and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— August, 1911. 181 



The following is the leaflet referred to above 

 which has just been issued by the Madras Agri- 

 cultural Department : — 



Most of the soils of South India are deficient 

 in organic matter and if the fertility of these 

 soils is to be properly maintained, it becomes 

 necessary to supply this ingredient periodically 

 in addition to the usual plant foods. The 

 manures most suited for this purpose are those 

 classed as "bulky organic manures'' and of 

 these Farm-yard manure stands pre-eminent 

 and its use can be confidently recommended 

 wherever it is available. 



Farm-yard manure may be used in the fresh 

 state, i.e., as voided by the cattle, but this 

 course is not practicable when the land is under 

 crops and, in addition, it is advisable to use 

 manure which has been stored for some time as, 

 by this storage, not only is a more uniform 

 manure obtained, but the plant foods contained 

 in the dung are brought into a state to be easily 

 assimilated by the crop. During the period of 

 storage many changes take place in the compo- 

 sition of the m mure, brought about by bacteria 

 and other low forms of vegetable life, which bring 

 the manurial ingredients into a soluble form. 

 These changes, although making the manure 

 more valuable to the cultivator, are always 

 accompanied by more or less loss of the manurial 

 ingredients and consequently the system of 

 storage which reduces these losses to a minimum 

 is, from this point of view, the one to be adopted. 



The main losses which occur during the stor- 

 age of Farmyard manure are due (I) to the 

 liquid portion draining away and carrying with 

 it the soluble constituents, (2) to loss of nitro- 

 gen in the form of easily vapourised substances 

 and all systems of storage to be economically 

 sound must be based upon principles which tend 

 to counteract these losses without at the same 

 time unduly interfering with the course of the 

 fermentation of the manure. 



Whatever the system finally adopted, it is of 

 the utmost importance to prevent ihe urine 

 draining away as this constituent of farmyard 

 manure contains a very large proportion of 

 manurial ingredients. This can be overcome to a 

 large extent by the use of a suitable litter mats- 

 rial which will absorb the urine and so prevent 

 its loss by. drainage. The best litter and one 

 which is generally available is the waste fodder 

 of the animals, but leaves, weeds and the ordi- 

 nary waste of a farm answer well and if these be 

 not available recourse may be had to ordinary 

 soil. The necessity for using ample and suitable 

 litter being apparent for all systems, the different 

 methods of storage may now be briefly reviewed. 



The chief methods adopted for the storage of 

 manure may be designated as the Box, Pit and 

 Heap systems and this classification covers in 

 a broad sense all the methods generally 

 adopted. In the Box system, the animals are 

 placed in a loose box, with a thick bed of litter 

 to which the waste fodder is adned daily. Thy 

 dung of the animals is trampled into and inti- 

 mately mixed with the litter, which also ab- 

 sorbs the urine, In course of time the whole 

 is trampled into a compact mass, and by thus 

 excluding excess of air, the fermentation is 

 kept within bounds. In the Pit system the 

 animals aro placed on a hard floor and the 

 dung, urine a,nd waste litter j* daily thrown it 



into a pit dug in the soil of the yard and made 

 as water-tight as possible. Dry earth is some- 

 times thrown on at intervals in order to absorb 

 excess of liquid and often in very dry weather 

 water is added so as to keep the mass at the 

 requisite degree of moisture. In the Heap 

 system the animals stand on a hard floor and 

 the dung and litter are daily collected and 

 thrown on a heap in the open. Sometimes in 

 this case earth is also added. 



Results of Experiments. 

 These three systems were under trial on the 

 Government Farm at Bellary for many years 

 and the average results obtained may bo taken 

 with confidence These are given in extenso in 

 the following table : — 



§ a S ■'. a 



System. 



2 S - 



fens "-a Bf-s *s~ . § £ 



i£ i5 9 ™ w uj® 



-■°g -5 °-° Jac -s'S So. 



°-5* S| ol £8 8-1 | g 



!§s °s eg- 



d <S 5 



a 



Box .. 10, JO 907 155-3 56:2 69'4 5,0: J 



Pit .. 9,831) 55'5 70 46 3 370 1,765 



Heap .. 6,0 60'0 59'8 44 - 5 46'0 168 



This table shows clearly that, from the same 

 number of cattle, for the same length of time, 

 and under the same conditions, the manure 

 given by the Box system is much greater iu 

 amount and contains a greater proportion of all 

 the manurial iugredients, and the value of the 

 manure produced far exceeds that of the others. 

 Cora pared with the Pit system, the Heap system 

 has given somewhat better results, but this only 

 occurs when the heap is carefully protected from 

 heavy rains and from strong winds. If these pre- 

 cautious are not taken, then the losses caused by 

 the rain washing out the soluble ingredients and 

 the wind removing solid particles can become 

 very serious and considerable loss to the cultiva- 

 tor ensue. Further if the heap is allowed to be- 

 come too dry, the heat produced by the decom- 

 position may become so great as to cause the 

 destruction of part of the manure. 



Iu the case of the Pit system, the great source 

 of loss is due to the liquid portion of the manure 

 draining away and the use of too small amount 

 of litter. These defects can readily be remedied 

 and when this is done, the Pit system compares 

 very favourably with the Heap method, espe- 

 cially under the usual careless local customs. 

 Wherever the Box system cannot be carried 

 out, choice must be made between the Heap and 

 the Pit systems and this choice must be mainly 

 governed by local conditions.— W, Mail, Aug. 8. 



THE FUTURE OF THE RUBBER 

 INDUSTRY. 



CHANGES ANTICIPATED. 

 By Hebbeet Weight. 

 Great Britain leads easily in point of acreage 

 under rubber in its own possessions, and is 

 closely followed by the Dutch East Indies in 

 area, but not in age. The Dutch planters did 

 not take up the cultivation of Hevea on a 

 large scale until it had been proved a success 

 on adjacent British territory ; and, in fact, 

 much of the area under Hevea in Java, Suma- 

 tra, and Borneo is owned by companies re,. 



