Nov.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
309 
planted  out  during  the  year,  while  the  number  of  such 
plants  up-rooted  was  200,000.  This  is  in  accordance 
with  the  polioy  steadily  observed  for  years  past  of 
gradually  reducing  the  red  bark  trees,  which,  though 
rich  in  the  inferior  alkaloids,  are  poor  in  quinine.  The 
complete  exhaustion  of  these  plants  is  only  a question 
of  time,  the  object  being  to  gradually  convert  the 
Government  Plantation  into  a source  of  quinine  rather 
than  of  cinchona  febrifuge. 
The  crop  collected  amounted  to  285,500  lb.  of  dry 
bark  against  293,9721b.  in  the  previous  year,  of  whioh 
80,430  lb-  were  of  red  bark,  114,540  of  Ledgeriana, 
70,870  of  hybrid,  19,170  of  Verde  and  Morada,  and  550 
of  Crown  or  Officinalis  bark.  In  other  words,  the 
crop  was  composed  of  205,130  lb.  of  the  quinine  yield- 
ing, and  80,430  lb.  of  the  febrifuge-yielding  bark?. 
The  whole  of  this  crop,  with  the  exception  of  a Bmall 
quantity  supplied  on  indent  or  sold  to  Government 
institutions,  was  made  over  to  the  Febrifuge  Factory 
for  disposal. 
The  outturn  of  the  factory,  which  is  regulated  by 
the  demand,  was  4,500  lb.  of  sulphate  of  quinine, 
and  4,190  lb.  of  febrifuge,  against  4,010  and  4,031, 
respectively,  in  1890-91.  The  entire  quantity  was 
manufactured  by  the  fusel  oil  process,  which  continues 
to  work  satisfactorily.  The  issues  from  the  factory 
were  as  follows Sulphate  of  quinine  3,714  lb.,  cin- 
chona febrifuge  4,726  lb.,  the  corresponding  amounts 
in  1890-91  being  3,789  and  3,857  lb. 
It  is  not  explained  why  the  medical  depfit  at  Bombay 
has  ceased  to  indent  for  the  drug.  In  1890-91  the 
demand  from  Bombay  was  no  less  than  400  lb.  of 
sulphate  of  quinine,  and  1,000  lb.  of  the  cinchona 
febrifuge.  Tne  report  also  fails  to  distinguish  clearly 
the  supply  to  dispensaries  ; this  should  be  separately 
shown  in  future  reports. 
The  revenue  derived  from  the  sale  of  sulphate  of 
quinine,  cinchona  febrifuge,  cinchona  bark,  and  other 
products  of  the  plantation  amounted  to  Rl,09,321 
against  Rl,18,576  in  the  previous  year.  The  net  profit 
on  the  working  of  the  estate  amounts  to  117,962  12  8, 
against  K17,040'2  in  1890-91.  The  decline  is  attri- 
buted to  tne  unusually  low  market  rates,  above  which 
the  Government  quinine  is  not  sold.  The  profit,  small 
as  it  is,  is  sufficient.  As  explained  in  last  year’s 
Resolution,  the  Government  does  not  aim  at  a profit, 
the  sole  object  in  establishing  the  cinchona  planta- 
tions being  to  secure  for  the  people  a cheap  remedy 
for  fever.  In  pursuance  of  this  principle  the  qu-  stion 
of  reduoing  the  prioe  of  Government  quinine  lately 
engaged  the  attention  of  Government.  Under  the 
orders  of  the  Government  of  India,  the  rate  for  looally 
manufactured  quiniue  supplied  to  Government  should 
be  the  rate  in  England  of  Messrs.  Howard  and 
Son’s  quinine  on  the  1st  January  each  year  con- 
verted into  Indian  Currency  at  the  official  rate  of 
Exohange.  The  prioe  of  the  quinine  supplied  to  Go- 
vernment officers  and  looal  authorities  is,  however, 
slightly  higher  than  that  charged  to  medical  depots, 
and  the  question  iB  under  consideration  whether 
the  former  should  not  be  placed  in  the  same  posi- 
tion as  the  latter.  Another  important  scheme  is  now 
being  matured  by  which  pure  Government  quinine 
will  be  placed  within  the  easy  reach  of  the  poorer 
classes  in  Bengal.  The  quinine  will  be  made  up 
into  packets  containing  five  grains  each  and  sola  I 
for  a pice  apiece.  The  sales  will  be  conducted  at  | 
all  publio  offices  in  the  interior,  such  as  thanas  and 
police  outposts,  dispensaries,  offices  of  managers  of 
Ward’s  estates,  etc.,  and  also  through  the  more 
effective  agency  of  the  village  post  office. 
The  Lieutenant-Governor  again  acknowledges  the 
efficient  management  of  the  Department  by  Dr.  King 
and  Mr.  Gammie. — Madras  Times,  Sept.  12. 
AGRICULTURE. 
MANURES  AND  MANURING, 
III. 
