Oct. i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
245 
The holing should not be entrusted to con- 
tractors unless the work can be carefully supervised. 
Those planting new lands should pursue the 
following method, to ensure the growth of vigo- 
rous trees and the getting ot heavy crops 
for years without the aid of artificial 
manures. After staking, the surface soil 
and ashes, &c, should be collected in heaps 
near eaoh alternate Btake. Then the holing 
should be done, and the holes filled with these 
sorapings mixed with the ordinary soil (alsosoraped 
when filling) around the holes. The tub-soil taken 
out of the holes should be made to form a wal- 
ling on bund and on the upper side of sloping 
on hilly grounds. Holes 15 inches in width and 
depth is sufficient : but great card must be taken 
to secure this width and depth, A cheap plan is 
to get oidinaiy tea holes dug at R5ter thousand 
by contract, and then to widen and deepen them 
with estate men giving them task work, and each 
man a stick of 16 inohos to guide him. In poorer 
Boil " 18 iuch " holes are preferable. The plant, 
after beiDg put, grows slowly for four months, 
and then begins to grow very rapidly. Even if 
all the leaves drop, so long as the stem is green, it 
must not be disturbed for another plant, as 
vigorous Euokers come up from below. Spindly 
tap roots should be out, and good planting 
coolies put to the work, or turned-up tap roots 
and stunted plants will be the result. 
S. A. A. 
P.S. — Money can be liberally spent in holiDg 
properly, as plants are very little more in price 
than Arabian cofiea plants were, and ousts less 
per acre, as less plants are Used. S. A. A. 
VALUE OF COCONUTS. 
Kotagala, 20th Aug. 
Deab Sir,— G'juld you give the average value 
of cooonuts at the present time as oompared with 
those given in " All about the Coconut Palm ?" — 
Yours truly, INQUIRER. 
[To the Messrs. De Mell we are indebted for the 
following interesting deoeimial return based on 
their exper.eaoe and reoollections of the past : — 
R. c. R. 0. 
1840 value of coconuts per 1,000 15 — to 20 — 
1850 do. 22 50 to 25 — 
1S60 do. 25 — to 30 — 
1«80 do. 30 — to 32 50 
1890 do. 35 — to 37 50 
1804 do, 35 — to 45 — 
—Ed. T.A.] 
GREEN MANURE FOR PLANTATIONS, 
Dear Sib. — In the July number of your Tropical 
Agriculturist, your Nilgiri correspondent mentions 
wattle as a good green manure, owing to the 
nitrogen contained in its ten ler shoots. 
Can any of your correspot-dents, who have 
experimented with ^veen manure, give me the 
beuifit of their experience as to the results obtained, 
or telt me what plants easily obtained are the beBt, 
i.e., contain the most nitrogen ? and whether such 
should be applied green or allowed first to rot in 
compost heaps ? 
Your correspondent writes that 25 lb of sun dried 
tops (of wattle) should be applied to eaoh tree : 
surely this is an excessive amount, or is it a 
misprint ? 
1 have heard of the common bracken being out 
and applied as mdnure. Has this any quamity of 
nitrogen ? Surely amoDgst the many plants 
growing wild in the jungle, or abandoned land, 
and in ravines, some might be found useful as 
green manure. — Yours faithfully, 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Here is work for Mr. Cochran as Chemical 
Analyst, if tlie P. A. would only employ him. — Ed. 
T.A.] ■ 
PADDY CULTIVATION AND STRAW. 
Dear Sir,— Colombo is supplied with straw from 
the Hewagam and Salpiti Korales; and I send you a 
well-informed native friend's calculations, from which 
you will see that he calculates an aore of land 
gives R5 worth of straw. This, he says, is a low 
estimate and at the present ratfs for straw, which 
are less than they were when there was a greater 
demand from upcountry. 
The production of straw depends upon the distance 
from a market. In the out-of-the-way parts of 
Pasdum Korale, in reaping, little more than the 
ears are cut. On the other hand I heard of a 
case just outside the town of Colombo when an 
immature ciop, which was threatened by fl sod, was 
hurriedly reaped for the sake and value of the 
straw alone. 
The value of the straw as a manure is recognized 
and the length cut in reaping is settled by 
balancing the money value from them as against 
the manure value. 
These figures bear oot your view that the straw 
ia the Colombo distriot, when there is a market 
for it pays the expenses of cultivation, being 
about E5 each. 
A good deal of hone is used as manure, about 
E2 worth per acre— that is about 2 bushels by 
measurement or the same quantity as the seed 
used, more only improves the straw and this gives 
the maximum of crop, 
Salpiti Korale. 
1 Amunam sowing extent gives 20 Kolas of 
straw 
1 Kola straw worth 75 cents 
20 Kolas worth R15 
1 Amunam = 6 Bushels sowing 
2 Bushels = 1 Acre 
6 Bushels = 3 Acres 
3 acres give R15 worth straw 
1 acre gives E5 worth straw 
at a lowest estimate. E2 per acre bones. 
—Yours truly, GOYIYA. 
CRUDE COCAINE— COCA PASTE. 
Dear Sir.— Mr Thomas Christy means coca 
paste or crude cocaine. I fancy it is prepared by 
boiliog the leaves and throwing off the moisture 
and getting rid of the fibre. 
Sugar, liquorice or Spanish juice, confeotions of 
senna (from whence black draught) and heaps of 
other things are made the same way Yours, 
EBYTHROXYLON. 
THE MANURING OF TEA. 
Dear Sir,— Is it not about time to settle the 
vexed question as to whether manure, in any 
shape, takes away from the flavour of tea 9 I 
saw it stated the other day that the Chinese (or 
was it the Japanese ?) did not manure their trees 
when making black teas, as it <vas their opinion 
that it deteriorated the flavour. No,v these 
people, with alt their centuries of traditions, 
ought surely to be credited with some knowledge 
of the matter ; and yet the opinion in Ceylon 
(with our very brief experienoe) is much divided. 
Some 6ay all manures are harmful to flavour ; 
others that only artificial manures are so, and 
that oattle does not influenoe it for the worse, 
