2l8 
THE TROPICAL AG 
RICULTUR1ST. TOcr. i, 1894. 
Kaudy District — Many fiWils are bi i g aban 
don?d for want of wa tr. ProBpacts centrilly pjc 
to bad, except in Pa'a Dnwhun, Uda D.jmbi.ra, 
and Pa f a llcwahefa, where good crops are < xpfc"< d. 
Mata.e District. — Rainfall fair in Matile south, 
especial in Kobon iyapat'u ; none in t'ie ea*t ; two 
Bbowe r s in tbe north on the 24th and 25th. Some of 
the ) alia fields are being reaped; chcDa are being 
c'earel, for niaba. 
Nuwara Eli>a District— Kotmale : paddy plough- 
ing and coning for in aha continued; kurakkao. 
young plantt. Uda Hewahet* an I Walapane : 
paddy, ploughing and sowing for tbe yala; 
clearing of cl.enas for kurakken commenced. 
Jaffna District. — Heavy rain throughout tbe dis'.r'ct 
rnthe 27th and 28th. Dry grain, korakkan, being 
transplanted, much benefited by rain. Palmi'ah 
fruits gathered, crop indiffiri nt ; cutting and cuiing 
of tobacco almost compl ted, crop on the whole goo I. 
There were good Bbowers of rain on the 2Gtb, 
28 h and 29th August in Mannar island, but not 
on the main l»nd, except in one or two villages. 
Mullaittivu District. — Rain at intervale during the 
month. 
Vavuniya Distriot. — Mamadu and Ir>lpeiiyakulum 
reaped ; paddy being very generally fowo. in tank 
beds; some rain in last week of month. 
Hambantota District. — Pnddy : yal> crops in East 
Giruwa Pattu reap:d; outturn good; stu diug crops 
in Wett Girua pittu middling; in Magara pattu 
standing crops at Tissa middling owing to failure of 
rain up-country, and consequent insufficiency of water 
in E^rioda river ; crop6 atWeiawila, Keligaua, and 
Verngama good. 
Batticaloa Distriot.— Good showers of ran la-t 
week, but water in wells is yet tki rt. 
Trinooroalee District. — Koddiyar : about 50 acres 
damaged loi' want of rain. 
Kutunegala District. — Areas under jala crop every- 
where below avetage ; maba cultivation backward ; 
slight showers fell everywhere, but added little to 
tank supply ; appearauefs of distress. 
Chilaw District. — Northern division : jala paddy crops 
a failure, except in one village. 
Pattalam District. — Small extent ja'a paddy, 
Bemala batpattu, maturing in some villages ; others 
died owing to drought; cbeuas cleared inallpattus. 
North-Central Province. — Ooutinued drought; but 
Blight rainfall at the end of the month, 142 inch ; 
yala crcps are beiog harvested nndtr Anuradhapura 
tanks ; the cultivation was Ute ; paddy now only 
blosfoining under many v llage tanks ; the crop, 
partially or wholly, died from failure of water; very 
lew tanks have more than enough for drinking pur- 
poses left. 
Province of Uva. — Paddy crops in Bintenna, 
Udukinda, and Wellnwaya withered by protracted 
drought ; harvest iu Wellawaya and Butala damaged 
by flies, and Okkanpitiya by heavy rain ; yield in 
Yatikinda and Wiyaluwa fair; chenas being cleared 
generally. 
Ratnapura District. — Crops generally good, but 
spoiled by drought iu some villages of Koicnca 
korale ; prospects of chena crops favourable ; rain 
plenteous towards end ot month, except in Kolonna 
korale. 
Kegalla District — Yala paddy prospects: Gal- 
boda and Kinigoda korales, Paranakuru korale, fair ; 
Beligal korale middling ; Three Ecrales and Lower 
Bnlatgama gocd ; maha sowing in progress. Foot- 
and-mouth disease in parts of Dehigampal korale 
and Beligal korale. 
THE "TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.'' 
A planter writes : — 
"I have seen the collotype portrait, in last 
month's Tropical Agriculturist of the late Mr. 
Alex. Brown. As 1 knew him vary well, I can 
answer for its being an excellent likeness, life- 
like in its expression, and in the outward calm 
which characterised the man. These memoirs and 
portraits have been very interesting, snd of them 
ell, that of poor 'Sanny' Browa by no meat s the 
least so. He hsd confidence in himself, at 'i knew 
how to hold bis own, acd to make his way in 
life, but was unable to bear misfortune and the 
ingratitude of people who owed all to him. 
"But though the°e memoirs are to be for a time 
suspended, the new feature that will characterize 
the Tropical Agriculluriet will be found of even 
more value by the present generation of Ceylon 
Colonists. To know tbe exact position each estate 
occupies in its distriot, and its distanoe on or 
from its outlet road, river or railway, is information 
I have often longed for ; and now this ie to be 
affoided in your excellent publication iu detail, 
month by month, thus adding another to its already 
long list of attractions." 
We thank our correspondent for his compli- 
mentary testimony and good wishes. We have (till 
to give collotype and memoirs of Thomas WooJ 
to complete our first series of Pioneirs: unfor- 
tunately, our London Agents have made a mistake 
over Mr. Wood's collotype, but we tru6t the supply 
will soon be here. 
ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF MANURES. 
But if comparatively little is kuown of the effect 
of manures in horticulture, how much less is known 
of their utilitv in relation to the method of their 
distribution ! With the exception of tbe investigations 
of which this note is intended to give a summary, 
no previous experiments in this direction would 
appear to have been made, although it is a field 
of investigation which, as will be seen, may produce 
very important results. 
Text-books and custom — perhaps because it is the 
custom, perhaps because it seems more natural — 
advise the minute subdivision of manures, tbeir equal 
distribution, and their thorough mixture with tin 
soil, as though their utility were greater in propor- 
tion to their dissemination. It wouid now appear 
that this procedure is not always the best. 
In 18y2. M. Th. Schloesi'ig read before the French 
Academie des Sciences the results of investigations 
which he had made on the subject. This eminent 
authority explained bow there are fertilisers, such 
as nitrate ol soda, which are "travelling manures,'' 
so to speak, very soluble, infinitely diffusible; and 
how others, such as phospnatic and potassic manure?, 
are " immobile,'' which, even when appli* d in combi- 
nations, such as potassium salts and superphosphates, 
which are themselves very soluble, eoou enter into 
insoluble forms, or become wholly or partly fixed 
to the elements of the soil by what is known as 
its absorbing power, ihe proportion of tbe manure 
which thus becomes immobilised varies considerably 
not only in different soil?, but even iu the same soil. 
These manures, therefore, remain isolated in the 
soil, and tbe ahsorp ion of their fertilising principles 
depends on the roots themselves reaching them. 
But the roots interpenetrate only a portion of the 
ground in which they grow, and they therefore only 
absorb their required parts of the fertilisers which 
they actually reach. Hence, tbe utilisation of a 
potassic or phospnatic manure diminishes as the 
portion that becomes fixed is greater than the por- 
ti n that remaius in solution. 
Tne question, therefore, which M. Schloesing 
investigated related to the best method of distribution 
of such manures. Whether there was a noticeable 
difference in the yield of two equal plots of the 
same kind of soil, which received equal portions of 
the same manures when in one case the fertilisers 
were very evenly, and in the other case very unevenly 
distributed? To this end experiments were made 
with four different crops, viz. Wheat, Potatos, Haricot 
beans, and Peas. Homogeneous soil, containing 4 - 5 
I ex cent, moisture, was divided into two lots, each 
weighing 1848 kilogrammes (very nearly 36 cwt/j 
