December i, 1889.I THP TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
395 
distribution has been at least 10 per cent., and some- 
times it has been immensely more." 
" And a still further development was the utilization 
of the machine as a broadcast sower ? " — " That is so. 
As a broadcast sower I know nothing to equal it. 
Anything, from the finest seeds up to maize, can bo 
sown by it, and it scatters from 6 to 8 yards." 
For Use in Towns. — " Then you have town purposes 
in view as well as country ? " 
" For sanitary purposes it will be of very great utility. 
A gentleman from India who spent an evening with me 
said it would be the saving of au immense number of 
lives in cities where there were epidemics caused by 
total want of cleanliness in the streets. A liquid dis- 
infectant can be scattered with the greatest ease and 
rapidity by the machine. But here, also, there is 
scope for it. The price of the horse machines will be 
about £30, and the hand machines, for coffee and tea 
plantations and horticultural purposes less than a half, 
I have altogether seven different kinds of machines 
showing at Che show of the Royal at Windsor."— Pall 
Mall Budget. 
BRACKEN FERN FOR MANURE. 
By Mr. John Hughes, f.c.s., 79, Mark Lane, e. c. 
[Mr. John Hughes of Mark Lane writes on July 
12 th: — "I enclose a cutting from this week's Mark Lane 
Express which contains information respecting the 
value of Fern as a source of manure, which I hope 
may be useful to many planters anxious to improve 
the crops yielding properties of their Tea estates."] 
The agricultural value of the common bracken fern 
for littering cattle and subsequently as a source of 
manure, is not as well known among farmers as it 
deserves to be. Year by year arable land i<< laid down 
to grass, and the difficulty of providing plenty of litter 
for stock becomes greater. Peat moss and sawdust 
are at present used in many of the London stables 
as substitutes for straw, which is getting dearer every 
year. It is true that in parts of Wales and Scotland 
the bracken fern which flourishes with such luxuriance 
in certain localities, is occasionally cut and used as 
litter ; but for the most part its value for this purpose 
is not generally recognised, and acres and acres of 
land producing scarcely anything else but this fern 
are allowed to remain unappreciated. 
With a view of making known the chemical com- 
position and more particularly the richness in nitro- 
gen and potash, the following analysis of fern cut 
green during early summer, and dried, as usual, by 
exposure to the sun, was made. Also, side by side, 
for the sake of comparsion, an analysis of the same 
kind of Bracken fern, cut in March, when quite brown 
n appearance, the leaves withered and the stalks 
ihardened into wood. 
Analysis of Bracken Fern. 
No. 1. No. 2. 
Young Fern. Old Fern. 
Water 11-66 14 90 
* Organic matters 83-38 80 64 
** Mineral matters (ash) ... 4 96 4 56 
100-00 100-00 
* Containing nitrogen ... 2-42 "90 
„ silica 1-60 281 
** Containing p >tash 1-15 -10 
„ soda -64 -26 
„ lime -44 -62 
„ magnesia ... -13 -47 
,, phosphorio acid -60 "30 
It will lio noticed that the fern, when cut young 
and green, contained in its sun-dried condition more 
than twice as much nitrogen and 10 times as much 
pota-ih as the old fern full gro.ui and matured. 
Chemists are aware that the proportions of nitrogen 
ami potash decrease as the leaf matures and the sap 
goes down, while the proportions of lime and woody 
fibre increase. 
If, therefore, the farmer wishes to take advantage of 
these facts, he will cut the fern before it reaches the 
period of maturity, say in June or July. 
By so doing he will obtain a material softer, and, 
when properly dried, more suitable for litter, and at 
the same time, very much richer in the constituents 
required to make a valuable manure. 
How valuable the manure made from well-rotted 
fern should be, a glance at the following table will 
show, 
One ton of the following contains, at the time of 
harvest, in round numbers : — 
Bracken 
Wheat 
Barley 
Oat 
Fern. 
Straw. 
Straw. 
Straw. 
lb. 
lb. 
lb. 
lb. 
Nitrogen 
54 
8 
11 
12 
Potash 
26 
13 
22 
23 
Lime 
10 
6 
8 
8 
The Bracken 
, it will 
be seen, 
contains 
far more 
nitrogen, potash, and lime than either wheat, barley, 
or oat straw, and it seems a great national loss that 
tons and tons of so valuable a fertiliser should be 
neglected in a country which consumes annually 
thousands of tons of imported manures, such as guano 
and nitrate of soda. 
One ton of ordinary sun-dried fern contains as much 
nitrogen as 328 lb. of nitrate of soda, or 600 lb. of 
best Peruvian guano. 
[We have long been aware of the richness of the 
common fern in potash, but Mr. Hughes gives us a 
new view of its wealth in nitrogen. Ferns are largely 
used for shading purposes, and planters will do well 
to utilize the plants when green as cattle shed bedding 
or as constituents of manure heaps. — Ed. T. A.'] 
* . 
DELI AND LANGKAT TOBACCO COMPANY. 
The statutory general meeting of the Deli and 
Langkat Tobacco Company, Limited, was held on the 
1st inst. at the Cannon-street Hotel, Mr. J. Berry 
White being in the chair. A special meeting for 
the purpose of altering the title of the Company 
followed. 
The Secretary (Mr. John T. Zorn) having read the 
notice calling the meeting, 
The Chairman said : Gentlemen, this is a statutory 
meeting which is held in compliance with the pro- 
visions of the Companies Acts, which enjoin that a 
general meeting of the proprietors shall be held within 
four months from the date of registration of every 
company formed under the Limited Liability Acts. As a 
rule, the proceedings are purely formal, no report or ac- 
counts being presented ; but in the case of this 
company, the business of to-day will be something 
more than formal, for, as you are aware, the com- 
pany took over the properties in Sumatra as a going 
concern as from February 4 last, but as the crop of 
tobacco of last season had not been shipped, we 
agreed to take it over as stock-in-trade, paying the 
vendors of the estates the actual cost of production, 
and taking the risk of any profit or loss that might 
accrue from the sale of it. Well, gentlemen, with- 
in the last six weeks this crop has been arriv- 
ing in Amsterdam very rapidly ; 2,741 bales have been 
landed there, out of which 2,127 bales have been 
already sold, and have averaged the satisfactory price 
of 154 cents, per lb., or the equivalent of 2s. 6 4-5d. 
sterling. Advices have been received of the shipment 
of 1,246 bales additional, which should arrive within 
the next fortnight ; this makes nearly 4,000 or more 
than four-fifths of the entire crop stated in the 
prospectus. The first invoice ought to arrive within 
the next two months, and as the tobacco is ordin- 
arily sold within a few weeks of the arrival in Hol- 
land, we ought to be in a position to know what the 
exact profit on the crop will be at the latter end 
of August, or early in September. As the average 
of the sales, so far. has been more than 4d. per lb., 
over the estimate given in the prospectus, being 2s. 
6-4 5d. against 2s. '2|d., and as the unsold moiety of 
the crop is said to be quite equal, if not superior, 
in quality to that already sold, the profit ought to 
be at least equal to that foreshadowed in the pros- 
pectus. Of course, produce markets vary greatly, 
and the remainder may not average so high a price ; 
