86 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Meanwhile, it is of interest to learn that 

 our visitor — as far as he has been able to judge 

 from the figures, so carefully kept by Mr. Mee 

 — is of opinion that even at Maha Illupalama 

 the output might be more than doubled without 

 injury to the crop. Instead of a yield of 130 lb. 

 per acre, by doubling the present amount of 

 planting per acre, he thinks a yield of 300 lb. 

 cotton fibre might safely be obtained. This, 

 at prices approaching the valuations of 

 samples sent home, namely 9d. per lb., means 

 something like £11 5s. per acre. And as the 

 clearing of the land at Maha Illupalama has 

 not cost more than R25 per acre, the small 

 additions of what would doubtless be reason- 

 able rental charged by Government, and 

 cost of planting, picking, ginning, &c, a 

 handsome profit per acre should bo left. For 

 here in Ceylon there is one initial advantage 

 as compared with Egypt ; there for the rich, 

 artificially fertilised soil a rent of £8 per acre 

 is charged, and though the returns in Egypt 

 from cotton amount to as much as £20, the 

 clear profit taken works out to au average of 

 but £4 10s per acre. The same profit, at the 

 very-least, Mr McCall is convinced, would 

 be obtainable here ; but probably, on im- 

 proved methods of planting, &c, a great 

 deal more. Here, of course, the one thing- 

 required and desired is suitable labour that 

 will accommodate itself to the condi- 

 tions and climate ; and our visitor thinks 

 that with due selection exercised, the 

 right kind of coolies could be obtained from 

 South India. Mr Mee's experimental work, 

 as far as it has gone, Mr McCall considers, 

 will be of immense help to him in investi- 

 gating the results as well as conditions of 

 local cotton-growing— about which Dr. H. 

 Marcus Fernando is almost the only proprie- 

 tary enthusiast so far — and in preparing his 

 report. He is also fully assured that there is 

 a great future before the industry in this 

 colony, which will be duly entered upon as 

 soon as hesitating capitalists have the requisite 

 information laid before them, coupled with 

 encouraging terms for land afforded by the 

 Ceylon Government. It may not be the best 

 part of the country for the white man to make 

 his home in, as a planter for any length of time 

 together; but if there really is money to be made 

 in cotton there, Mr McCall believes, the minor 

 drawbacks of climate will not deter him from 

 devoting energy and capital to what is already 

 so promising a product. 



For all he has heard from Mr Mee, Mr 

 McCall thinks cotton— if only people here really 

 knew about it and had the enterprise to 

 grow it on a reasonable scale— would be the 

 making of the North-Central, and part of the 

 Northern Province. The soil is admirably 

 suited and— unlike Egypt where the soil, Mr 

 McCall says, is not fertile but is treated with 

 vast quantities of imported manure — calculated 

 to yield well with comparatively little attention. 

 He thinks that tobacco experiments here are a 

 mistake. The tobacco market is so strongly 

 controlled ; any output here, however improved, 

 is bound to be 'cornered' and fair value will 

 not be paid to the growers. But in the case 

 of cotton good prices can always be realised 

 if grown from well-selected seed. Selection is 



important because even in America, where 

 Egyptian cotton is very popular, much weed- 

 cotton {Hindi) is found with the pure Egyptian. 

 Egyptian growers cut out the weakly plants 

 and too often the Hindi cotton is thus allowed 

 to survive. Mr McCall recommends Egyptian 

 cotton for Ceylon, we understand, for he says 

 Sea Islands (in spite of topping the market) 

 never grows elsewhere like it does in Sea 

 Islands themselves.— Mr McCall will be writing 

 shortly a report on his impressions of the three 

 months he spent here. This should be of 

 high interest to Ceylon agriculturists. It will be 

 forwarded to the Colonial Office direct. 



THE SUPPLY OF NITROGEN TO 

 CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



It was the great Chemist, Baron Liebig, who 

 enunciated the mineral theory on the assump- 

 tion that all the requirements of cultivated 

 plants were met by the large supply of citrogen 

 present in the atmosphere and that the only 

 fertilisers necessary to meet the exhaustion 

 that follows cultivation are those made up of 

 mineral compounds. It was not very long 

 before Liebig's theory was completely exploded, 

 and the fact came to be recognised that the bulk 

 of the nitrogenous food of plants was mainly 

 obtained from the organic compounds in the 

 soil though a small amount was derived from 

 the atmosphere in the form of ammonia and 

 nitric acid (resulting from decay of organic 

 matter on the earth) ; while special though 

 limited supplies were made directly avail- 

 able by electric disturbances which brought 

 about the combination of nitrogen and oxygen 

 in the air. Within recent times, the discovery 

 of Hellriegel established the fact that certain 

 plants are able to increase the soil nitrogen 

 by the aid of bacteria contained in the tubercles 

 on their roots, since these organisms were 

 capable of bringing about the combination of 

 nitrogen and oxygen. In spite of all these re- 

 sources, agriculture — intensive agriculture 

 — needs the addition of large supplies of nitro- 

 genous fertilisers, of which the nitrate depo- 

 sits of Chili are perhaps the chief source of 

 supply. But it has been declared by com- 

 petent authorities that the exhaustion of these 

 deposits was not very far off, and that the 

 wheat supply of the world would be seriously 

 reduced thereby, unless the aid of science — 

 in increasing nitrogenous plant food — was 

 pressed into service. Though many practical 

 men are of opinion that the views of Sir William 

 Crooke and Professor Sylvanus Thompson (the 

 authorities referred to) are pessimistic, scientific 

 workers have already discovered more than one 

 means of drawing upon the large stores of 

 elementary nitrogen in the atmosphere and 

 so increasing the nitrogenous food of plants. 



One of the more important processes by which 

 this increase is brought about is the Brikeland- 

 Eyde process, which gives rise to the product 

 known as Norwegian Saltpetre. This consists 

 of the combination of Nitrogen and Oxygen by 

 means of an electric current, the resulting 

 formation of Nitric Acid, and (by treatment with 

 limestone and caustic lime) the preparation of 

 Nitrate of lime as the ultimate product, The 



