123 



ROYAL nOTmCULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Even the sandy bottoms on the coast, where the coco-palms arc 

 cultivated, may be divided into good and bad. In good moist soil 

 the coco grows so fast that it bears fruit in eight years, and in 

 twelve has attained its full diameter, lasting to eighty. The 

 poorer the soil, the later the palm is in coming to perfection, and the 

 shorter the duration. In good soil each tree produces monthly 

 twenty, or yearly 100 nuts, while in bad soil it yields only from 

 two to six. It bears blossoms every month in good soil only, and 

 yields palm-juice the whole year ; in poorer bottoms the produce 

 of wine is small and at the most continues for six months 

 only. 



All this is quite incompatible with the theory of air-nutrition. 

 We have information with respect to the soil of the island of 

 Java, from Raffles in his ' History of Java,' and from Junghuhn. 

 According to the fertility, they distinguish : — 1. Rich black mould 

 in the course of rivers (Tana ladu), such as occurs between Ba- 

 tavia and Weltewreden, with a rich vegetation of banana, mango, 

 tamarind, custard-apple and coffee. The richer in humus, the 

 lighter and looser the soil, the more it is adapted for coffee-planta- 

 tion. 2. Tana linchad is a pure light clay with sand, which in 

 plains fitted for irrigation yields a single rice-harvest. 3. Tana 

 pasir is the alluvial soil in the maritime district — the delta- 

 land. 



The nature of the soil in the North of China has been described 

 by Fortune (' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China,' 

 London, 1847). The cotton-ground is here a rich but never boggy 

 loam, though it is manured with canal-mud. Tea succeeds only 

 on very fruitful rich sandy loam. Since the agriculture here does 

 not depend on breeding cattle, the use of green manure is general. 

 In the rice-fields a Trifolium and Coronilla are cultivated for 

 manure, which is of use in the case of rice, which is poor in nitro- 

 genous matter, but does not answer for wheat. 



The sugar-cane attains a height of from 10-16 feet in Gruiana, 

 in the flooded levels of the Essequibo ; while in the hungry lime- 

 stone it is but from 6-10 feet high. We see, then, what enormous 

 errors require rectification, as regards the accounts of the fertility 

 even of the most barren soil within the tropics. 



One of the most important observations is that even the richest 

 soil, when it is tilled year after year without any manure, is at 

 last completely exhausted, which would be quite impossible if 

 nourishment were derived from the air. The richest sugar-planta» 

 tions in Guiana, on the Essequibo, endure only forty years. The 



