n 



Oils mid Fats.] 



128 



[February, 190t). 



more cultivation than those of a sandy- 

 nature. In the same way sandy soils 

 would be injured by too much cultivation. 

 Manuring. 

 1 found the practice in existence of 

 tying during the nights two head of 

 cattle a week to each tree, in a basin 5 ft. 

 round the tree. This was done right 

 through the year, and when the wet 

 weather came on, the soil in the basin 

 was turned up a mamotie depth, and 

 the soil which had been originally in the 

 basin was put back. There is a diversity 

 of opinion among the highest agricul- 

 tural authorities as t~* whether fresh 

 dung is better than decomposed farm- 

 yard manure. High authorities dis- 

 agreeing, each having good reasons for 

 and against, I came to the conclusion 

 that both systems are good if properly 

 adopted. So during the wet weather, 

 and as long as the soil was moist enough 

 for turning, I tied two head of cattle a 

 week to a tree, and at the end of that 

 period turned in the manure after dis- 

 tributing it in the basin, and returned 

 the soil taken away by " basining." At the 

 same time I turned up another 3 ft. of 

 soil outside this radius. But tying the 

 cattle to trees during the dry weather 

 and waiting for the wee weather to 

 turn the manure into the soil, did not 

 seem to me at all correct, for by that time 

 all the valuable properties, or most of 

 them in the manure had evaporated, and 

 all that remaiued was a hard mass more 

 fit for fuel than manure, which when 

 buried would not decompose for years. 



BY THE SYSTEM OF BASINING 

 also a laree number of trees would 

 receive material injury, for in the fisrt 

 place a great number of feeding roots 

 are cut away which in itself gives a shock 

 to the tree. Then the cattle tramping 

 in the basin for a week solidifies the soil, 

 thereby increasing evaporation and 

 also preventing the below ground feed- 

 ing roots having easy access in search 

 of food. I constructed some 



MANURE FTTS WITH A ROOF 



in different parts of the estate, so 

 that the material would be as close as 

 possible to the land to be manured. I 

 tied two head of cattle to trees in the 

 neighbourhood of the pit, and every 

 third day I had the dung collected by 

 women and thrown into the pit, taking 

 the precaution to sprinkle a sufficient 

 quantity of kainit to prevent the loss of 

 nitrogen. I changed about using the 

 trees, as far as I could, taking care not 

 to get too far from the pit. This was 

 done with the object of allowing the 

 liquid manure in the form of urine to 

 benefit more than one lot of trees. I 

 also carted to the pit any stiaw or other 

 waste material that would decompose 



and form manure. When the wet 

 weather came I carted the manure from 

 the pit to the trees to be manured, 

 spread five ordinary garden baskets full 

 round each tree, and turned the soil to 

 a distance of 9 ft. I used cattle mauure 

 once, and the next time artificial for 

 reasons tciven in my article on "Artificial 

 and Farmyard Manure, etc." In the 

 application of artificial manure I had to 

 be guided by the amount of money I 

 was allowed to spend for manuring, so 

 I could only apply the two principal 

 necessities— phosphoric acid in the form 

 of bone dust, and nitrogen in the form 

 of castor cake, at the rate of 3 lbs. of the 

 former to 6 of the latter. I got the two 

 manures separately as it is cheaper that 

 way than buying the mixed. The cooly 

 measured the two and mixed them up 

 before use. I spread the mixture on the 

 surface over a 6 ft. radius leaving one 

 inch at the base of the tree and turned 

 it in. Then I turned over another 3 ft. 

 outside this radius without manure. 

 Later on, I sprinkled as much ashes as I 

 could possibly collect around each tree 

 to supply the necessary potash. 

 I give below an 



ACCOUNT OF THE ACTUAL COST, 



ect-, which might be of interest to some. 



Rs. Cs. 



Cost of manure, 94 cwt. bone 



dust at Rs. 76 per ton ... 357 20 

 187 cwt. castor cake at Rs. 67 



per ton ... ... 626 45 



Freight and expenses of can- 



gany to Colombo to come 



with manure ... ... 66 00 



Supervision of application ... 12 50 

 Cart hire and labour on estate, 



handling manure ... ... 10 00 



2,218 trees by contract at 6 cts. 



per tree ... ... 133 8 



1,302 trees by estate coolies at 



3 cts. per tree ... ... 39 6 



Less discount on manure 



3,520 total trees costing. 



1,244 



29 



... 49 



IS 



.. 1,195 



11 



Cost per tree 31 cts. 



,, acre at 70 trees, Rs. 21*70. 

 At a later period I was able to apply a 

 more complete manure consisting of the 

 following mixture in the proportion of :— 

 200 lbs. rape cake. 

 150 ,, fish manure. 

 200 ,, bone phosphate. 

 50 „ sulphate of potash. 

 300 ,, kainit. 

 Applying 10 lbs. of the above mixture to 

 a tree and working it out with actual cost 

 of manure and labour, etc., it comes to :— 

 Cost per trees 41 cts. 



„ acre »t 70 trees, Rs. 28-70. 



