Nov. 1, 1902. J 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
MIMOSA ON COCONUT ESTATES, 
as a means of utilising this plant to attract to tlie 
soil supplies of niiiogen from the atmosphere I 
have lieard it stated that one enthusiastic believer 
in it, stated that by encouraging its giowlh, he 
found that he not only secured better crops, but 
the kernel of his nuts was thicker than before 
and yielded a larger proportion of oil. The niimos 
is spoken of as "modest." Iwillcall it "aggressive" 
or " assertive." Once let ib get into your estate 
and you will have a constant battle to get rid 
of il. Ib is as difficult to be gob under sub- 
jection as bhe Boers were. I have noticed parts 
of coconut estates over-run with it, and the trees 
were, by no means, looking better than their 
neighbours. Bub, says the enthusiast, to derive 
benefit from the mimosa, you must turn it into 
the soil. Why attribute any improvement that 
takes place in the condibion of the trees to 
mimosa alone, and give no credit to the tilling of 
the soil and the green manuring involved in the 
operation ? The benefits of both are beyond ques- 
tion. In European agriculture, clover was long 
known to leave the soil richer in nitrogen after 
the crop than before. Yet it was not dug into 
the soil, but was removed for fodder. Experi- 
ments have established that all legumes have 
bacteria-infected nodules, which have the pro- 
perty of converting the free nitrogen of the 
atmosphere into combined nitrogen assimilable 
by vegetation. The modest " pilla" is a leguminous 
plant crowing on coconut estates, whose leaves, 
both here and in India, are used as a manure. 
The growth of the plants mightbe encouraged round 
the stems of coconut trees, in preference to the 
" touch me not," more true as regards its aggres- 
sive thorns, than its shrinking sensil iveuess. 
Florida Beans are much used now as an article 
of consumption. The possession of a deleterious 
principle in the bean, which is said to in- 
duce colic, has been overcome by first boiling the 
beans in water mixed with turmeric and salt. 
The hairs are all rubbed off, they are then 
fried with onions and made into a curry. 
A tree has been discovered, the wood of which, 
when partly cut, emits a strong odour of 
iodoform. I have met with a red, clayey soil 
in the hills of the Morowakkorale emitting a 
decided odour of iodoform. 
The sixth lecture on Plant Life is very attrac- 
tive, and is very instructive reading. The best 
soil for cultivation should contain : — 
Sand , 50 to 70 per cent. 
Clay 20 to .30 
Humus 5 to 10 „ 
Carbonate of lime 5 to 10 
Alluvial soils are fertile by reason of the action 
of running water mixing their constituent parts 
thoroughly. A soil composed entirely of sand is 
valueless agriculturally, as ib is non-retentive of 
moisture and has no plant food. Clay alone is as 
unsatisfactory as sand. Its close texture rendeis 
it impermeable to water, ib is cold and dam|) and 
will bake as hard as a brick in dry weather, and 
is of no value as plant food. As a soil consti- 
tuent, sand renders a soil porous and permeable 
to air, moisture and warmth ; while clay absorbs 
gases from the atmosphere, keeps a soil moist 
aud cool and is retentive of plant food, which 
would otherwise be washed out of it. The impu- 
rities of clay and sand are potash, macnesia, linie, 
iron, &c., derived from the rocks which are the 
of the mineral food of plants. Sand and clay 
form the bulk of soils. Lime is a plant food and 
decomposes organic matter which supplies the nitro- 
genous food of plants. Nitrogen is at its highest 
in a pealy soil and at ibs lowesb in a sandy soil. 
Clay soils have most phosphoric acid and in sandy 
soils the least. Clayey soils are also rich in 
potash, and calcareous soils are rich in lime. 
Sandy soils are deficient in both. — Yours truly 
SCIENCE AND PLANTING. 
LIQUID FUEL INSTALLATION. 
Colombo, Sept. 30. 
Dear Sir,— Messrs. Brown and Company, 
Limited, Nawalapitiya, write us under date 
29th instant, as follows :— " Oil Engine. We 
cleaned our Hornsby Akroyd Oil Engine 
yesterday, not because it showed any signs 
of wanting to be cleaned, but because we 
were anxious to see in what condition it 
was in, to enable us to form an opinion as 
to how long it would be advisable to con- 
tinue running it in future without cleaning." 
" There was a small quantity of deposit 
at the back of the Vaporiser, but the front 
of the Vaporiser and the back part of the 
cylinder weie quite clean. The piston was 
clean and bright, and the rings were quite 
loose. The engine had run 2S days without 
cleaning, so that in future we will not 
need to clean it more than once in 4 to 6 
weeks. It was running as well at th^ end 
of the 2.3 days as it did on the day it was 
started." — Yours truly, 
DELMEGE, FORSYTH & CO. 
CEYLON PATENT OFFICE 
DILATORINESS. 
Stagbrook Estate, Peermaad, S, India, 
Sept. 30. 
Sir, — With reference to your para, in the 
issue of the 25tli September, regarding the 
" Deane-Judge Patent Strainer " you hint at 
other " patents being before the public ere 
long." This may be the case, bub all I can 
say is that it is ten months since we applied 
for our Ceylon Patent and we can'b get a 
definite reply from the Ceylon Patent Ofhce. 
Considering that ab tiie present moment 
there is, as far as I am aware, only one 
patent in existence as regards green tea 
manufacturing appliances, ■ and ib has taken 
the Ceylon Patent Office ten months to search 
the records, what price a speedy issue of 
other patents ? Meanwhile producers spend 
at least 10 per cent more on production than 
need be the case, and we are unable to 
advertise freely the exact nature of our 
improved machinery which will so greatly 
economise the manufacture of " Green Tea," 
and would ))robably mean that a i cent 
bonus would be more remunerative to Green 
Tea Producers than a 5 cent bonus fs at 
present.— I am, Sir, yours faithfully, 
H, DKUMilOND DEANE, 
