THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1888. 
We thought it best to refer our infoimation on 
this head for a local medical opinion, and. we 
have been favoured in reply with the following in- 
teresting remarks : — 
" I think the general tendency in the practice of 
the present day is to give larger doses of quinine 
both for its tonic and its antipyretic effects than 
prevailed say 10 or 20 years ago, but except in 
Germany where Liebermeister for instance recom- 
mends 20 to 45 grains and even more in the treat- 
ment of typhoid fever, liereic doses are not favoured 
by the profession. But large doses, i.e., 10 to 
20 grains, are commonly prescribed in the treatment 
of the malignant forms of malarial fever, remit- 
tent, &c. 
" I don't believe the pathologial effects, head 
Bymptoms, deafness, temporary blindness, rash and 
very rarely abortion and convulsions, can be obviated 
by the use of the drug in the early morn- 
ing or an empty stomach, even if it could be 
always restricted to such times. But its solution in 
Hydrobromic Acid prevents these effects to a con- 
siderable extent if not entirely. 
" Mr. J. Ferguson's paper on the value of quinine 
in checking the opium habit is very interesting, 
and I shall make a note of it as a subject for 
discussion in the Ceylon Branch of the British 
Medical Association." 
PLANTING IN LOWCOUNTBY : SIYANE 
KOBALE. 
WEATHER— COCONUTS — DIGGING AND MANURES. 
11th January 1888. 
After an almost continuously wet December, January 
has dawned fine, a little too fine some would say. 
This weather is but a foretaste of what we will have 
to go through for two or three months more. I do 
not think the period of drought has a more visibly 
disastrous effect on any other product of tropical 
agriculture than on cocouuts. Daring a season of 
even comparative rainlessness a coconut estate pre- 
sents a doleful aspect with fallen and drooping branches 
and the ground dotted with immature nuts. This is not 
however the general appearance of every estate, but 
every estate more or less has patches answering to this 
description dependent on the lie of land, soil, or the 
nuts whiih formed the original nursery. The last 
crop of cojonuts has been exceedingly imall, but the 
generally compensating advantage of high priceB, is 
this seaeoa absent. If. petroleum be used exclusively 
in its crude form as fuel for steam machinery, and 
the recent command of the Emperor of Ohina against 
the use of kerosine oil as an illuminant to avoid fires 
be made general all the world over, happy clays are 
in store for the coconut planter, otherwise with the 
coming iDto bearing of the vast tracts which the 
Colonial Secretary told the Legislative Council recently 
are being opened in the North-Western Provinoe, 
not to speak of the new plantations springing into 
existence iu other parts of the world, coconut planters 
will be forced to ask the aid of the Government to 
advertize their product in all parts of the world, as 
successfully I hope as a similar request was made by 
tea planters. 
Exactly a month ago your correspondent " W. B. L." 
promised to astonish me with some scientific theories. 
He has kept his word and has also returned to the 
charge on a subject which you had decreed as closed 
when withholding a communication of mine in answer 
to an onslaught that was then made on me. Fair play 
demands that I should be permitted a reply. I chal- 
lenge " W. B. L." to point out in any of my writings re- 
ference to an "agricultural rule" against digging 
coconut land " periodically." Why not give up this 
vague word for one more definite ? It is hardly any use 
carrying on a discussion with a man who will not boldly 
meet you and either support a dictum that has been 
more than onco definitely challenged or honestly ac- 
knowledge that it was hastily and thoughtlessly made. 
Combatants are not likely to meet when moving in a 
circle and in the same direction. I took and take ex- 
ception to the dictum " I approve of annual plough- 
iiag or digging, because, in general, it cannot be done 
ottener." I say it is opposed to reason to disturb the 
feeding roots when they are most active, for "W. B. L." 
himself bears witness to the fact that it takes at least 
18 months for the coconut tree to respond to cultiva- 
tion. The response of course is iu the form of increased 
fruit bearing. When all the energies of the tree I say 
are necessary to meet the increased demand made on it 
to bring to maturity a large crop, to re-maim the roots by 
digging or ploughing amounts to little less than an 
act of madness. At this time of day it is a 
mere waste of time to quote authorities however 
high in support of what is well known to everyone 
having the least pretensions to a knowledge of agri- 
culture, that the spread of roots is dependant 
on the mechanical condition of the soil, and that a 
free soil is more absorbent than a stiff one. 
I lay not the slightest claim to any knowledge in 
Agricultural Chemistry, except what is naturally 
acquired by anyone engaged in practical agriculture, 
nor bave I access to a library stocked with standard 
works on this subject as "W.B. L." evidently has; 
but I humbly venture to suggest that " agricultural 
chemists of today value manure by the measure of 
nitrogen they contain" is not universally true. The 
value placed on the constituents of any mauure is 
solely depeadant on the crop for which it is to be 
used, /never cited a Welsh gentleman to support my 
practice of applying manure where it is soonest 
available, round the stem of a tree. I practise it 
because I apply bulky manures, and bulky manures 
cannot be efficiently worked into a soil that is not 
sandy, except at a prohibitory cost. If I were apply- 
ing artificial manures, and if the weather were favour- 
able to the operation, I should certainly dig or plough 
it in by preference. That the annual stirring of the 
soil is never carried out even by its great advocate is 
proved by his avowal that only 12 acres of land were 
dug up during the past rainy season. 
"W.B. L." recently attempted to sneer at me, when 
I said that as the action of bones was stimulating, 
they must be used with caution, especially on young 
plantations which have a tendency to overbear. By 
immediately after admitting that if bones be used 
" the tree needs to be kept in vigorous growth by 
other manures," he unconsciously supported tbe position 
I took and cut the ground from under his feet. 
That bones is not a manure that can be continuously 
used by itself has been proved by Lawes in experi- 
ments extending over twenty years, particulars of 
which appear in the Tropical Agriculturist for Dec. 
"W. B. L." has been a great advocate of the use of 
bones and has gone into figures to prove that by 
the application of one ton of bones to coconuts a pro- 
fit of K180 can be calculated on. He even advises 
its application to young trees not in bearing to in- 
duce precocity. No mention was ever made by him 
to its being used with any other manure till I 
sounded a note of warning against its too general or 
exclusive use. Bones and bones only has been the 
burden of his song as a manure for coconut, and yet 
in his latest deliverance he says:— "I have generally 
found that if I have a good stout stem and a heavy 
head of leaf, I have a heavy bearing tree ; therefore 
I manure for wood and leaf, and leave the fruit crop 
to shift for itself." In a foot-note he says :— " This is 
a rather off-hand way of treating the matter, but 
when one has to deal with nonsense, why be parti- 
cular ?" Of course it is "nonsense " for "W. B. L."to 
speak of bones, the use of which he so strongly advo- 
cates, as " a mauure for wood and leaf." 
As far as I am concerned this is my last contri- 
bution to the discussion on the advisability of con- 
stantly stirring the soil of coconut estates and of using 
bones exclusively in its cultivation, a discussion which 
I regret to admit was not soberly carried on by 
either party, and which has been unnecessarily pro- 
longed by the point at issue beiug systematically 
evaded. I shall touch on a more useful subject in 
my next. 
