600 THE TROPICAL 
outlay kept down. I refer of cour&e to the later 
periods of lower margins, combined with the 
necessity of more cost'y equi|)ment. Matiy, 
however, liave cost more and many Itss, 
than the figure I have quoted. A great miscon- 
ception has often existed fis to the extent of 
outlay upon a truly efficient factory. Personally. 
I believe, and fpw will differ from me, that notliing 
pays like early efficiency in tea ; in its mana^e- 
menr, in irs material, and transport f icilifies. 
It is now four ypars since some regulation cf 
sales was stronely recommended in London, and 
for a short time tried. Had this been more 
thoroughly organised and contitiued, it is a 
moderate compur.ation to conclude that by now 
an average advantage of ^d per lb. would have 
been added to the standard i)rice of our staple. 
One of my reasons for saying so, is that, less 
than a year ago, it was reported that the Indian 
Association intended to resume the regubition 
of sales, which had the immediate effect of 
sending all teas up pretiy close upon 5.I 
per lb. An aggregate increa.^e of -^d per lb. for 
one year on all tea produet'd in I.idia and Ceylon, 
would mpan 2 per cent on cap tai invested — 
nearly three-quarters of a million sterling. It 
woul 1 also have raised the general average piofit 
of f )rty-five companies from 85 per cent to 5^ per 
cent, and would have been almost pquivalent to a 
gain of 5 per cpni on the defaulting firte '.n m'l'ions 
bpfoie ri ferred to. Merchants, directors, share- 
holders, and all concerned, should remember that 
strength is the winni g order of modern business ; 
the sole apology for failure is wesikness, either 
morally or financially; and that still the first 
holder 'is initially in the strongest position, if he 
only chooses to exercise it in his favour, even to 
one-half the device that the same power is exercised 
against him.— Tea for Nov. 
SALT IN AGRICULTURE. 
On the threshold of ca New "Sear, we 
are called on to defend ourselves against 
a charge of neglect of duty. Our offence, 
as laid out in the indictment, is that, on 
a date not mentioned but easy of ascer- 
tainment by the industrious, we failed to 
support a communication on " Salt " with 
editorial backing. The charge assumes that 
support was necessary ; and if an impartial 
jury, under the direction of a competent 
Judge, should find, that the eloquence on 
Salt, of a seasoned correspondent, to whose 
instructive lucubrations and arguments, 
extendhig over a series of years, we have 
afforded due prominence, with frequent edi- 
torial benedictions, demanded support in 
his latest deliverance, we are prepared to 
abide by the penalty prescribed for what, 
we believe, the lawyers call laches. Our 
submission will not, we give notice, be 
wholly unqualified. In the first place, we 
shou'd dissent from the verdict, as one to 
be taken cum grano salis, for reasons to be 
hereafter stated. In the second place, we 
should require an assurance that the penalty 
b' not the same as chat provided for the use 
of the knife -lightened though it has been 
by rec<Mit merciful legislation, as to its 
maximuin, by one-twenty fifth ! With these 
reservations, we are prepared to go before a 
ACtRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1903. 
Judge and Jury. Now to our argument 
The "communication" referred to spoke 
sufficiently for it;self: it needed no support. 
The correspondence of our opinion of S ilt 
with the Biblical, is well-known. But, just 
as S.ilt which has lost its savour is worth- 
less so surely is excess of Sale unpalatable, 
and even injurious to the digestion. We 
claim, therefore, to have done a service to 
our correspondent in not h iving weighted 
the special number of the Ohservp,r to which 
he refers, with a saline editorial. In the 
next place, we desire to give our numerous 
public-spirited and able correspondents, who 
have with laudable persistency proclaimed 
the virtues of Salt in our columns. full credit 
for the part chey have taken in impressing on 
the Government its duty to the agriculturist 
<and the stock-breeder. Why should ive do 
or say aught which would detract from 
their services when victoi-y was in sight, and 
draw attention on ourselves. Is the com- 
plainant not aware— is it not written in the 
Chronicles of the Taxation Commissi(in? — 
that the Governor, already one of the highest 
authorities and jnost brilliant exponents of 
Attic Salt, intends making special inquiries 
himself into the article as produced at 
Puttalam and Hambantota? With that 
assurance, and with the knowledge that the 
Government is appreciating the unwisdom 
of saying to those who come to it, for Salt, 
that it has none to sell, we do not for a 
moment believe that it will continue the 
unnatural policy of denying its own children 
the wherewithal for increasing their food. 
Land, therefore, is in sight. It would not 
become us to stand between our corre- 
spondents and their full share in the victory, 
even if it be not a sufficient excuse for our 
silence that it is impossible for ;m editor to 
find time and space for expressing his 
approval of all the views set forth in his 
columns. In token, however, of our agree- 
ment with our correspondent as to the im- 
portance of Salt in Agriculture (and in Stock- 
breeding), and the duty of the Government 
to issue Salt for these purposes on special 
terms, we give editorial prominence to his 
complaint: — 
"I was surprised to find the communication 
on Silt, published iu your columns without one 
line of editorial co ninent, After the interest 
you took in the su'ijecb recently, and sr.ront.-ly 
urged on the Goviitnnent the advisability of 
issuing salt for agricultural purposes at special 
rates, the least one expected from you was an 
editorial. 
" I send you an extract on the virtues of salt 
from an old book I came across quite accident- 
ally. You will see that one of the properties 
claimed for salt, is its ability to prevent the 
dissipation of ammonia in manures. A booklet 
issued locally, c'aims for kainifc the same pro- 
perties, and suggests its being sprinkled over 
manure heaps on this account. Perhaps it is the 
chloride of sodium iu kainit that has this useful 
property : — 
FOMCTION OF SALT IN AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. A Beauchimp N iithcote has comtnunicated to 
the Philosophical Maqazine No. 65, a paper of experi- 
ments undertaken to ascertain the rationale of the 
action of salt in increasing the fertility of certaia lands. 
