Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturint: [March 1, 1894 
a top dressing or is buried composted with cattle 
manure. Being fairly quick iu decomposition it 
before loug yields its manurial properties to 
the crops. 
14. Bone dust is used all over the south and 
west of the island by the Sinhalese goiyas for 
manuring their paddy lands. But the Jaffna 
cultivators being mostly Sivites seem to have 
some antipathy or prejudice against the applica- 
tion of bone dust '< ) piddy. But one who knows 
how plant food is, so to speak, purified before it 
is taken in by the rootlets of plants should not 
have any objection to the use of bones on the 
score of unch aniiuess. Eveu the most offensive 
manure is transto, iued i.iio useful vegetable 
matter after it is taken up by plants. 
Every animal that we rear represents a certain 
amount of bone-forming material taken from 
the soil ; for all the phosphate of lime that goes 
to build up the bony framework of animals can be 
ultimately traced back to the soil. If therefore 
this substance is not returned to it in some form 
or other, it will gradually become poor in bone- 
forming materials until at last the supply is 
entirely exhausted. Hence arises the importance 
of bone dust as a manure. But, of course, in the 
case of Jaffna lands, as cattle manure is very 
freely used, small quantities of bone dust applied 
with the former so as to supplement it will be 
quite sufficient. 
E. T. HOOLE. 
{To be continued.) 
GENERAL ITEMS. 
A most interesting paper is published in the 
Allgemeine Forst uad Jctgd, Zeitung of November, 
1892, by Dr. Seiroko Honda of Tokio on his en- 
quiries regarding the influence of the height above 
the sea-level on the growth of forest trees, and 
their reducing factor. 
The enquiries and valuation surveys have been 
very searching and extended over areas of eleva- 
tion ranging from 900 to 1,050 metres, from 1,050 
to 1,200 metres, from 1,'200 to 1,850, and from 
1,350 to 1,500 metres. 
The result of the experiments are shortly sum- 
marized showing that with increase of absolute 
elevation of the locality, the following clianges 
take place iu the grow-th : — 
A.^ — TjffE Individual Tkite. 
1. The increase iu height lessens regularly and 
distinctly. 
•2. The basal increase ulso decreases, but less 
so than the growth-height. 
?>. Increase in volume lessens gradually. 
4. The stage of immaturity i« all these direc- 
tions is prolonged. 
5. The form of the bole becomes less and less 
cylindrical and approaches more and more the 
neiloid. 
6. The proportion of the inci'eaae of the several 
parts of the tree decreases from the bottom 
towards the top of the stem. 
7. The reducing fabtor becomes smaller. 
8. The crdwn formation gets lower in propor- 
tion to the bole. 
9. The proportion of small branch wood 
iocreases, 
B. — Or THF POBEBI. 
10. The actual number of gt«m« per area in- 
creases, whilst however — 
11. The number of stouter and dominant tree* 
decreases. 
12. The mean heigl)t of the forest decreases. 
13. The total bnsal area decreaises, not verj- 
apparently, but Iwlougs to a great extent to trees 
of inferior growth. 
14. The outturn in timber, scantling and flrst- 
dass wood decrease*! distinctly. 
15. The outturn in small branch wood increa««^% 
to some extent. 
16. Trees of the same age are more inclined to 
foi m groups. 
Says the Indian Agriculturist : — Years ago it 
was thought that none but a skilful person oould 
grow grapes. Now the person who lias not intel- 
ligence enough to grow grapes for hia family 
should be pitied. Grape-growing is tlie simplest 
of all things. And think what the yield may be 
of one grape vine ; ooofider that it will bear grapef- 
as long as you lire, thou({h it be a huiwlred year*. 
Bear in mind this, that the old wood that lias 
borne grapes once never bears grapes again ; but 
thut the wood that is formed each season in 
the bearing wood for the next season : also note 
that if all the new wood is left en, the vine ^ill 
bear a hundred times more olustens than it should: 
thus all the clusters will be«Bia}l and imperfect. 
But if nine-tenths of the new wood is cut away, 
leaving only two or three buds of the new wood on 
each stalk, the yield will be increased ten-fold — 
and the size of tha clusters be mucli larger. The 
United States is rapidly taking the lead in grape 
culure. 
T)ie following is the first forecast of the Madras 
paddy crop of 1893-94 : — The latest reports, giving 
the area figures up to the end of Novembier for 
Government villages, show that there have been 
128,800 acres more sown with this crop than if> 
usual This represents an increase of 2"6 per cent 
on the normal area. The increaseiscommon to all 
districts, except Madura and Tinnerelly, where the 
area sown is slightly below the normal. Compared 
with last year, the area sown is about 3 per cent 
less, the decrease occurring in the De«;can and Car- 
■natic districts, where the sowings in 1892 were 
'exceptionally large and early. The reported esti- 
mated a wrage outturn works out to between 1 1 
and 12 annas for the whole presidency — 16 annas 
being taken to represent a full average crop. In 
parts of the four northern districts, the crops hare 
been injured to some extent by the exceptionally 
heavy rainfall of November, or doubtless the pro- 
bable outturn in these districts would have been 
greater, In the Deccan and Camatic districts, the 
-usual rainfall of the north-east monsoon was rather 
late, ^d, especially in the latter -group of to- 
tricts, the young crops suffered a good deal in 
consequence during October. Similar reasons 
have retarded <;ultivation, and to some extent 
lowered the probable outturn in the extreme 
south. On the West Coast the season has not 
been quite so favourable as in 1892. On the 
whole, however, the crops are good, and the 
probable average outturn may l)e estiiwtted at 
rather above the rate specified is the tabie aA»ov©, 
which is obtained from the teheildar'« TepcJft», 
