June i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
57 
on rice which was a regular item in accounts 15 years 
ago, and with an increase of 40 per cent in prices for 
six years. 
" When, oh ! when, is the tide to turn ? Can ' Z.' 
tell us ? 
"A great deal of manure was applied in 1879, and 
togeth r with that put out in 1880 all of which should 
be still unexhausted in the soil (since 1880 gave 
neither crop nor wood as of yore), the trees must be 
sitting in it. The quantity sent, by rail in 1879, 
225,1)00 cwts. is greater than that of any year previous to 
1875, and in 1880 as much as 128,960 cwts. were sent up." 
It is proving too much when the unwisdom of 
applying manure is attempted to be shewn. At this 
time of day it is surely unwise to condemn scientific 
cultivation ; but no doubt the cause of comparative 
failure in a majority of cases in Ceylon, is found in 
the application of the manure not being guided by 
science. Our coffee planters have as much need as their 
neighbours who grow sugar in the West Indian 
Islands to lay to heart the lesson contained in the 
following article from the Barbados Agricultural 
Gazette : — 
" It is somewhere recorded of an ancient planter 
that on being asked, by a younger member of the 
profession, what were the chief essentials in good 
tanning, he replied, that there were three things 
which constituted good agriculture : the first was 
manure, the second was manure, and the third was 
manure. In fact, it is quite evident that this old 
gentleman, judging probably by the light of his past 
experience, had fully settled in his own mind, that 
the great and essential feature of successful farming 
was comprehended in that highly pregnant word 
mauure. And who is there amongst us of a younger 
generation, tbat has given this all-important matter 
the moot ordinary consideration, but must of 
necessity have come to the same conclusion — a con- 
clusion irresistibly borne in upon the mind as the 
reaping of each crop discloses results, which, it must 
be confessed by candid persons, fall very far short 
(at least in most cases) of the expectations which had 
been formed, but which alas ! were doomed to fail- 
ure and disappointment. To the observant this re- 
petition of failure, year after after, can scarcely be 
cause for wonder, when has been seen, perhaps with 
impatience, the composure (we had almost said ob- 
stinacy) with which men shut tueir eyes to what 
ought to be patent to the most indifferent and care- 
less ; and as long as this condition of affairs is allowed 
to exist, so surely will our planters make short crops, 
and become more and more heavily in debt to the 
merchants. English and Continental farmers have 
years ago discovered that they were unable to manu- 
facture a sufficient quantify of so-called farm-yard 
manure to enable them to farm successfully, and had 
the good sense to largely supplement their own 
efforts in this direction by liberal applications of 
natural manures, like Peruvian guano and nitrate 
of soda, and artificial manares, as sulphate of am- 
'noma, super phosphate of lime, and many others 
which we need not specify. But whilst our brother 
agriculturists have so promptly recognised the one 
thing n cessary to ensure satisfactory results, we in this 
island are only now, as it were, opening our eyes to the ad- 
vantages to be derived by a more liberal treatment of the 
soil with manures suitable for restoring the elements 
of fertility to our much abused and, at the same time, 
long-suffering servant. We say without hesitation 
that dame Nature, ever bountiful, and almost prodigal 
in her liberality, has bestowed upon men no greater 
gift than tho soil which ho cultivates with such 
niggard hand. Because man knows by experience ite 
enormously recuperative power, he argues, if he give ths 
matter any consideration, that little help is needed 
from him, and that little he gives with grudging 
hand. Ought it to be possible for these things to 
be wr tten, — and in our own organ too? Truly it 
is not a gratifying task jwhich we have undertaken, but 
the disease is a serious one, and requires a drastic remedy 
and though, by some, our criticism may be considered 
harsh, we would assure our readers that we write in 
no unfriendly spirit, only intent on bringing before 
them, with as much force and clearness as we can, 
the most easily attained means of producing the largest 
and most remunerative sugar crops, thus enabling us 
to compete, with some hope of success, with that 
ever-increasing production of sugar which is being 
carried on all over the world, and which, aided as it 
is by all the appliances which modern science and skill 
can devise, threaten us with great disaster, if not 
extinction. It is the opinion of some we know, that 
the great panacea for all our ills is improved manu- 
facture of sugar, but whilst fully sensible of the ad- 
vantages and greater profit, which have been proved 
to accrue from the introduction of improved processes 
of manufacture, there is no denying the fact that 
such alteration in our present system of manufacture, 
involves a greater outlay than most owners of Sugar 
Estates in this country are able, however willing, in 
undertake. 
We believe it has been admitted by out-siders that 
our cultivation, (by which we mean the stirring of 
the soil, whether by means of plough, hoe, or fork ; 
surface drainage, and the strengthening of the thinner 
portions of our fields by the addition of mould taken 
from deeper places) — leaves little to be desired, but 
we challenge any one to say that the beautifully pre- 
pared fields, almost garden-like in their appearance, 
have a proper proportion of the great farmer — manure. 
Doubtless everything in this world is more or less 
relative, and to such as are content with a return of 
1 hogshead or li hogshead sugar per acre, we have 
only to say, 'Go on, and prosper iu your misdirect- 
ed efforts.' But to those, on the other hand, who 
are desirous of securing better returns than they have 
hitherto done from their fields, we say, 'do not be 
satisfied with less than 3 hogsheads of sugar per 
acre with its accompanying molasses' — always remem- 
bering that although we in this country consider such 
to be a very heavy return, half as much again is 
ordinarily produced from an acre of land in countries 
where the soil has not become impoverished by con- 
stant cropping. Now although recent low prices seem 
insufficient to keep up Estates that are heavily in 
debt, it by no means follows that sugar cannot be 
produced to a profit in this island, as the following 
figures will shew : — It is thought that there are 80,000 
acres of arable land, moiety of which (40,000 acres) 
grows canes for each year's crop, and produces about 
40,000 tons (nett) of sugar, and 32,000 puncheons of 
molasses. Then it is generally admitted that the first, 
ton of sugar can be produced at a cost of £14, and 
taking this ton of sugar, with its molasses, as worth 
£20 even at recent prices (say 21s. per cwt.) there is left 
£6 profit, or 42 per cent on the cost of production. 
From these figures it follows that each arable acre, 
yielding a .} ton of sugar annually, gives only £3 
nett. and that at £100 per acre land yields an interest 
of only 3 per cent. Thus, while sugar in Barbados 
can be grown at 42 per cent, profit, a great man;, 
estates are only paying three per cent. To natives 
of this island fields of sugar-cane form so natural 
a feature of the country that probably few of us 
ever give more than a passing thought, as to Whether 
the canes are high or low, good or bad ; but the 
writer well remembers the comparison which he 
he formed in his own mind, on his return from 
his first visit to England, between fields of wheat, 
oats, and barley, on which his eye had been rest- 
ing for many months, and our cane-fields. Positively 
