154 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1881. 
; " — ; ; 7 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
CARDAMOM PLANTING. 
Dear Sir, — It has hitherto been the custom to plant 
6ingle cardamom bulbs taken from old bushes. It 
etruck me sometime ago ihat, as the object was to 
grow a good hush, a simpler plan would be to 
put several plants to a hole." I found that it has suc- 
ceeded admirably. Even seedling plants three to four 
inches high can be safely put out during the heavy 
rains. Three to four plants to a hole, and each plant 
nine inches apart from the others. The young plants 
throw out several shoots in a few months, and the 
result is a magnificent bush in a year. The old 
method is a slow, tedious and far from a profitable 
one. The present prices for cardamoms, properly 
gathered and cured, are really very handsome, and 
should they even go down to a third, the return from 
an acre of cardamoms is more profitable than coffee 
yielding two, and a half cwt. the acre. The planting 
out of this product should be vigorously carried on. 
It requires a very small outlay comparatively, if the 
method of planting as above suggested is followed. 
MANURING; WHY NOT IMPORT RAW MA- 
TERIALS FOR SPECIAL MANURES (AND ALSO 
CINCHONA SEED) DIRECT FROM SOUTH 
AMERICA ?-MANURING WITH LIME AND 
GYPSUM ; — ENEMIES OF COCOA. 
. Sib, — The enclosed extracts are taken from a letter 
recently received from South America. The writer 
is professionally acquainted with analytical and agri- 
cultural chemistry, and I send them, as they may 
possibly interest some of your readers. 
i notice that nitrate of soda and guano form 
two of the chief ingredients in Mr. Ross's Venture 
manure. Judiciously used, they are doubtless valuable 
fertilizers, mid I should say it would be advantage- 
ous to import them direct, both as regards purity 
and cost, judging by figures supplied me. 
As regards potash, the reuiarks thereon are in 
reply to a query as to whether there is no simple 
and cheap means of extracting some from ruck ? 
Given this, and the island need not look elsewhere 
for a cheap and abundant supply of a substance of 
more manorial importanre here probably than any 
other, judging by the analysis of tea and coffee. 
And it is a curious fact that cinchona bark from trees 
growing in a soil naturally impregnated with it, 
though very young, has shewn an unusually high 
proportion of quinine. Much of Ceylon soil is, I fancy, 
rather deficient in potash, but in many places large 
quantities of felspar exist, containing as high a pro- 
portion as 13 to 15 per cent., and much of it will 
be found in an already partially decomposed state 
from the action of the atmosphere. When the rock 
does exist, it might, possibly be turned to good 
account, by crushing, as indicated. But the cost 
of transport on so large a proportion of useless 
matter would, I fear, render its removal to a 
distance prohibitive. Pure potash realizes £40 to £70 
per toD, and were a feasible process discovered for 
extract ng it manufacturers here would not be de- 
pendent on a local market only. That it has not yet 
been hit on seems rather contrary to the spirit of 
the 19th century; and ibat practically science must 
so far confess itself unable to assist nature in the 
matter. At present, the whole supply, or nearly 
so, of purilied potash is obtained by the, somewhat 
barbarous and certainly wasteful process of re- 
ducing immense quantities of pine wood to ashes in 
Canada. 
Whilst on the subject of manure, a very 
interesting article appeared in the Field of April 
23 rd on lime and its effect under its different 
condit x on and combinations ; and the different condi- 
tions of substance treated. There is an equally in- 
teresting letter in a previous number (April Kith) 
on gypsum. 
Quick and slacked lime too, it would appear, if 
applied to undecomposed vegetable matter, will fix 
the ammonia, or at any rate will not force it ; but 
where the slightest decomposition has set in, it does 
so at once and wastes it ! 
This being so, has not the chief virtue of many 
a fine heap of manure, possibly representing a large 
outlay in cattle establishments, been unwittingly de- 
stroyed by its admixture ? And has not the effect 
to a more limited extent been the same where applied 
broadcast as a check to leaf disease or as manure, 
a proportion of the leaves which it may have reached, 
being at ihe time of contact with the lime in a 
partially decomposed state ? Where manure heaps 
have been at once covered with earth, or the leaves 
and lime buried together, the earth covering will 
doubtless have prevented loss by absorption. Gypsum 
on the other hand, without a single drawback, seems 
to possess all the merits of lime, and more, as a 
manure, and at the same time the pow er, not only of 
fixing all the ammonia in substances it is applied to, 
but of absorbing and holding it from the air. The 
best results, it is said, may be secured by mixing it 
with other manures, natural or artificial — a mixture of 
gypsum with crude phosphatic and nitrogeneous manures 
being probably preferable to superphosphate of lime. 
Its effect on foliage when applied to the leaves after 
a slight shower of rain or dew, so that it can cling 
to them, is said to be very marked; and eventually, 
as the sulphur becomes liberated, it acts beneficially 
in destroying fungoid growth of all kinds. Surely such 
a valuable material as it would appear to be deserves 
more attention than it has hitherto received in Ceylon 
if price permits. The English price is quoted at 10s 
to 15s per ton only ! 
The cinchona referred to in the letter from South 
America is in the same part ofthe country that 
Ledger procured his seed from, and I fancy are varieties 
of cali.saya. Whether the 6 to 7 per cent mentioned 
means total alkaloids or quinine only, I cannot at 
present say, but should seed be procured, it will 
be from analyzed trees. Now that the war has 
terminated so entirely in favor of the Chilians — 
always well spoken of, and as a comparatively ener- 
getic, progressive people — rapid development of the 
resources of the. country may be anticipated. But 
I gather this at first will more be as regards the un- 
earthing of its mineral wealth, which from accounts that 
have reached me from time to time must be immense, 
more particularly in silver, equalling Mexico and 
Colorado ! The conclusion of peace will, however, I 
suppose, give a fresh impetus to bark collecting. 
C. R. 
P.S. — As a protection to young cocoa, &c, against 
white-ants, has chloride of lime been tried here ? In 
a north country paper, a gardener states that a prior 
application to a seed bed will keep all insects off, and 
if a rag steeped in it be tied round a tree it will 
free it from attack. But whether injurious or not, 
if npt properly used, I am unable to say. 
Extracts Jrom South American letter. 
I have talked over the matter of Ditrate with a 
friend, whose note I enclose. To re-ship nitrate from 
Liverpool or England would hardly answer. There is 
nothing to prevent a ship being freighted direct from 
this coast. The doubtful point on that score is the freight, 
if any, a ship might expect from Ceylon elsewhere. 
It would be necessary on both sides that a business 
