Edible Products. 



530 



[June, 1909. 



bones, 1£ ewts. of sulphate of potash 

 and 1£ cwts. of bloodraeal ; No. 6 with 

 20 cart-loads of cattle manure ; and No. 7 

 with 30 bags of " road dust." 



The yield of the several plots has been 

 as follows :— 



Yield. 



S3 



o 5 m.^ Value. Straw. Value. 



Total. 



R. c. R. c. R. c. R. c. 



1 Nil. 53 79-50 1,625 16'25 95-75 



2 19-00 57 85-00 1,710 17-10 102-10 



3 30-94 80 120-00 1,800 18-00 138-00 



4 30-53 72 108-00 1,950 19-50 117-50 



5 42-30 87 130-50 2,100 21-00 151-50 



6 15-00 91 136-50 2,300 23-00 159-50 



7 9-00 98 145-00 2,450 24'50 169 50 



From these figures it will appear that 

 it is cheaper to fertilise padi fields 

 with cattle manure or "road dust" 

 (dust collected from the roads). Owing 

 to the scarcity of cattle, cattle manure 

 is not available in large quantities, and 

 road dust cannot be easily obtained 

 unless the collector is prepared to go to 

 gaol for causing damage to public 

 thoroughfares. The best fertiliser, no 

 doubt, is "road dust." 



MANURING FOR TEA. 

 By Jas Insch. 



(From the Indian Agriculturist, Vol. 

 XXXIV., No. 1, January 1, 1909.) 



By way of preface it may be said that 

 the word ' manure' originally meant to 

 work with the hand, or to till, but we 

 no longer attach this old meaning to it, 

 for the word is now applied to any 

 substance added to the soil to increase 

 its fertility. We must not forget that 

 thorough tilling of the soil is in itself an 

 invaluable means of providing plant 

 food, and is the first and most important 

 method of increasing the fertility of the 

 soil. Dunging, green manuring and 

 bhil-soiling, or applying defective soil 

 constituents, is the second consideration 

 in good planting practice, and, lastly, 

 we have the direct provision of real 

 plant-food or the application of ferti- 

 lizers. Before speaking of manures and 

 their application I should like to say a 

 few words about the roots of a tea bush, 

 and how plant food is digested and 

 absorbed. If you carefully lift a healthy 

 young tea plant growing in rather light 

 soil and wash away the earth as com- 

 pletely as possible, the root system will 

 be visible. You will observe that while 

 the bulk of the soil has been readily 



washed away, each rootlet retains near 

 its tip a few grains of sand, which ad- 

 here somewhat firmly. These rootlets 

 are provided with delicate hairs, root 

 hairs, and they represent the active 

 portion of the root whereby water and 

 dissolved mineral food are taken from 

 the soil. Before food can nourish a 

 plant it must be rendered soluble. This 

 transforming process from the insoluble 

 to the soluble, from the non-diffusible to 

 the diffusible, is called digestion. In 

 plants there is an external and internal 

 digestion to be noted. 



Before the delicate root-hairs can take 

 in the various mineral substances 

 required by the plant from the soil, 

 these substances must pass into solution. 

 The root hairs must first come into inti- 

 mate contact with the fine particles of 

 the soil ; and as the outer layer of the 

 wall is converted into mucilage, the two 

 stick together as it were. Then an acid 

 juice (digestive juice) is excreted, and the 

 material in contact is dissolved wholly 

 or partially. This is external digestion, 

 and is peculiar to plants from their 

 special mode of feeding. 



Root Functions. 



Digestion is preliminary to absorption ; 

 and the soluble materials must enter into 

 circulation to be carried where required. 

 The mineral matters dissolved by the 

 excretions from the root-hairs are 

 absorbed by the same means. The deli- 

 cate, pliant, thin-walled root-hairs are 

 admirably adapted for this purpose. In 

 contact with the particles of soil, they 

 smear them, as it were, with the acid 

 excretion, and the dissolved matters are 

 taken in to be passed along from cell to 

 cell. The external absorption, however, 

 is confined to water and mineral matter 

 and various gases. The roots principally 

 absorb water with its dissolved salts : 

 but they can also take in gases such as 

 oxygen. The various food stuffs taken 

 in or manufactured by the plant are 

 conveyed from one place to another to 

 nourish the different parts. 



The following substances are taken up 

 by the roots of the tea bush and are 

 absolutely essential to the life and 

 growth of the plants. The necessary 

 foods are— water, nitrates, phosphates, 

 sulphate, lime, potash, magnesia, iron, 

 and oxygen. It is highly important to 

 recognise the fact that roots have not 

 the same power of selecting food 

 material as, say, an animal actuated by 

 taste and smell. A root is obliged to 

 take up any substance which is dissolved 

 in the soil water and capable of passing 

 or oozing through the vegetable mem- 

 branes of the root. It such a membrane 

 comes in contact with water charged 



