i6 
f HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1887 
It is precisely the same with the plant which can 
only nourish itself on nitrogen in the form of nitric 
acid and ammonia. Nitrogen in any other state how- 
ever rich would no more keep it alive that could 
gelatine the animal. The plant lives on phosphorus, 
potash, &c, but it depends not on the absolute quant- 
ity of these matters contained in the soil, so 
much as on the chemical condition or assimilable 
state in which the soil presents them to the roots. In a 
word, plants and animals alike must be allowed to 
prepare their own pap, and according to. their own 
culinary and mysterious processes. It is in the 
manner the ingredients of that pap are presented to 
the roots that the primary condition of soil-fertility 
depends, and which explains the unequal harvests 
from two seemingly identical fields. 
Flowing from these principles is the important 
necessity for securing the minute, the physical dis- 
semination of plant-food in the soil, so that it can be 
conveniently within reach of the rootlets, those unloco- 
motive stationary mouths always open like the bills 
of nestling birds. It is not the mass of mineral food 
in the soil which influences the yield, but in its 
fin eness and its appropriate dissemination. All food 
not within seizure of the root is of no use to that 
root: all food not within reach of the mouth of an 
animal is of no use to that animal. Hence, in case 
of soils these cannot be made too friable nor the 
fertilizing agents, natural or artificial, cannot be 
rendered too assimilable or ready for being worked 
up. Then the cupboard of feeding property of the 
soil will be utilized. Make the mineral food assimil- 
able : next ensure its judicious physical distribution 
in the soil. So far analysis has not yet been able 
to group and measure these two conditions on which 
soil-fertility and plant-development depend. Science, 
however, is on the track of the solution and patience 
is the forerunner of success. 
In a few of the co-operative dairy farms in Switzer- 
land some dissensions have arisen. Complaints were 
made by consumers that neither the milk, nor the butter, 
nor the cheese had the flavor desired. The cause was laid 
to the charge of the farmers employing commercial 
fertilizers and feeding the cattle too much on cake. 
The charges have not been borne out by test-experiment. 
Only more care has been recommended to be observed 
in the storing of the cake to keep away fungus, and 
to secure absolute cleanliness in the feeding troughs. 
Dr. Petersen has concluded his experiments on the 
comparative richness of meat from cattle fattened on 
grass land and in shed. He attests that all fat stock as 
a rule have the lean uniformly impregnated with fatty 
matter. The more lean meat is relatively rich in fat, 
the less water it will contain, and vice versa. Finally, 
the flesh of pasture fatted oxen is richer in nitrogen, 
that is, albuminous matters than those fattened under 
cover, and consequently more nutritions. 
Dr. Grasmann, as the result of his trials with the 
germination of beet seeds, recommends that between 
onp-half and under one inch, is sufficient covering 
depth for sowings. 
Professor AVelstein continues his crusade in favor of 
keeping cows clean. Those so eared enjoy better 
health, fatten quickest, and yield more milk. After a 
winter of shed-residence, the professor laments that 
the animals very often have more filth on their 
hides than flesh on their bones. This neglect, he adds, 
is one of the chief causes of cattle-plagues. 
Hennerbeg recommends that every stable and cow- 
Rhed ought to be provided with a thermometer and 
the normal temperature of the buildings maintained 
at 60 to 64 degrees Fah. Too high a temperature 
will irritate and weaken the animals, while too low a 
heat 50 degrees will exact more good without a 
corresponding benefit. Thus cold like fire consumes. 
At San Francisco the Ctipresslis macrocarpa is most 
successfully used for converting seaside sand dunes into 
forests. — Qvrendander. 
COCONUT-I'LANTINO, SUOAU, CASTOB-OIL PLANT AND 
Life Generally in Jamaica. — From a bright letter in 
the Christian World by Samuel James Capper who 
is on n visit to his brother, who is Inspector of Schools 
in Jamaica, we take the following paragraphs of 
special local interest : — 
With us in the carriage was a young man, who was 
a fairly good representative of the modern Jamaica 
planter, in contradistinction to the typical West Indian 
proprietor of fifty years ago. He has the management 
of two or three estates belonging to his father or family, 
and also superintends a store in Mandeville, which «as 
the original source of the family prosperity. I said he 
must have his hands pretty full. He replied, " Tbey 
ought to be," but seemed rather glad of our two hours' 
delay at the railway station, as it helped in the war 
constantly being waged, even more unremittingly in 
Jamaica than at home in England, against the arch 
enemy — time. This fortunate young man had only 
taken to his Jamaica life after three years at school 
at Stuttgart, two at Neuchatel, and three at the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge. As coconuts are fast becoming, 
in the decadence of the sugar industry, one of the 
staple products of the island, it may be interesting to 
notice how differently their value may be estimated. 
Our host at SpriDg Garden considered that when in 
full bearing you might calculate upon a net return 
from each tree of 4s per annum, and he considered the 
capital value of the tree, the land being thrown in, at 
£3. Our present friend said he had an estate with 
12,000 coconut palms upon it, of which it would be safe 
to reckon that 8,000 are in full bearing ; that about 2s 
each is all he ventures to calculate the annual yield at, 
and that if any one were to offer him £8,000 for the 
estate, with the 12,000 trees upon it, he would jump at 
the offer.* As a matter of fact, as a result of the 
general depression, large estates, if sold at all, seem to 
go for nominal prices. Within the past week three 
large sugar estates, comprising more than 3,000 acres, 
much of which acreage is in cane, were sold, with all 
buildings, machinery, and stock upon them, for £13,000. 
The fortunate purchaser, it is estimated, has received 
as part of his bargain oxen and cattle to tlie value of 
£8,000, It is, indeed, not an uncommon thing to hear 
of estates being sold for less than the value of the 
stock upon them, the land, houses, and machinery thus 
going for absolutely nothing. * * * 
At last our train got under way, taking us first 
through swampy ground covered by dense tropical bush 
mangrove, and other trees. This swamp, which covers 
many square miles, was fertile and cultivated land 
until a great hurricane in 1,726 which reduced it to 
its present condition. Leaving this dismal swamp 
we pass through what looks like a noble park on the 
grass of which graze many cattle, who are protected 
from the sun's too ardent rays by magnificent um- 
brageous trees. Beyond the park we come upon the 
bright green of the sugar cane, and amoDg the canes 
is working a gang of negroes, whose black skins and 
brilliant handkerchiefs and other clothing look very 
picturesque against the bright verdure. The park, as 
well as the sugar estate, is the property of Mr. Ver- 
ley, a gentleman of colour now credibly reputed to 
be worth a quarter of a million sterling, who began 
his career as a working mechanic earning Is 6d. a 
day. This huge fortune he owes to his own industry 
and perseverance in establishing steam mills and a 
bakery in Kingston, which shows that enterprise, when 
wisely directed, does not go without its reward even 
in Jamaica. * * * 
A weed which is much encouraged on the cuttings 
and embankments of the railway, as its roois bind 
the earth together, is the castor-oil plant; yet I be- 
lieve there is no export whatever of the oil from Jam- 
aica, and the bulk of what is used in the island is 
imported from England 
* We certainly agree that 2s per tree per annum 
is a very good return : at SO trees that would be 
£8 to the acre, a result above anything got save 
from th« very best estates in Ceylon. R50 per acre 
is considered a good average return iu Ceylon al- 
though in rich soil with careful cultivation and man- 
ure, this may be doubled (vide "Planting Moles- 
worth"). Jamaica has a good market for its nuts 
in America, but there is little done in expressing 
oil or making copperah as yet.— Ed. 
