424 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December t, 1887. 
and transplanting, and bright visions of golden har- 
vests were opened to owners of rice fields who deter- 
mined to follow the example set by Mr. Green's 
Agricultural Instructor, with a certainty that like re- 
sults must inevitably follow. How apt we are to in- 
dulge in hasty generalizations I Because a certain 
system of cultivation yielde't certain results, there- 
fore the universal adoption of that system will yield 
similar results. No account is taken of the differ- 
ence of soil prevailing in fields even in one district 
and a host of other circumstances. Experiments with 
wheat in France showed that "on the clay soil it started 
12 stems, on the loam 14, on the sandy but 6." It 
therefore follows that the percentage of yield depends 
to a very great extent on the soil. During the dis- 
cussion that the results of the Toppur experiment 
evoked, the waste of seed that resulted from thick 
broadcast sowing was prominently brought to no- 
tice, and we were led to believe that this waste was 
a peculiarity of oriental agriculture, and that more 
enlightened methods prevailed in Europe; but we are 
told that " one-seventh of the total corn raised in 
France is employed as seed, and it is calculated 
that 20 times too much seed is sown." This, 
it is _ shrewdly said, is " a wilful loss for con- 
sumption." About 330 grains of wheat to the square 
yard fall it appears if sown broadcast and of those 
only 180 grow, the rest falling a prey to drought, 
birds, &c. Of those that grow each seed sends up 
between one and four stems. If the plants be put 
down 10 inches apart there will be about 64,000 stems 
to an acre, as against 760,000 if seed be sown broad- 
cast, or one plant to every square inch of surface. 
The growth of the pKnts is thus checked by over- 
crowding and while 18 times more seed is used the yield 
will be less. If the above figures be trustworthy, and 
there is no reason to doubt that they are not, a large 
quantity of seed is absolutely wasted by broadcast 
sowing in France than locally. Competent authorities 
asserted lately that from 4 to 5 times more seed is 
necessary for broadcast sowing than for transplanting, 
but of course paddy plants are not planted 10 inches 
apart, seldom over 6 inches; even making allowance 
for this, 18 times more seed for broadcast sowing wheat 
does seem extraordinary. 
As pertinent to your inquiry when noticing the 
Toppur experiment, whether manure helped the extra- 
ordinary yield, we are told that "it has been de- 
monstrated that where the roots have full play in wide 
sowings and good soils, the efficacy of manurings has 
been nil." This seems hard to believe. I cannot quite 
understand how it is that however good the soil may 
be, manure had no effect whatever on the veget- 
ation it supported, unless indeed the soil had a 
plethora of all the mineral constituents contained 
in the manure used. If this be the explanation, 
then the soil must have been an extraordinary one-. 
But with whatever reservations we may be inclined 
to accept the assertion that when plants are well 
spaced out on a rich 6oil, manure does not benefit 
them in the least, it is important to bear in mind 
that with full scope for roots on "good" soils, which 
includes, I suppose a good mechanical condition, the 
effect on the growing plants is so great as to induce 
the belief that manure can exercise no further bene- 
ficial effect on them. It is important to bear this in 
mind not only in the cultivation of cereals, but also 
in the cultivation of perennials where overcrowding 
is practised. " If wheat be spaced on sandy soils, 
there will be not much difference in the yield" is 
true also as regards paddy. We have been told be- 
fore now that to improve a sandy soil it is necessary 
to add to it clay or humus. In paddy cultivation 
generally the improvement of sandy soils is slow and 
is effected by ploughing in the weeds. I am much 
afflicted by the presence of sand in some portions of 
the field I cultivate, where the unsatisfactory growth 
of the paddy plants is a perfect eyesore. 1 attempted 
once to improve it by green manuring, i. c. by scattering 
leaves over those portions ; but the continued unsatis- 
factory growth oi paddy on these spots makes it only 
too apparent that the quantity I used was insufficient. 
The collection of loaves where no jungle growth exists 
hard by is an expensive job, as all the leaves must 
be obtained by lopping off the branches of trees, and 
where these are not numerous, the cost is great. 
However great the cost, the improvement of these 
sandy portions is to be taken on hand before 
long. When travelling by train once I met 
a portly and not very hirsute Gansabhawa President. 
The conversation turned not unnaturally on paddy cul- 
tivation, when he declared that he had found a means 
to render a sandy soil muddy. It did not require any 
pressing for him to divulge his secret. He hal used 
cattle-manure, and he declared with the utmost bland- 
ness "I don't know whaf became of the sand after that. 
It all disappeared." We, that is another low-coun- 
try planter and I, pressed closer to him to get further 
letails of this most important discovery. " How much 
manure did you use?" was asked him. " Nine cartloads 
for one bed " was the response, after which we found 
no difficulty to account for the mysterious disappear- 
ance of the sand, a new soil had been made on the 
top of it. 
When recently noticing Mr. Jansz's intended ex- 
periments with different kinds of manure, it wis said 
that a theoretical as well as a practical knowledge of 
agriculture was necessary to carry out the experiments. 
Otherwise mistakes would be made in applwng leaf- 
forming manures on rich soils and vice vena. It is 
well known that in a rich humus the leaf forming 
tendency has to be repressed by cutting down the 
paddy stalks, in order to induce them to form ears. 
In poor sandy soils the plants r grow badly but only too 
readily form ears. In Fiance " the important experi- 
ments in question revealed an unexpected result. The 
ordinary proportion of grain to straw is as 23 to 50, 
But on poor sandy soils the proportion was 35." I see 
nothing unexpected in the result, for the difference in 
growth between paddy stalks in rich and poor soils 
affords a ready solution of the disparity, at least as 
far as paddy is concerned. It is said that " there 
is no scientific explanation of this fact " and in 
its absence the conjecture is made that poor soils 
help plants to concentrate their energies in the form- 
ation of seed as a means of perpetuating the species. 
What does the following mean? Either the writer 
of the letter has stated the opposite of what he means 
or science and reason have gone mad: — "It is by the 
direct contact of the rootlets with the solid food 
materials that nourish the plant, and not by the absorp- 
tion of these same materials in a state of dissolution 
in the bosom of the soil as was formerly believed 
and that a few still maintain ! " Won't starving man- 
kind have reason to be thankful if they are nourished 
by simply coming in contact with food without tasting 
it? Here is something equally startling but which 
has an air of plausibility in it: — "It is by instinct 
that the plant develops its roots, and in pro- 
portion as the soil is poor or the materials of nu- 
trition irregularly disseminated, that development 
will be greater somewhat, as animals will have to 
ringe over a greater space when food is scanty in 
order to secure sufficient for the totality or their 
wants." The development of root surface is supposed 
to be simultaneously followed by an increase of leaf 
surface, if the above be true then a poor soil will 
favour the growth of leaves, but this is contradicted 
by the writer himself when he says " that in poor 
soils the plant concentrates all its energies in the 
development of seed." Many parts of this instructive 
letter are amusing as well, from its peculiar idiom, 
♦ 
Guai'tinc, Mangos.— The Superintendent of the 
Public Gardens, Allahabad, reports that Mangos graft- 
ed on young seedling stocks are as fruitful as those 
grafted on older stocks, but they are later coming 
into fruit. The trees so produced are much larger 
than seedlings of the same age, so that what is lost 
in time is gained in produce. Mr. Maries suggests 
that late-fruiting varieties should be grown on seed- 
ling plants of late-fruiting varieties and rice rersd 
instead of promiscuously, as is done now. — Gardener* 
Chronicle. 
