292 the Supplement to the tropical Agriculturist 



per acre. And when the first of those points 

 has been settled, there still remains the ques- 

 tion raised in my article on Tea Root Diseases, 

 viz., how much of this nitrogen ever becomes 

 available for the plant ? 



T. PETCH. 



MR. JOSEPH FRASER IN REPLY TO 

 MR. T. PETCH. 



We are obliged to Mr. Joseph Eraser for the 

 following letter he favours us with replying 

 to some of the criticisms made on his 

 Neboda statement by Mr. T Petch, the 

 Government Mycologist, With regard to the 

 two fields on Neboda which yielded under 

 300 lb. per acre before the definite ex- 

 periment was made, Mr. Petch regretted that 

 the yields were not given separately because, 

 he said, if one had given 330 and the other 

 270 lb. the bottom was knocked clean out of 

 the experiment. The fields, Mr. Fraser points 

 out, were giving within 10 lb. of each other. 

 Mr. Petch questioned the statement—" tea 

 prunings containing 4 to 4! 2 per cent, of nitro- 

 gen in their dry substance." He pointed out 

 that prunings consisted mainly of wood which, 

 he said had only '"a small nitrogen content" 

 and he assumed that a wrong result had been 

 arrived at by applying the nitrogen content 

 of the leaves to the whole prunings and by 

 some confusion of " wet weight " with " dry." 

 There were, it will be seen from Mr. Fraser's 

 reply, no such errors. The percentage of nit- 

 rogen was calculated on the whole dry weight 

 of the material, Mr. Fraser quotes a very 

 striking instance from Mahawale. A field which 

 was almost abandoned, being the poorest on 

 the estate, after being cultivated and prunings 

 systematically buried, gave an average of 1,001 

 lb. for the last two years ! Mr. Fraser gives 

 in a nutshell the reasons for his firm belief in the 

 burying of prunings and he concludes, what 

 we venture to think will be regarded by those 

 interested in the subject as a most valuable 

 contribution to the controversy, by throwing 

 down the gauntlet to those who dirter from 

 him. Recognising the shrewdness of the 

 average Ceylon planter, Mr. Fraser declares that 

 the planting community "will be only to pleased 

 to adopt other methods, when they have been 

 proved to be cheaper and more efficient in 

 developing healthy well-nourished bushes, with 

 fine pruning wood, plus a good field." Will any 

 planting champion of Burning Prunings ac- 

 cepted the challenge ? 



Me. Fbasek's Reply. 



Kandy, Feb. 20th. 



giH,— With reference to Mr Petch's remarks 

 on my Neboda statement, I seem to have not 

 made myself clear as regards the yields of the 

 fields I used as an illustration. They gave before 

 the experiment was started under 8001b. per acre 

 per annum each, and within 10 lb. of eaoh other. 



Regarding the analysis of the prunings they 

 were calculated out on the dry weight of the 

 material, and separate analyses were made of 

 the leaves, and woody matter. I supplied the 

 figures as regards the weight of green matter, 



based on a series of weighings of the average 

 trees pruned and Mr Cochran, f.c.8. and the 

 ColomboCoramereialCo.'s Analysts supplied the 

 remaining data. 



Referring to Mahawale, I may mention that 

 what was originally the poorest field on the 

 estate and, at one time, was all but abandoned, 

 gave an average for the last two years of 1,001 lb. 

 per acre per annum ; and this I largely attribute 

 to the burying of prunings, as in this instance, 

 it was consistently carried out, whereas,in fields 

 not so systematically treated and that were 

 much better to start with, the yield had consider- 

 ably fallen behind.' 



My reason for believing in the burying of 

 prunings is that 1 find when decay is more or 

 less complete, the tea roots freely develop in this 

 matrix and feed on its substances ; that the ana- 

 lyses of these areas are richer in nitrogen than 

 the surrounding ones. We also get rid of a great 

 many topical pests, and that over large areas 

 the danger from root disease is small. I feel 

 sure, however, that the planting community 

 generally will be only too pleased to adopt 

 other methods, when they have been proved to 

 be cheaper and more efficient in developing 

 healthy, well-nourished bushes, with fine pru- 

 ning wood, plus a good yield. — Yours faithfully, 



JOSEPH FRASER. 



ANOTHER CEYLON V.A.'S OPINION. 



A very weighty letter appears hereafter from 

 Mr.Wm. Forsythe, strongly supporting the manu- 

 ring policy recommended by Mr. Joseph Fraser 

 which includes the burying of prunings. 

 We attach considerable importance to Mr. 

 Forsythe's evidence. He is acknowledged a 

 lirst-class practical planter, and is one of 

 Ceylon's best-known V. A.'s, whose judgment 

 invariably commands respect among his fellow- 

 planters. He has had long experience of the 

 burying of prunings and the support which he 

 gives to Mr. Fraser's system is based entirely on 

 his own practical experience of its advantages. 

 Pew tea planters, if any, know Low Country 

 conditions better than our correspondent. 

 Mr. M L Wilkins, one of the younger school of 

 prominent and successful scientific planters, 

 also indirectly supports the burying of pru- 

 nings. Mr. Wilkins wants to know if Mr. Petch's 

 letters are private or official. We should say 

 official ; Mr. Petch is merely defending the posi- 

 tion he took up in his able paper which ap- 

 peared in the lropicat Agriculturist. Mr. Petch 

 is arguing from the point of view of the Myco- 

 logist, and in a matter of this kind it is per- 

 haps fairer to regard his opinions as the result 

 of strong convictions, rather than prejudice — 

 as hinted by our correspondent. Further, this 

 is not by any means the first time that 

 Doctors have disagreed, and the planters 

 ought to carefully study for themselves what 

 treatment should best suit their case We think, 

 too, that even during the present discussion it 

 has been indisputably demonstrated that situa- 

 tions are conceivable where the burying of pru- 

 nings would not be recommended even by Mr. 

 Fraser as being attended by the possible, risk^ 



