7oo 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1882. 
Ions of distilled water must be added, making therefore 
a total "rainfall" of 18-38 inches (16-87 gallons = 76-45 
litres), and 16-88 inches (15-529 gallons = 70-56 litres) 
respectively. 
The drainage-water when evaporated yielded, in each 
case, of solid matter :— I, 7-092 grams; II, 25-576; (3), 
5-039; (4), 6-463; (5), 6-942; (6), 5-422; (7), 7-024; 
(8), 12-862. 
The plants, after careful cleansing so as to remove 
as far as possible all adhering soil, which was found to 
be most difficult, as the fine fibres persistently retained a 
certain portion of soil, yielded on ignition the following 
amount of ash : — 
1 = 21-32 grams; 3=3-53; 4=8-05; 5 = 10-42; 6 = 
18-503; 7=3-69. 
During the evaporation of the water, a small amount 
of organic matter separated out, and this being different 
in each case, as regards quantity and colour, affected 
the appearance of the dry residues, which were of vary- 
ing shades of pale reddish brown and very deliquescent. 
The following Table I shows the amount of solid mat- 
ter removed from each sample of soil by the drainage- 
water, the total ash of the crops, &c. In the fourth 
column will also be. found the amount of solid matter 
removed per gallon of drainage-water, the mean quantity 
obtained from 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 being 34 grains per gal- 
lon, a quantity not widely differing from that obtained 
by Volcker in 1866-69, viz., 33-3 grains per gallon, from 
unmanured fields in which wheat was growing. Table 
II shows the amount of all the constituents present in 
the drainage-waters in grams per gallon, and the per- 
centage composition of the total solids removed by the 
water from the soil ; and in III will be found the ab- 
solute quantities of each of the several constituents. 
Table I. 
Plants. 
Drainage-water, 
in litres. 
3 
|1| 
ci i S 
s spa 
3.9 a 
o s 3 -9 
m £ ,rH 
.9 
Solid matter 
in drainage-water, in 
grains per gallon. 
Total dry matter of 
crop, in grains. 
Total ash in crop, 
in grams. 
Total solids 
removed from soil by 
drainage water and 
crop, in grams. 
I. Clover a 
20-26 
7-092 
24-500 
121-90 
21-32 
28-412 
II. Blank.. 
24-54 
25-576 
73-11 
25-576 
3. Cabbaged 
10-91 
5-039 32-39 
30-64 
3-53 
8-569 
4. Wheat c 
14-90 
6-463 
30-43 
41-86 
8-05 
14-513 
5. Beans d 
11-97 
6-942' 40-68 
138-24 10-42 
17-364 
6. Clover e 
9-12 
5-422 
41-703 
134-37 18-503 
23-925 
7. Turnips/ 
18-95 
7-024 
26-00 
2201 
3-69 
10-714 
8. Blank . . 
14-95 
12-862 
60-451 
1 
Development of crop. — a "Very strong, b Poor, c Strong, 
and healthy, blossom barely reached, d Very healthy 
strong pods, well formed, e Very strong and healthy. 
/ Poor, leaves healtby and developed, bulbs not so. 
The 
saline 
small 
of km 
and 
ral.b 
HOK/E HOKTULANiE : — ON SOILS. 
(Gardeners' Chronicle^ 22nd October 1881.) 
( Continued from page 616. J 
actual amount by weight of nitrogenous 
matters taken by even a luxuriant plant is very 
compared with the quantity which, through lack 
iwing exactly what to do, we find it best to put 
he soil ; if any one doubts this let him burn a 
;e to ashes and carefully weigh the amount he 
Even the so-called " gross feeders" really take 
•y little; their crossness consists in their appear- 
pro 
oon4ii< 
ivimM 
delit-ht in wallowing in manure. In all 
bad wo the Iproper knowledge, we might so 
; fl small quantity of food to the plant that it 
ni "nee take up all we give it — we might, so 
.nstead of blindly letting oh 
some of the bullets will hit 
le, while the plant is taking 
bought manure so profusely 
is are washing the soluble 
future, happy 
, will do when 
to speak, feed the plant with a spoon, directing the 
aliment straight into its mouth, instead as we do now, 
bathing it in nourishment, in the hope that somehow 
or other a little may trickle in through its lips ; or, to 
change the metaphor, we might fire single shots, making 
sure that each shot told, 
volleys in the hope thai 
the mark. In the meantime, 
up its mite of the dearly-bon 
surrounding it, heavy rains 
elements rapidly away, and 
our garden to places where 
rather harm. Let me end bj 
by picturing what the gardei 
master of the science which w 
he takes in hand a plot of rough ground, intending to 
make it blossom with flowers. 
His first step, I am sure, will be to convert the raw 
earth into good live soil, and secure the all-important 
physical features of which I spoke at the beginning of 
this essay. He may still find it cheapest and best to 
bring this about by freely incorporating ordinary farm- 
yard manure, and simply adding special substances ac- 
cording to the constitution of the native earth and the 
habits of the plant which he proposes to grow. He 
may do this, but I think it more probable that, just 
as we now-a-days, when we grow Mushrooms, do not 
trust to the chance spores persent in stable droppings, 
but sow definite spawn, of special character, in fixed 
amount, so he will rapidly work up his soil by the sys- 
tematic addition of prepared substances and specially 
cultivated ferments. Of this at least I am confident, 
that he will carefully watch his soil, testing it from 
time to time to see how the processes are working, just 
as a brewer tests his wort or the manufacting chemist 
tests the mixtures which are transfoi-ming in his vat. 
And I imagine that from time to time he will assist 
the due ripening of . his soil by growing in it certain 
temporary preparatory crops, for the plant re-acts on 
the soil in as marked a manner as the soil acts on the 
plant, and the well known precept of agriculture, called 
" the rotation of crops," is, so to speak, but a mere 
jutting corner of a great principle of the effect of plants on 
land, whose full dimensions we have not as yet realised. 
When he had thus prepared the ground and secured 
to an adequate depth a general basis of live soil, re- 
tentive of moisture but yet not wet, porous and friable 
but yet giving a firm holding for tender rootlets, eagerly 
absorptive of all the sun's rays, its particles agitated 
through all its depths by incessant change, the harder 
part of his labour will be over. Probably during this 
preliminary handling he will, in different plots, give 
' somewhat different turns to the several changes as they 
are being evolved, securing here more, or there less 
permanent moisture, making this patch of firmer and 
that of looser texture, and varying here or there the 
general composition of the soil. Henceforward his task 
will be lighter. He will have, it is true, to keep a 
watch upon his soil, taking care that its activities 
never slacken, nor its general character deteriorate ; but, 
that done, his chief toil will be the physically light but 
mentally heavy task of adding to the area of soil be- 
longing to each plant, or group of plants, a few pinches 
of the particular things needed for their growth. And 
we may, without any great stretch, imagine that the 
prescription for the pinch will vary according as he 
wishes to call forth luxuriant foliage or solid bloom. 
This, and the struggle to grow together, or in succes- 
sion, such plants as, while satisfying aesthetic desires, 
should mutually benefit each other, and do good in 
common to the soil, will be his chief care. 
Afler some such fashion v. ill I imagine the gardener 
of the future work— his manual labour lightened, but 
his mental work increased by the power of knowledge. 
To lmn the laboratory will have to be as familiar as 
the toohhouse and the potting-shed, and ho will have to 
