July i, 1893,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
roots ; bat the farmer wishes to obtain the largest 
possible yield from a given piece of ground; he, 
therefore, must in most oaseB, provide the plants 
with »mmoDia throagh manure. How much of 
it may not be very easy to determine. But sup. 
pose when there is an approximately correct pro- 
portion in the raising of market products and 
feed plants, where the location of plants in 
crop rotation is a correct one and where the stable 
manure is treated in such a manner as little as pos- 
sible of its substance is sufficient to provide for an 
ample supply of the needed ammonia, A correct pro- 
portion between feed plants and products for the 
market must be pre-supposed, for the reason that 
plants with small end quickly withering leaves, such 
as cereals, are able to absorb but little ammonia from 
the air, while plants with large leaves that remain 
green for a long time, such as pod-bearing plants like 
peas, clover, &o., absorb a great deal of ammonia 
from the air, and only when young are they in need 
of a soil richly supplied with ammoDia. 
The manurial efficacy of some substances is owing to 
the tact that they do not themselves directly supply 
the lieeded elements, but because they dissolve ingre- 
dients of the soil to be absorbed by plants. Many 
eabatancee, such as lime a^ il gypsum, are known to act 
mainly aa stimulants, that i", as chemical solvents of 
other substancea. 
Here the objection may be raised that an applica- 
tion of such stimulants impoverishes the soil. This, 
however takes place only where n re-aopply is not pro- 
perly cared for. Besides, the quicker the ingredients of 
the soil are dissolved and made available for growing 
plants the greater are the profits, for the same rule 
applies here as in business transactions — the oftener 
the capital is exchanged the greater ore the gains if 
the wheel is turned the nght vjay. 
The third niauurial effect of a ^nbsitacce consists in 
an improvement of the physical properties of the soil. 
We all know that heavy olay eoil is well loosened 
by fresh stable manare and warmed by its decay, 
and on the other band, light soil« beodme more com- 
pact and better capable of holding water by the ap- 
plication of manure, becanee this manure, being a 
humus-like substance, retains the water better than 
Band. 
From this it ia evident that such a substance to be 
nsed as manure, will be moat Vdluabla to the farmer 
which ia effective in all three directions, and at the 
B»me time is the cheapest. — Australasian. 
^ 
- COOLIES AT THE STRAITS : WHITEWASHING 
IN EXCELSIS. 
This is the title of an editorial in a recent num- 
ber of the '' Straits Independent " dealing with 
a lengthy letter from the Uolonial Secretary to the 
Besidenoy Councillor regarding cooly mortality. A 
copy of the letter had been submitted at a meeting 
of the Penang and Province Wellesley Planters' 
AsBOoiation, and our Straits contemporary describes 
it aa " one of the moet remarkable doouments of its 
kind we have ever perused, and, as a specimen of 
wholesale whitewashing, absolutely unequalled." 
It appears that a Commission had been appointed 
to inquire and report upon the high rate of 
mortality on Caledonia and Byram estates, and the 
letter referred to, embodies His Excellency the 
Governor's viows wuh regard to the conclusions 
of the CommiEsion. In it the Colonial Secretary 
states :— 
" The gentlemen forming the Committee, to whom 
His Excellency is much obliged for the trouble which 
they took to investigate the causes of the mortality 
among the Byram coolies, commented at some length 
upon iiiciiients in estate management which, in their 
opinion, required reform. They arrived at certain con- 
clusions Hud made certain recommendations. But 
they failed to appreciate that their verdict was re- 
quired on the simple issue of whether or not the 
estate wad, owing to some inherent defect in the 
looftlity itself, unfit ior the rejidenoe and employ-' 
I ment of statute immigraata. They found that the 
' nuhealtIiiots3 wluich bad been expeiieuced whis due 
I to removable ciiuses and Ihtij report, alter it has 
I been twice referred bavck for further infotmatioti, was 
accepted as a decision that tli-e estate was noi utifit 
for Indian coolies." 
I The poinls upon which His Excellency's views 
are given are : — 
(a) House accommodation ; (i) Hospital accom- 
modation ; (c) Water supply ; (d) Food supply ; (e) 
Unreliable nature of death retrarns ; (f) Discharge 
by mutual consent ; (i/) Systetit on which death rate 
is to be calculated in Indian Immigration Agent's 
returns. 
With regard to the first His Excellency does not 
consider it necessary to t;ive any directions beyond 
expressing his ooniidenoe> that the Indian Immi- 
gration Agent will, in regard to all estates, see 
that the obligation of the employer to provide 
" sufScient and proper house accommodation" is 
carried out. The P. C. M. 0. and the manager 
of the estates had had a consultation wiih re- 
ference to hospital accommodation and it is added: — 
" His Excellency has approved of the arrangements 
proposed by Dr. Simon and they must be carried 
out. Instructions for the management of estate hos- 
pitals have been drawn up and are now being printed, 
and will shortly be issued." 
On the question of water-sapply the following is 
the Governor's deliverance : — 
" His Excellency has no besitation in deciding 
that the " sufficient supply of wholesome water." 
which by law an employer is bound to find for 
his statute immigrants should be, in respect of Cale- 
donia and Byram estates, a supply of the Nebong 
Tebal water conveyed to the estates in pipes (at the 
expense of the proprietors) in connection with the 
Government water-works. His Excellency trusts that 
the necessary works will be put in hand at once." 
.as to loua supply no interierence is recommended. 
With reference to the death returns n is stated : — 
" Six men who died in Hospital were returned as 
'discharged' because they were discharged from 
their employment during illness. There has, how- 
ever, been no attempt at anything like concealment, 
and the alterations made in the books were initialled 
by the Colonial Surgeon. His Excellency regrets 
therefore the use of the word 'falsification' in the 
Committee's report." 
The subjeuo of disohargej by mutual consent ia 
thus referred to : — 
It has sometimes happened that employers have 
given invalid coolies their discharge, thus ridding 
themselves of a burden and shifting it on to the 
Government, In the interests of the coolie, the 
practice is not to be altogether condemned, for it is 
conceivable that the mental condition of a labourer 
who despairs of recovery on the estate, may be so 
stimulated by the knowledge that he is a free agent, 
that he may regain strength and health. 
On the other hand, the system of discharges "by 
mutual consent" is susceptible of great abuse if it ia 
allowed to free an employer from obligation or to 
affect the death rate on an estate, and the attitude 
of the Colonial Surgeon in Province Welleeley should 
have been that of the Indian Immigration Agent, 
who wrote to the general manager, Penang Planta- 
tions Company, in April 1891, to the following eilect 
commenting on itbe oafc of an immigrant who was 
admitted into Sungei iSakap Hospital ou the '26th 
January, was discharged, "by mutual consent on 
the 29th January and died on the 16th February 1891. 
This Bubject bad been lully considered by Gcvern- 
ment with the result ihat the following section has 
been inserted in "The Indian Immigration Ordin- 
ance Amending Ordinance 1892" which was pasaed 
in December last : — 
"50a. Any contract under this Ordinance with a 
statute immigrant may ;be determined with the con- 
sent of such immigrant and oi his employer and with 
the approval of t-ie Indian Immigration Agent, bat 
such determination shall not operate to relieve the 
employer from any liability under this Ordinance for 
