July 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
51 
order to work the oil-crushinp: presses 
which are found in an adjoining room ; these, 
however, were temporarily out of use, pending 
the arrival of new crushing machinery. 
From here we were shown the first long 
store of manure material, down the centre 
of which runs a toy tramway, where coolies 
were in course of piling up and then moving 
a trolley-loijld of full sacks. Sacks were piled 
nearly to the ceiling in every direction, con- 
taining pretty well every ingredient known, 
at least to the intelligent novice in agricul- 
tural chemistry— fish, bones, patent steam 
bone dust, bonemeal, rape seed cake, sul- 
phate of potash, basic slag, sulphate 
of ammonia, nitrate of soda (a first ship- 
ment, by the way), nitrate of potash, muri- 
ate of potash, sulphate of iron, saltpetre, 
etc., etc.— 20 substances in all, so the fore- 
man stated. 
There is, we believe, an impression abroad, 
amongst a portion of the planting commu- 
nity, that 
CHEMICAL, KANURE MANUFACTURERS 
like Mf.ssrs. Freudenburg, will only supply 
prescriptions of their own and will not reveal 
the contents of the manure supplied. This may 
be the way with some, but, in the case 
before us, a visit to Messrs. Freuden- 
berg's Hulftsdorp Mills would entirely re- 
move such an impression. Here is an excep- 
tionally large variety of chemical materials, 
ready to be made up according to any pi es- 
cription the planter-proprietor or superin- 
tendent may desire, or may— from his own or 
others' experimental knowledge— have seen 
fit to applv ; and, further, (the more frequent 
method) according to any of Messrs. Freuden- 
berg's tried formulae, which is always com- 
municated to the recipient whenever re- 
quired. In all this immense store, to which 
we have just referred, contained no less 
than 2,500 tons of chemical substances from 
which to draw from. In another spacious 
shed, on the site of an old soap factory, 
we passed through dense piles of sacks of 
castor-cake and bones, stacked ready for crush- 
ing. With regard to the bones, we should add 
that quantities are placed inlargeiron cylinders 
through which steam passes and renders 
the bones quite soft, reducing them to a 
crumbled state like that of broken shells on the 
seashore. The bone material is then ready 
for final crushing which produces the fine 
patent steam bone-meal, a favourite ingredi- 
ent in manure mixtures owing to the fact 
that it decomposes in the soil more readily and 
thoroughly than almost any other. Near to 
the steam fed cvlinders is a 40 horse-power 
steam engine which works a powerful grinding 
machine, used for reducing castor cake to the 
finest powder ; with the various sieves pro- 
vided upon it, the cake is divided very finely. 
This immense " crusher " disposes of as much 
as 40-tons of castor cake in the day. 
From here one passes into the specially 
ODORIFEROUS ROOM, THE BC>NB MILL, 
where a cigir, with or without a 
scented pocket-hankerchief, is felt to be 
a great, if not an absolutely necessary 
boon. For this is the room in which fish 
and bones are crushed. 
Until lately " manure " fish had been easily 
obtainable from the Indian Coast in Is-rge 
quantities, and so popular among planters 
was the manure containing fish, that orders 
amounting to 200 tons had been on the firm's 
books at one time. But lately, plague 
regulations have interfered with the supply 
of this fish and for some time it has been 
unprocurable. Recently, however, imports 
of edible fish having proved excessive, native 
speculators had brought small quantities for 
sale at the mills — of their superfluous stock ; 
at first this was tentative, but tlie price ob- 
tained being satisfactory, further supplies had 
come in and to some small extent the lack 
of "manure" fish proper had been tempor- 
arily remedied. 
It was interesting to watch the steady 
way in which the coolies went on poking 
away at the bone material (assisting its 
passage as it passed along the pipes into the 
crushing machines) ; others, handling fish,, 
were quite heedless of odours disturbing to the 
more sensitive European as he pays but a 
butterfly visit. Looking back, the air 
appeared rather cleaner than might be ex* 
pected where so many dried and separating 
particles were being set in motion ; but we 
were informed that the atmospheric excel- 
lence was due to a fan, piit up by Mr. 
Maguire of the Sirocco Works, which carried 
off a large quantity of the dusty impurities 
of the air and lessened the objectionable 
smells considerably. In reference to fish 
manure we were informed that one favourito 
receipt used to run as follows :— 
1 fish 
J bonemeal 
I castor cake 
The next move, after visiting a landing 
jetty where copra brought down the canal 
could be landed under shelter, ready for 
transport to the store selected for it, was 
made in the direction of 
THE LABORATORT. 
Here we were struck not only 
with the cleanliness of the whole 
department, but with the convenient arrange- 
ment of the various shelves of chemicals and 
with one or two speci.al apparatuses, such as 
are not found in any but experimental 
rooms where the most accurate work is 
required ; there were one or two revolving 
holders for bottles the contents of which 
required to be mixed. Another elaborate ap- 
paratus stood apart, for distilling water, 
according to latest improved methods. Most 
delicate of all, however, were a special set 
of scales, of a mechanism sensitive to the 
last degree, kept in a glass case and regulated 
by a series of screws working from different 
points, and weighing— to the 1 — 10,000th part 
of a gramme ! Dr. Koller has evidently 
the means and the ability to carry out 
every description of work appertaining to 
the Chemical Analyst, and not only soils 
but products and parts of growing plants 
should be sent his way. Analyses of soil are 
made here free of charge and every planter 
is able, by having the soil of the estate 
analysed, to apply such maimres as ara 
most suitable for that particular soil. Dr. 
Koller gives all information that buyers or 
intending buyers of manures may wish to 
possess and advises them as to the mixtures 
required. Any soil can be analysed and the 
