Magazine  'of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
31 
judge  for  themselves  whether  my  writing  is  of 
any  use. 
Not  long  ago  walking  round  the  edge  of  a 
paddy-field,  I came  to  a channel  cut  from  the 
river  into  it  about  20  yards  or  so  long,  to 
allow  of  a boat  being  dragged  to  the  head  of 
it  for  safety.  The  field  was  then  in  the  tender 
ear,  and  I noticed  that  wherever  the  wash  of  salt 
lake  water  entered  the  field,  the  stalks  were  higher 
and  more  vigorous,  and  the  heads  heavier  and  fuller. 
Before  this,  too,  I remarked  that  in  fields  which 
had  been  partially  submerged,  or  damped  with  the 
salt  water,  the  results  were  equally  striking ! 
This  I noticed  and  took  heed  ot. 
On  a large  coconut  estate,  where  the  proprietor, 
a friend  of  mine,  was  putting  in  “ supplies  ” to 
fill  up  vacancies  in  the  holes  on  hard  ground 
on  one  part  of  the  estate,  he  put  in  handfuls 
of  salt  to  keep  away  the  white  ants.  I here 
noticed  that  not  only  did  the  salt  effectually 
keep  the  white  ants  away,  but  that  every  plant 
to  which  salt  had  been  applied  was  abnormally 
and  remarkably  vigorous,  shewing  the  strong 
curl  and  dark  green  tint  of  a superior  plant. 
On  many  of  our  lake  shores,  those  coconut 
palms  whose  roots  are  laved  by  the  salt  water, 
shew  splendidly  green,  are  remarkably  vigorous, 
are  thicker  in  stem,  and  bear  heavier  by  far 
than  those  high  out  of  reach  of  the  water  ! and 
very  seldom  are  they  subject  to  attacks  of  the 
blighting  and  devastating  white  worm  and  Jiy, 
though  they  never  “ smell  smoke  ” from  one 
year’s  end  to  another. 
And  therefore  I assert,  that  salt  in  certain 
quantities  is  highly  beneficial  in  agriculture. 
R.  Atherton. 
GRAFTING  MANGO  PLANTS  IN  JAFFNA. 
With  reference  to  the  interesting  Indian  Notes 
contributed  by  “ W.  A.  D.  S.”  to  the  last  (August) 
number  of  your  very  useful  Magazine,  I must 
state  that  grafting  mango  plants  is  very 
common  in  my  native  place,  Jaffna.  I believe 
it  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Dyke  a late  (the 
first  P)  Government  Agent,  who  was  well  known 
as  an  expert  horticulturist,  The  present  ener- 
getic Government  Agent,  Mr.  Twynam,  now 
continues  this  practice  of  grafting ; and  many 
mango  plants  grafted  with  scions  of  the 
“ Colomban,’’*  “ Chempaddan,"  Manipayan,”“  Bom- 
bayan”  variety  are  sold  annually  to  the  Jaffna 
gardeners  at  a nominal  rate.  It  is  well  known 
that  generally  the  half-educated  natives  esteem 
anything  higher  when  they  pay  a priee  for  it 
than  when  it  is  given  them  gratis,  whatever 
the  intrinsic  value  of  the  article  may  be  ; hence 
the  policy  of  selling  the  grafted  plant  for  a 
nominal  price  which  is  only  too  gladly  paid  by 
the  Jaffnese  for  the  valuable  Ottumankandu.  The 
fact  that  it  was  bought  at  the  Eachcheri  is  always 
mentioned  as  a guarantee  of  the  good  quality 
of  a mango  tree  ; and  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  the  excellent  varieties  of  mangoes  common 
all  over  the  Jaffna  Peninsula  can  mostly  be  traced 
to  the  grafting  done  at  the  Jaffna  Kachcheri. 
* Is  it  not  curious  that  for  some  mysterious 
reason  the  very  kind  that  is  called  Japava  Amha 
or  “Jaffna  mango”  in  Colombo  is  termed  Colomban 
or  “Colombo  mango”  in  Jaffna?— E.  T.  H. 