I ebb  tiikt  A Wanderer  in  your  columns,  while  expres- 
sing the  opinion  that  the  compost  suggested  by  me 
is  deserving  of  trial,  falls  into  the  common  error  of 
supposing  that  bones  are  suitable  only  for  a seed* 
producing  crop,  and  therefore  by  inference  unsuit- 
able for  tea.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  however  that 
though  the  dominant  constituent  of  bones  is  phos- 
phate of  lime,  yet  it  contains  an  appreciable  quantity 
of  ammonia.  In  a very  useful  little  publication 
“ McConnell’s  Agricultural  Note  Book,”  dissolved, 
boiled  and  finely  ground  bones  appear  both  as  a 
nitrogenous  (or  forcing)  and  phosphatio  (or  seed 
forming)  manure.  It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind 
that  phosphorio  acid  in  some  cases  in  appreciable 
quantities,  enters  into  the  composition  of  leaves. 
Hughes  in  a letter  to  your  columns  in  1886  wrote : 
“Coffee  leaves  are  really  far  more  exhausting  to  the 
soilthan  parchment  coffee,  and  if  the  trees  can  pro- 
duce plenty  of  leaf  naturally,  no  manure  should  be 
necessary  in  order  to  produce  the  coffee  beaD,  which 
is  certainly  not  an  exhausting  crop.”  It  is  necessary 
to  bear  this  in  mini  in  view  of  the  thoughtless 
suggestion  recently  made  in  your  columns  by  a 
correspondent,  that  coffee  bushes  might  be  made  to 
yield  handsome  profits  by  converting  the  leaves  iQto 
tea  in  addition  to  harvesting  the  berries.*  In  an 
analysis  of  Assam  Hybrid  tea  leaves  by  Schrottky 
we  find  phosphoric  acid  represented  as  composing 
16'214  per  cant,  of  their  ashes.  It  may  be  of  use 
to  reproduce  the  analysis  : 
Chloride  of  Sodium  
2-247 
Soda 
8 941 
Potash  
...  36  514 
Magnesia 
...  10  089 
Lime  
8-517 
Oxide  of  Iron  and  Manganese 
3-966 
Phophsoric  Acid  ... 
...  16-214 
Sulphurio  ,, 
...  13017 
Silica  
0-439 
f99-924 
Ad  Cld  Coffee  Stump  has  recently 
relieved  itself 
'oy  the  delivery  of  enigmatical  dicta.  These  have 
raised  the  ire  of  a few  planters  who  have  evidently 
thought  them  deserving  of  refutation.  Of  course  the 
Stump  has  been  asked  to  demonstrate  how  the  un- 
limited resources  of  the  atmosphere  can  be  more 
freely  drawn  upon  them  at  present  and  equally  0f  course 
sphinx-like  he  preserves  a discreet  silence.  We  have 
been  made  acquainted  with  the  possibility  of  con- 
ducting the  nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere  to  the  soil 
by  the  artificial  aid  of  electricity,  and  the  most 
recent  investigations  of  agricn.tural  boience  point  to  the 
possibility  ot  a certain  class  of  plants  absorbing 
the  free  Ditrogen  of  the  atmosphere  through  the 
infection  of  their  roots  with  bacteroids.  These  re- 
seasches  after  all  point  to  the  posssibility  of  our 
being  able  to  draw  on  the  atmosphere  for  only  one 
of  tne  constituents  of  plant  food.J  How  for  the  rest 
and  for  the  important  mineral  constituents  P 
It  may  be  within  your  recollection  and  taat  of  your 
planting  readers  that  not  very  long  ago  a Mr. 
Reeves  startled  the  world  of  science  by  the  very 
original  discovery  that  plants  obtain  water 
and  mineral  food  through  their  leaves  from  the  at- 
mosphere, while  the  roots  absorb  most  of  the  gases 
required  for  their  growth.  This  fossilized  Vo  fee 
Stump  is  evidently  a disciple  of  Reeves’  but  he  surely 
out-Reeves’  Reeves  when  he  sapiently  oounsels  us  to 
draw  more  from  the  atmosphere  than  from  the 
soil.  How  are  we  to  lessen  the  action  of  the  roots 
and  to  increase  that  of  the  leaves  ? 
After  a period  of  suspended  animation  An  Old  Coffee 
Stump  displays  signs  of  vitality  by  the  not  very  ori- 
ginal remark  that  “ what  little  good  there  is  in  tba 
Ceylon  soil  is  being  pumped  out  of  it  by  fine  plucking.” 
He  has  common  sense  on  his  side  this  time,  though 
Another  Proprietor  attempts  to  combat  it.  This  latter 
* Which  we  denounced. — Ed.  T.A. 
t As  a matter  of  fact,  much  the  same  coustitueots 
of  a manure  which  are  good  for  coflee  are  good  for 
tea  and  good  also  for  wheat.— Ed.  T.A. 
£ But  one  of  the  most  important  and  most  costly  to 
purchase,— Ed.  T.A, 
