402 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec.  i,  1892. 
Council  would  be  useful.  With  a similar  Member 
in  Madras,  and  with  a combined  effort  on  the  part  of 
Planters  in  this  Presidency  and  in  the  Native  States 
of  Southern  India  to  obtain  recognition  as  a com- 
munity, and  to  get  progress  aided  rather  than  im- 
peded, Travancore  would,  doubtless  come  iD  for  some 
share  of  the  improvement  that  would  result.  Good 
roads,  just  laws  impartially  administered,  and  the 
withdrawal  of  unreasonable  restriction  upon  sales 
of  land  would  do  much  to  give  Travancore  a chance  of 
asserting  its  claim  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
important  planting  districts  of  Southern  India.  We 
would  advise  looal  Associations  to  take  up  the  ques- 
tion of  a planting  member,  and  subsequently  to  urge, 
through  the  gentleman  appointed  to  this  responsible 
position,  the  needs  of  the  district,  and  the  desirability 
of  giving  the  planting  industry  all  reasonable  encour- 
agement. Lord  Wenlock  has  held  out  enoorage- 
ment  to  planters  in  the  Madras  Presidency,  and  the 
inquiries  now  being  made,  as  mentioned  in  the  report 
of  the  Nilgiri  Planters’  Association  published  on  an- 
other page,  are  tolerably  sure  to  result  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  a planting  member.  It  would  be  good  new3, 
indeed,  if  Travancore  decided  to  follow  suit. — Madras 
Times,  Nov.  11. 
+ 
MANURES  AND  THEIR  APPLICATION. 
By  Professor  H.  E.  Shelton. 
[Professor  Shelton  is  an  Agricultural  Instructor 
imported  by  the  Queensland  Government  from  the 
United  States.  In  addressing  the  Conference  of 
Sugar  Planters  at  Maokay,  he  gave  utterance  to 
much  useful  matter  mixed  with  sentiments  in  regard 
to  commercial  fertilizers  as  extreme  in  one  direction 
of  the  doctrines  of  M.  Ville  on  th6  other.  No  doubt 
cattle  manure  is  excellent  but  it  is  costly  to  apply 
and  sometimes  hard,  or  impossible  to  obtain.  Suoh 
is  the  case  on  most  of  our  tea  estates,  which  are 
certainly  benefited  by  applications  of  bones,  castor 
oake  and  perhaps  some  salts  of  potash. — Ed.  T.A.] 
Mr.  Shelton  said  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen, 
the  subject  of  manures  seems  to  be  one  of  considerable 
interest  in  this  district.  During  my  short  stay  here 
questions  relating  to  fertilisers  have  teen  raised  by 
planters  more  than  I have  heard  in  the  Bame  time 
in  other  parts  of  the  colony.  I put  this  as  a com- 
pliment,  I admit,  or  not.  It  may  argue  increased 
intelligence  or  increased  interest  in  th9  question. 
It  may  also  be  that  your  soils  need  it.  On  second 
thoughts  I may  say  that  I have  a bad  throat  and 
may  likely  have  to  cut  short  my  remarks  at  any 
time.  I just  say  this  lest  it  be  thought  that  the 
difficulty  lies  higher  than  the  throat.  Thus  in 
manures — I mean  by  this  tbe  subject  in  its  most 
limited  sense — Mr.  MoLran  has  said  that  water  is  a 
great  fertiliser.  So  it  is  and  so  is  sunlight  and  heat 
not  ordinarily  regarded  as  manures,  and  what  we 
have  to  do  is  to  try  and  define  this  term  ‘manures’ 
in  one  sentenoe  which  will  give  a definition  which 
will  hold  water.  It  is  commonly  said  that  manures 
are  anything  which  will  increase  fertility.  We 
could  then  add  heat,  water,  and  the  others.  The 
definition  best  given  was  by  Joseph  Harris,  and  he 
gives : “ It  is  anything  that  added  to  tl.e  soil  in- 
creases its  fertility  within  a given  climate.’  And 
this  seems  to  bo,  on  the  whole  satisfactory.  I 
thus  take  the  subject  in  its  limited  sense — I mean 
those  things  the  farmer  takes  to  increase  tbe  fer- 
tility of  his  land.  I would  call  attention  to  this 
writing  on  the  board,  which,  I may  say,  is  not  Greek 
or  Chootaw,  but  is  a list  of  the  fourteen  elements — 
namely,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  carbon,  nitrogen,  potash, 
phosphoric  acid,  lime,  and  others.  These  are  the 
fourteen  elements  which  have  been  found  in  plants, 
tome  invariably  but  not  all  so.  Tbe  only  ones  the 
farmer  has  to  consider  are  nitrogen,  potash,  phosphor-io 
acid,  and  lime,  and  we  might  draw  tbe  line  through 
the  last  as  it  seldom  appears.  Then  the  elements  for 
the  farmer  are  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  and  potash, 
putting  them  in  their  order  ot  importance.  Before 
touching  upon  these  elements  it  is  important  to  hold 
in  mind  certain  facts  with  regard  to  tbe  soils  we  treat. 