The  method  adopted  in  Jaffna  for  grafting  is 
by  ‘ approach  ’ ; and  is  carried  on  pretty  much 
the  same  way  as  described  by  “ AT.  A.  D.  S.”;  but 
with  the  difference  that  instead  of  pots  for  grow- 
ing the  ‘ stock,’  it  is  found  more  convenient  to 
use  the  strong  big  Jaffna  baskets  which  are  manu- 
factured out  of  the  palmyra  leaf  or  ‘ola’  and 
strips  of  the  fibrous  bast  (liar)  of  the  ‘ ola  ’ stalks. 
There  is  also  this  difference,  that  instead  of  the 
primitive  Bombay  method  of  wrapping  or  cover- 
ing the  outside  of  the  stock  and  graft  about  the 
point  ot  union,  with  strips  of  plantain  sheath, 
before  they  are  tied  together,  we  employ  a kind 
of  waterproof  yellow  wax-cloth,  specimens  of 
which  may  be  commonly  found  in  post  offices 
where  they  use  it  for  enclosing  tappal  bags,  &c. 
‘ Inarching’  or  * Grafting  by  Approach’  is 
generally  the  surest  kind  of  grafting,  though  in- 
deed it  is  a little  more  troublesome  than  other 
methods.  Some  of  the  principal  points  to  bo 
attended  to  in  inarching  are  mentioned  by  Loudor.i 
as  follows : — 
“ 1.  To  have  the  stock  and  the  scion  0f 
the  same  thickness.” 
“ 2.  To  make  the  cuts  exactly  correspond  so 
that  they  might  fit  closely  together  without  leav- 
ing the  slightest  vacuity  between  them. 
“ 3.  To  unite  the  stock  and  scion  as  closely  as 
possible,  and  particularly  to  take  care  that 'the 
liber  of  the  one  is  exactly  joined  to  the  liber  of 
the  other. 
“ 4.  To  preserve  the  wounds  from  any  access 
of  air,  moisture  or  other  extraneous  matter  by 
applying  grafting-clay  or  grafting-wax  about  the 
point  of  union.” 
The  practice  of  nipping  off  the  flower  buds 
for  the  first  few  seasons  is  also  adopted  by  the 
Jaffna  cultivators.  This  is  done  with  the  object 
of  preventing  a too  rapid  or  undue  demand  upon* 
the  stock  before  the  plant  is  fully  developed,  undl 
the  union  between  graft  and  stock  perfectly- 
established.  E.  T.  floor, k. 
Bandaragama,  16th  Aug.  1892. 
GRAFTING  MANGOES. 
(To  the  Editor,  “ The  Magazine  of  the  Colombo 
School  of  Agriculture.1’ ) 
Sir, — The  contribution  of  “ AY.  A.  D.  S ” from 
Bombay,  on  the  subject  of  mangoes  reminds  me  of 
another  contribution  on  the  same  subject  from  the 
same  place  which  appeared  in  the  pages  of  the 
Morning  Star  some  months  ago.  Both  the  corre- 
spondents speak  highly  of  Bombay  mangoes  and 
the  high  price  they  fetch  in  the  local  market. 
It  is  said  that  grafting  is  being  practised  there 
on  a large  scale,  and  that  the  fruits  are  so  manr 
and  fine  that  one  soon  forgets  the  existence  of 
mangoes  in  Ceylon. 
The  process  of  grafting  explained  by  “ AY  S ” a« 
carried  on  there  is  also  practised  in  many  parts 
of  Jaffna.  This  is,  no  doubt,  due  to  the  great 
attention  paid  to  fruit  culture  in  the  Jaffna 
Kachchen  premises  by  Government  Agents  from 
the  time  of  Mr.  Dyke  to  the  present  time.  Though 
this  useful  method  of  improving  the  quality  of 
mangoes  originated  in  Jaffna,  it  slowly  spread 
far  and  wide  into  the  villages. 
The  appreciation  of  the  process  of  grafting  be- 
came stronger,  wheU  the  Goveruweut  Agent  sent 
