April 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
ocean from Jaffna. But the fact is, 11 large proportion 
ol these fish would come back again. How fishes 
find th' ir way in the sea, we cannot tell, hut they do, 
and come hack year after year to their spawning 
ground. This could be uiado more sure by furnishing' 
food for thciu by securing the growth of their favourite 
varieties of seaweed. Thus tne whole Indian Ocean 
might he a pasture ground for the fish that go forth 
from Jaffna waters and would in immense numbers 
year by year revisit the place of their birth. The 
strong current that passes our eastern shores would be 
the line of railway to bring not only these finny 
travelers to thiir own doors but abundant supplies of 
food for them. Then fishes will be caught, not singly, 
hut by the net-full and the boat load. 
There is no food so important in the tropics, after 
grain, an fish. Beef and mutton require a large acre- 
age to supply eveu one family, and are moreover too 
heating to be partaken of freely in the tropics. Men 
can live in health on vegetables, but they do not as a 
rule attain the same vigor, as those who eat some flesh. 
Jaffnese already appreciate fish as an article of diet, 
hut much more might be profitably consumed. The 
Northern Province now exports uearly two lacs worth 
of dried fish. This might be increased tenfold, and in 
addition supply immense quantities for the millions of 
India. 
In three years time the fish that came from the sea 
into the Connecticut river U. S. A. were increased by 
thousands of tons, and the profit ol the experiment in 
L86.7 Ml more than a thousand fold. These were sea 
fish which come into rivers for spawning. The experi- 
ment would not be much more dillicult for other fish 
which spawn in the sea, as they come near shores for 
the purpose. Efforts are being made to introduce 
good varieties of fresh water fish in souie parts of 
Ceylon, and this is vory commendable, but this cannot 
compare in iinportaucu ami in iguitude with the culture 
of sea fish. We doubt if there are auy more favourable 
places I'm culture ol feea fish than in these Jaffna waters, 
This is our second point; we must reserve the third 
to our next number. — "Morning Star," Maroh 15th. 
+- 
LIMITS TOj THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS 
OF MANURING. 
The following paragraph from an Australian paper 
has been sent to ub : — 
" This condition of things is not peculiar to Victoria; 
the same tale is told in other countries newly occu- 
pied by Euiopoana. Thus we read how in America 
splendid crops were at ifirst grown on the uewly- 
cloaied lands with the most meagre cultivation ; but, 
as tho lands first opened up bocamo exhausted, the 
settlors had to move farther and farther mwirds, 
until at hut their distance from the seaboard be- 
came a sot-off again l the fertility of their land, 
in. 'I now the Americans in nearly all their .States are 
studying the art of scientific manuring. Another in- 
structive instance has been seen more recently in 
the coffeo plantations of Southern India, Coylon and 
Brazil. In the two former countries coffee growing 
is now almost a defunct industry. Low prices and 
tho coffeo leaf-disease are the causes to which tho 
planters attribute the failure of their industry. Low 
prices duo to increased production uro no doubt part 
of the causes, but tho leaf-disease and the diminished 
yields a re undoubtedly duo to tho exhaustion of tho 
Hoil. Iu one case which came under tho writer's 
notice, whore a planter had boon at tho expense iu 
the lirst instance of burying, instead of burning, 
the timber ou tho cleared land, and had so supplied 
the soil with a store of nourishment not easily 
washed away, the coffee trees were as healthy aud 
almost as productive a fow years ago as when lirst 
planted, whereas the surrounding trees wore in a pc i 
a condition as those of his neighbours." 
The statements regarding exhaustion of soil by 
repeated cropping and tho necessity of resorting 
to manuring nro of course true. But, as a mutter 
of fact, few agriculturists in tho world paid more 
attention to manuring than the cofloo plant' r ef 
Ceylon. When leaf discus cumo, however, no 
amount of manuring could do more than delay 
the inevitable. Indeed many planters ceased to 
manure on the express ground that the more they 
manured they merely the more supplied for the food of 
the fungus. The trees exhausted their energies in 
successive crops of leaves. We know nothing of the 
cane referred to and we refuse to credit the state- 
ment that even the fearfully expensive experiment 
of burying the timber instead 01 burying portions 
of it (for only portions could be burnt), enabled 
the trees to resist Hemiieia vastatrix. The caso 
of Ceylon does not illustrate a correct principle : 
on the contrary it shows that man and science 
are powerless in the presence of certain natu- 
ral pests. 
WITH "PHILOSOPHER SMITH" IN TASMANIA: 
A TRIP INTO THE INTEKIOR ; MINING 
PROSPECTS. 
{By " Old Colonist.") 
On the 11th ultimo the following telegram ap- 
peared in the morning papers of the colony : — 
Waratah, Jan. 11. 
The Hon. James Smith, with others, arrived by 
yesterday's train, and the party started with knap- 
sacks for the west coast this morning. 
It sounds uncommonly like the Gampola appu'a 
" gentleman and two coffee planters," but never 
mind, let us follow our veteran bushman as he 
trudges along with his ample swag. The road 
leading from Waratah to Corinna is characteristic 
and in every way worthy of Tasmania, — a bush 
track recently completed and already condemned. 
The gradient for the lirst two miles is about one 
in live, then a mile almost level ; here we cross 
the river Arthur, which wends its way N. W. and 
falls into the s*a near Bluff Point; after this 
we again ascend a burst-my-gall path of 1 in 1, 
Just see how the old philosopher plods on I No 
mistake about it, these water-drinking men can 
walk. This villainous road is made upon what is 
here called the corduroy principle, which simply 
consists of placing logs of wood side by side. The 
cost is said to have been about £100 per mile, 
and, considering the gradient adopted in a by no 
means dillicult country, the men who sanctioned 
such expenditure ought to hang on the highest 
gum tree. This is the Saffragam of Tasmania ; 
the wettest portion of the island, the rainfall 
varying from Wli at Corinna on the coast to 0-4 
inches at Waratah on the hills, the distance be- 
tween the two points being about 50 miles. There 
are literally no inhabitants, save perhaps a few 
adventurous miners and vagrant prospectors like 
ourselves, but there can be no doubt that there 
is a great future before this portion of the island, 
containing as it evidently does the richest deposits 
of gold, silver and tin in tho colony. Ample in- 
dications of both gold and silvor have already 
been discovered, although the locality even yot 
has been but partially explored owing to the im- 
penetrable nature of the vegetation. Tasmania if 
only equal to the Western Province of Ceylon in 
glossy greenery far surpasses the jungles of any 
portion of that island in the magnitude of m 
t mber trees. Vari d, however, as the hei.vy and 
verdant mantle is lure, the genera do not mcih 
to differ materially fmm that of other portions of 
the island, tho gigantic eucalyptus still prep, indent 
ling, but nowhere havo 1 seen the singular looking 
oelory-pine [I'hijllocUidu* rhomboidalit) in such per- 
fection, while the beautiful sassafras (AthtroHfrma 
MOteh&tttlH) seems to specially delight in Ihil m li t 
cli initio, growing into noblo ire, ; nvui 100 to 160 
le t in height, in shape like a stately cornier ; il>« 