Every  practical  farmer  knows  we  can  add  to  the  fer- 
tility of  soil  by  cultivation.  We  depend  not  OLly 
upon  the  ohemical  ooDdition  of  the  soil,  bnt  upon 
other  conditions  than  the  knowledge  of  the  elements 
contained  therein.  Take  the  great  boulders  on  your 
hill-sides.  They  contain  a large  proportion  of  valuable 
elements,  but  in  their  form  cannot  be  utilised.  Take  a 
strong  clay  land — it  is  right  enough  if  some- 
thing was  not  wanting.  That  is,  an  improve- 
ment in  the  physical  condition  of  the  soil,  and 
we  improve  it  by  ploughing  and  deep  tillage, 
and  by  summer  fallowing.  Let  us  bear  in 
mind  that  fertility  is  not  only  from  the  three  elements 
but  because  it  has  been  made  possible  for  the  plants 
to  get  hold  of  them.  Let  me  give  you  another 
illustration.  There  is  the  deep  volcanic  soil  of  the 
Bundaberg  distriot.  The  soil  has  a great  reputation 
for  the  production  of  cane,  and  gives  good  crops. 
If  you  analyse  the  soil  it  does  not  contain  extreme 
quantities  of  potash,  phosphoric  acid,  and  nitrogen. 
Tbe  souroe  of  the  strength  of  the  Isis  scrub  is  this: 
Take  it  in  your  hand  and  squeeze  it  and  it  it  is  dry 
it  all  runs  through  your  fingers  It  is  in  the  condi- 
tion of  an  impalpable  powder.  It  has  been  worked 
up  and  ground  into  a condition  that  it  is  instantly 
available  to  tbe  plant.  You  have  there,  ako,  a depth 
of  10,  20,  or  30  feet,  so  that  the  plant  can  send  down 
its  roots  to  a great  depth.  Thus  soils  may  be  physi- 
cally perfect  and  chemically  worthless,  or  chemically 
perfect  and  physically  worthless.  We  may  take  the 
hardest  soils  and  pulverise  them  by  drainage  and 
sub-soiling.  The  object  is  to  improve  generally  all 
soils  physically.  This  leads  us  to  another  fact. 
Men  who  have  had  chemical  analyses  of  their 
soils  taken  have  often  found  that  the  physical 
condition  of  soil  may  be  worthless,  though  it  con- 
tains excellent  chemical  properties.  The  ordinary 
ohemical  analysis,  unless  there  is  a knowledge  also 
of  the  physical  conditions,  is  of  little  value.  This 
subject  of  the  physical  and  chemical  relations  of 
soils  has  an  important  relation  to  the  general  sub- 
ject of  manures.  Put  them  on  stiff  or  undrained 
soil  and  they  count  for  little.  If  you  put  manures 
on  such  land,  and  the  ground  is  billy,  the  water 
rushe.6  down,  the  manures  are  carried  away  and 
eount  for  very7  little.  Bnt  put  them  into  well  drained 
land  and  you  will  quickly  get  tbe  best  results  from 
the  application.  It  is  thus  sufficient  to  show  that  we 
can  easily  explain  the  chief  principle  of  values  in 
the  use  of  fertilisers.  There  are  a lot  of  peculiar 
facts  about  manures  which  no  one  can  explain.  The 
Euglish  farmer  always  puts  bone  dust  to  his  turnip 
crop.  Theoretically  we  should  apply  it  to  the  grains 
rich  in  this  element-  Manure  rich  in  nitrogeD,  again, 
the  farmer  puts  to  grass  and  cereals  while  leguminous 
crops  always  get  mineral  manures.  Then,  too,  we  may 
get  in  the  rioh  scrub  lands  a soil  which  caDnot  be  arti- 
ficially made  by  combining  nitrogeou,  potash  and 
phosphorio  acid,  etc.  And  if  we  take  the  same  quan- 
tities of  these  elements  and  manufacture  a soil  contain- 
ing exactly  these  things,  excellent  though  it  looks,  yet 
we  should  get  three  crops  from  the  first  soil  and  noth- 
ing from  that  made  by  chemistry.  We  can  make  soils 
that  will  give  results — we  may  admit  that  from  the 
outstt.  As  far  as  the  farmer  is  concerned,  the  main 
sorts  of  manures  are  the  manures  which  give  the  best 
results  all  round,  and  tboseto  him  are  the  good  old 
ones  of  farm  refuse  and  barn  yard  manures.  All  ex- 
perience goes  to  show  that.  Experience  shows  that 
commercial  fertilisers  are  often  severs  snd  thus  un- 
suitable. They  eventually  bring  loss  and  serious  loss 
to  the  man  who  applies  them  and  they  cannot  pay 
their  way  on  the  whole.  They  have  a peculiar  effect 
on  tha  soil.  If  you  try  sulphate  of  ammonia  you  get 
great  crops,  for  a time,  but  afterwards  you  can  get 
no  results  as  the  laud  seems  to  be  over  stimulated.  Like 
the  old  toper  who  takes  his  three  nips  a day  and  four 
or  five  on  Sunday,  and  then  on  Monday  thinks  he  must 
take  six,  and  then  they  don’t  have  the  same  effect 
as  the  three,  although  I do  not  speck  from  personal 
experience  but  only  as  an  analogy,  so  it  is  with  the 
