January 2, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
615 
raised to £10, there must of 
gain. But, unfortunately, fan 
ssity be a great 
not unfrequently 
expend the pound without receiving much beneht— no 
Nitrate of soda is a' favourite, 'lop-dressing for wheat, 
and, if the growing plant of that crop looks weakly 
and of a had colour, nine I'higlish fanners out of ten, 
if they can afford it, rush off to the manure merchant 
for nitrate of soda. But frequently, after being applied, 
the results are very far from being commensurate with 
expectations ; lor, although the plaul K|«-i-.|ily turns to 
a darker hue, and may tiller out more abundantly, when 
the ripening period comes it gets blighted, causing the 
increase of produce to he more in straw than in grain. 
Hundreds of fanners gel diKgu*1cd with uitmlo of soda 
in consequence; and I have heard many express the 
opinion, after being disappointed, that its application to 
plants is very much akin to dram drinking— the oftcct 
is very powerful at first, but, so far from being lasting, 
is afterwards positively injurious. M. Ville will inform 
such persons that the cause of the evil is, not that 
the crop did not require t" 
Where lands top-dressed »i 
themselves phosphoric acid, 
ent soluble condition for 
ill results would not be exi 
that tho French chemist 
practical agriculturist in fur 
and rules for their applica 
M. Ville affirms that p 
categories -those in which 
potatoes. But ho does not, 1 
chemists, advise persons to 
recommendation "nitrogen fo 
turnips," because this is so, hu 
"This first noint beina establi 
d somethin, 
led in the 
» else also. 
fertiliser h 
h and lime, 
ave within 
in sutfici- 
juts of the 
crop, the 
id ; and it i 
s just here 
id to the 
formulas B 
r manures, 
ire divided 
enous matter is the 
vphIk halnno • tliocn , - „ 
tnd legum- 
cenic, and 
tho older 
t exclusive! 
y on the 
jliates for 
on the ooni 
rary, says : 
3d, we hav 
; next to 
both of the 
dominant 
n fact, ho 
livides the 
less than fu 
e different 
dy his views 
it M. Ville 
thoroughly 
prescribes, 
t principle 
picK tno most suuaoie quantities 
and subordinate constituents." 
manures ho recommends into no 1 
kinds, which ho terms normal, lit 
incomplete nianuro, ' and lastly, 
functions. Those who desire to sti 
had better, of course, procure tl 
into his deductions in minutiie : 
sufficient for others to explain th 
as a doctor would, for each case, g 
in which each plant would have 
chiefly catered for ; the artificial manure recommended 
for it would also contain tho other leading elements 
Which are required to nourish plant life, although in 
smaller proportions. The " incomplete manures " alone 
have some clement absenl which, in most eases, would 
be highly necossary. They do not contain nitrogen, 
and ore used for leguminous crops, which, according 
to M. Ville, can supply themselves sufficiently with the 
nitrogen they need from tho atmosphere by means of 
their leaves. 
By injudicious application almost every blessing is 
liable to bo converted into [a curse; and if the work 
of .M. Ville produces no other beneficial result, should 
it cause more care and dexterity to ho employed in tho 
application of artificial manures, fanners will be sure 
to benefit very considerably. Nitrate of soda mixed 
with superphosphates, so as to form a tdtro-phosphate, 
would DO doubt very often slleeeed far better as a top- 
die-, in for Drain crops than nitrate of soda ; and in 
not a fc'A other instances the careful study of the 
wan of the plant and the nature ami properties of 
the soil would bo sure to bo useful before manures 
were applied in any form. 
A .HieoLA. 
COFFEE PROPAGANDA IN BRAZIL. 
The following memorial was presented to the minister 
of agriculture on the 15th inst. by the commission 
appointed by the " Centra da Lavoura e Commercio," 
ill 
Centro da Lavoura e Commercio for the purpose of study- 
ing tho project presented at the great meeting of coffee 
merchants for tho improvement of the actual conditions 
of Brazilian coffee, an object of patriotic solicitude to 
the government, to the nation and especially to the 
classes we represent, we now report to your excellency 
the result of our labors. 
Among the numerous economical facts which surround 
the great question of Brazilian coffee, its production 
and consumption, it is fit to distinguish those which, 
in the category of difficulties to overcome, belong, more 
or less nearly, to the direct action of the interested 
parties, and those which by their nature depend upon 
more complicated processes by their connexion with and 
affinity to the general economical organization. 
If the production presents to us, in the complexity 
of the difficult problems which surround it, the gigantic 
work of great united efforts, organized and incessantly 
consecrated to this the best part of the public wealth, 
it is certain that the question of consumption is not 
only of essential interest to the economical state of tho 
country, but also dominates the preceding and very grave 
question of production. 
Considering the first fact separately, we find that a 
progressive agricultural development has considerably 
increased the Brazilian production, whereas at the 6ame 
time the competition of other countries has considerably 
distanced Brazil from her former proportion in the total 
production of the world. 
Now, if the increase in the production of Brazil, ac- 
companied by the identical phenomenon on a still larger 
scale in other producing countries, had constituted an 
evil, we would have felt it progressively and in pro- 
portion to its manifestations. But, far from this, a great 
demand raised the prices, bringing a larger amount into 
consumption, notwithstanding the grave obstacles result- 
ing from the fiscal regimen of many consuming countries. 
g|In this relation the coffee question offers, therefore, a 
favorable aspect as long as the demand tends to be 
maintained, even if not in the indicated progression, at 
least in proportion to the new and expected increase of 
To direct in this sense all the forces which our mer- 
cantile aptitude affords, seems, therefore, the safest 
means to give thinness, in the present and in the future, 
to this great source of wealth in our national agri- 
Such arc, briefly stated, the reasons which determined 
us to commence our labors upon this poiut, without 
prejudice to what may be urgently necessary to bo done 
in the interest of production. 
Without enumerating for the present all the causes 
which are disquieting our gnat national market (which 
will form tho subject of special considerations which we 
shall opportunely submit to tho wise judgment of tho 
imperial govorninont) wo must declare that wo aro yet 
very far from having established the approaches and 
associations which are so advantageous in the international 
relations of commerce 
To establish and encourage those communications 
would be tho most direct means to improve and steady 
our position amidst tho universal interests agitated in 
the great industrial competition, and it is under tho 
influence of thi.-> conviction that we submit to your ex- 
cellency the general outlin, - of the plan which, under 
exulting circumstances, seem to us to bo of the earliest 
nml easiest execution, and of equal iuteiist to the cau-S 
of our relations abroad and to that of our studies, ob- 
servations and improvements at home. 
In Qta month of October or November of each year 
