tons of green organic matter as 

 manure are equal to more than 100 lb. 

 castor cake. Its use as green manure 

 is confined to some Ceylon tea plant- 

 ations and on a small scale to some of 

 the tea districts in India. Groundnuts 

 have been found of greatest advantage 

 for the purposes of green manure. This 

 plant has a trailing habit. It does not 

 grow beyond a height of one foot and 

 it dies down in six months, It can thus 

 be dug in with the soil very easily. 

 Further, the cultivation of this plant 

 is very simple, the seeds being simply 

 thrown into the holes of an inch deep- 

 The one great advantage the ground- 

 nut thrown has over Crotalaria is its 

 small amount of tissue and its very 

 thin stems and leaves, which are readily 

 taken up by tea or other plants. It has 

 been found that ground-nuts provided 

 a large quantity of nitrogen, 9,000 lb. 

 of the green material yielding as much 

 nitrogen as 1,500 lb. castor cake. The 

 Albizzia, which belongs to the genus 

 known as Albizzia moluccana, is not 

 much of a success as a green manure. 

 Crotalaria is much superior to the 

 Albizzia in the matter of the supply of 

 the organic matter. Of course, in the 

 absence of other green manures it may 

 be used in tea plantations. In addition 

 to those mentioned above, there are 

 a lot of other legumes. Cajanus indicim 

 (Dal) is a very useful plant that might 

 be profitably used as a green manure. 

 This plant, though not a native of 

 India, has become well acclimatized, 

 having been introduced into India from 

 tropical Africa some 3,000 years ago. 

 It can be cultivated at a small cost. 

 With the beginning of the rains it might 

 be sown, and cut down as soon as the 

 crop begins to ripen. This plant is 

 known by various names. It is known 

 as Thovaray in the Malabar district on 

 the West Coast, There are many other 

 plants of the pulse order that might 

 be used as green manures. Experiments 

 are being made in the cultivation of 

 some of these plants as green manures 

 in the hope of discovering something 

 which do better than any of the above- 



Thus far about green manuring and its 

 advantages. We shall now point out 

 another feature of green manuring. 

 Great care should be taken in the choice 

 of the plants for purposes of green 

 manuring. In some soils certain of these 

 leguminous plants do not develop 

 nodules at their roots. This means that 

 these plants are abstracting nitrogen 

 from the soil instead of adding to it. 

 The development of nodules depends 

 upon the nature and variety of the soil ; 

 and, as such, every leguminous plant, 



before being cultivated as green manure, 

 must first be experimented upon. 

 Again, in the matter of examination of 

 roots for nodules, it must be remembered 

 that all excrescences that may be seen 

 at the roots of plants cannot be taken 

 for nitrogenous nodules ; for there had 

 been instances in which such excre- 

 scences which might appear at first sight 

 to be real nodules were producted by 

 nematodes. The subject of nematodes 

 and the incalculable mischief wrought 

 by them to plantations is still engaging 

 the attention of agricultural experts in 

 India. A bulletin on nematodes issued 

 by Mr. C. A. Barber some five or six 

 years ago, gives a large fund of informa- 

 tion on the subject. In his opinion the 

 remedy is to destroy every plant infested 

 with this tiresome pest. Tbe best way 

 to distinguish nematodes from nitro- 

 genous nodules is to examine the roots 

 with a microscope. To the naked eye 

 the differences may not be visible. 

 There are two kinds of nitrogenous 

 nodules, one nearly globular in form and 

 the other flat and grooved, having the 

 appearance of minute finger-like projec- 

 tions from a common centre. 



On the whole it might undoubtedly be 

 said that green manure is cheaper and 

 in many respects better than other 

 varieties of manure. Green manuring 

 has been found especially useful in the 

 case of lands reclaimed from jungle for 

 cultivation. It proves beneficial to such 

 lands in many ways. The fertilising 

 ingredients which would otherwise have 

 been washed away are utilised by these 

 green plants- Further, they add to the 

 quantity of carbon in the land. All 

 possible endeavours should therefore be 

 made to induce our ryots to go in for 

 the use of green manures more largely 

 than they do at present, especially in 

 view of the fact that in India the soil in 

 many places has already begun to feel 

 the strain of cultivation to which it has 

 been almost continuously subjected 

 during centuries. — Indian Agricidturist, 

 Vol. XXXIIL, No. 7, July, 1908. 



A HOME-MADE SEED DRILL. 



A very useful home-made seed sower 

 used at the Church Training Farm, 

 Apollo Bay, is illustrated. It is used 

 for sowing in drills seed such as maize, 

 peas, beans, &c. Its construction is 

 very simple, as it consists of a plain 

 wheel, or the end of an old cask with an 

 ordinary sized milk dish screwed on one 

 side, with a square hole cut through 

 both for a piece of wood 2 inches x 2 

 inches for an axle ; half round holes 

 should be punched with a hollow tool 

 about 3 inches apart 1 inch from the 



