December i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
395 
warns his readers repeatedly that it is impossible to 
draw any final conclusions from them ; but, subject 
to this proviso, he considers that, until the contrary 
is proved, we may conclude that: — 
" (1) The manner in which the ryot utilizes the 
materials at his disposal is the most eoonomical and 
the most remunerative. Hence, all attempts to teach 
him to uso manure, or leaves and grass, or the like, in 
a way different to that in which he uses them, 
are extremely hazardous and require the utmost 
caution. 
" (2.) Rice can be grown without rab. The in- 
genuity of the ryot has discovered substitutes. But 
I think it ia proved that all substitutes are 
either more costly or more risky than the approved 
methods. 
" (3.) Though rice oan be grown without rab, yet 
rab greatly increases the yield, and, therefore, the 
food supply of the country. The yield now suffices 
to support a largely increased population with, I 
believe, a considerable margin for export. If, how- 
ever, diminished by prohibitions against, or scarcity 
of rab, it is a question whether this margin would 
not mwre than disappear. 
" (4.) If the full value of the materials used for 
rab is charged in the oost of cultivation, rice can- 
not be grown with profit, fives without this charge 
the margin of profit in a good year, such as that dur- 
ing which the experiments were carried on, is not 
large. It has to cover the charges on account of 
true rent, from which must come the assessment 
both on rice-laud and whatever area ia appended to 
rice-land for the growth of rab material." 
These generalizations, as already observed, are 
admitted to be hastily arrived at, and should be 
accepted with caution. There can be no doubt 
that the first conclusion is wrong: it is going too 
far to assert that tho ryot's disposal of the materials 
at hia command is the most economical, when, as a 
matter of Eaot, it is well known to be the uiost 
wasteful, as wo shall be able to prove further oo. 
Again, we can find nothing in the report which 
proves that all substitutes lor woml-r.i/i are either 
more costly or more risky than the approved, 
methods. 
To show how far from closed Mr. Ozanne himself 
considers his nib-question : how anxious he is not to 
mislead ; and with what serious misgiving he regards 
the future of. the ryot dependent on rab", it will 
Suffice to quote the concluding paragraph of his 
report : — 
"I trust that these deductions (those just quot- 
ed) "are sound. They are at any rate made from 
the unbiassed opinion formed after most careful study 
of the subject. But I am very far from thinking that 
I have mastered the subject. I havo already begun ar- 
rangements for continued experiment. My conviction is 
that the ouly way to decide how far in the interests 
of forests, and in thoso of the people themselves more 
especially, the drain on the lands which produce the 
fu/'-materials, whether in or out of the forest, can bo 
prevented from causing exhaustion — a point which 
has been nearly reached in Igatpuri, Khadlcala and 
Lanauli — is to go on with the experiments now begun, 
to show precisely the position of the ryot and what it is 
tending to become, and thus to make it possible for 
i lovernment to restrain him from improvidence when 
it is clear such restraint is necessary." 
As in most other matters concerning forest-economy 
in this country, we may profitably turn to the ex- 
perience gained in countries more advanced in scientific 
methods than India, which have gone through, or 
are still experiencing a phase of agricultural develop- 
ment similar U> that which we are now witnessing 
out here. It does not seem to lie generally known, 
hut it is, nevertheless, a fact full of interest t" 
Indian farmer and his mister, that rab and kinmi - 
the two great evils which threaten to utterly ex- 
terminate the hill-forests of this presidency --have 
been extousively practised in Cermany, and that rab 
still is rampant in soin» States, although everywhere 
steps aru being taken to stop it on Coverninent land, 
brfnuie il has been louud to he incompatible with 
the maintenance of the forests. No wonder, then, 
that with numerous state-supported laboratories, kept 
solely for the promotion of forest and agricultural 
research, Uerinan experimental physiologists should 
have worked out, and be able to explain, scientific- 
ally, the effect of rab both on the forest, from which 
it has been taken, and the cereal to which it sup- 
plies nutriment. 
It is not possible in the short space of an article 
to go fully into this wide subject, but we may at 
all events give briefly some important facts which 
have been established by numerous carefully-con- 
ducted experiments. 
All trees consist mainly of certain volatile sub- 
stances — oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon — 
which are called their organic constituents, in con- 
tradistinction to the so-called inorganic elements, wWch 
are not volatile. It is with the latter that we are 
chiefly concerned in this enquiry, because, although 
all trees consist of over nine-tenths of organic ele- 
ments, they are dissipated in the rub process by 
burning, and it is ouly the residue, or asb, that is 
available for direct use as a fertilizing material. Of 
these constituents about 45 per cent arc carbon, which 
is assimilated only by the leaves in the form of carbonic 
acid, which is always contained in small quantities 
in the atmosphere, and about 48 per cent consists 
of oxygen and hydrogen, which are taken up by the 
roots of plants In the form of water and in other 
ways. Tho loss of these three elements in burning 
rab is consequently of minor importance, but nitrogen, 
which is taken up solely by the roots, is irretrievably 
lost in the air and more difficult to replace. 
The essential inorganic or mineral constituents, 
amounting to about five per sent of the whole 
tree, consist of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, ferric 
oxide (iron), manganic peroxide, phosphoric acid, 
sulphuric acid, silica, and chlorine, which are here 
given in the combinations with organic elements 
in which they are usually found in the plant. All 
these substances are taken up exclusively by the 
roots, and are absolutely necessary for plant-growth. 
They are very unevenly distributed in the tree, and 
wander about, according to the season, in the direction 
in which they are most required by the plant. Conse- 
quently, green parts, notably the leaves when green, 
which alone elaborate the sap that builds up the 
tissues of plants, contain a large quantity, the hark 
and young shoots less, and the stem least of all. 
Daring the period of active vegetation (in these lati- 
tudes, therefore, chiefly during the monsoon) the 
quantity of organic and inorganic nutriment in the 
leaves and young shoots reaches its maximum, the 
former consisting chiefly of starch and sugar, and 
the latter of phosphoric acid and potash. But when 
the leaves begiu to fade, the quantity of these sub- 
stances diminishes, and the fallen, or dying leaf 
does not contain nearly as much of the most useful 
nutriment as the healthy green, leaf, nor docs a dead or 
dying branch contain as much as a healthy one. Schroder 
found, for example, that tho ash of healthy leaves of Scots 
pine contained forty per cent of potash and 19 per cent 
of phosphoric acid ; whilo the ash of dead leaves of 
the same tree contained 0-5 per cent of potash and 
4 per cent of phosphoric acid. These two substances 
aro quite the most important mineral constituents 
necessary for vegetable life, and it is certainly a 
wonderful provision of nature that they should re- 
turn to the stem just before tho fall of the- leaf, 
there to remain stored up for future use. Viewed 
by tho light of Schnidcr's experiments, which have 
beou verified by others, it il easy to uudustaud why 
Kambux insists on cutting his raMM) when vegetat- 
ive functions sro iu full swing. It matters nothing 
to him that he thereby arrests the growth and threatens 
tin- very exist, ne,- of the goose that lays the goldeu 
eggs; he thinU tho forest will last his time at 
all o'venta, and regards the man who ventures to 
suggest the propriety of providing for future gener- 
ations n* hopelessly idiotic. 
One of tho most important questions which the 
Forest Commission now tilting a' I'oonu will haro 
t«i decide, in spite of Uauibui'a IUUUI«SM», M 
