THE TROPICAL AGRICULTITRIST. [Sept. 1, 1899. 
out not from cacao disease. In most of tliese 
patches the shade is bad, and, jadging from 
what you say in your report, the trees suffer 
from want of nitrogen. The land is flat with 
a stiff dark, hrown soil mostly, and has not 
been manured much for past six years. Where 
cattle manure has been previously applied, the 
trees look much better even now." 
lime and magnesia. In two of the average soils 
lime or magnesia is rather low ; but in none of 
them are both lime and magnesia low. 
M. Cochran. 
ANALYSES OF TWO SAMPLES OF CEYLON 
CACAO SOILS IN THE AIR-DRIED STATE. 
MECHANICAL ANALYSIS. 
No. 1. No. 2. 
Forastero Field. Caracas Field 
Per cent. Per cent. 
60-7.5 .. 39-25 
39-2.5 .. 60'75 
Coarse Earth 
Fine Earth 
100-00 
100-00 
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FINE EAKTH. 
Moisture 
rt Organic matter and 
matter lost by Ignition 
Oxides of iron 
Alumina and oxide of 
Manganese 
Lime 
Magnesia • • 
Potash 
Phosphoric acid 
Silica, insoluble sili- 
cates and matters 
not determined 
2-950 
7- 994 
6-793 
8- 021 
•793 
1-130 
•884 
•062 
71-373 
100000 
a Containing Nitrogen -193 
3-200 
5'150 
5-855 
8-253 
•700 
•632 
•274 
'192 
75-744 
100000 
•070 
HOW TO MIX FEKTILISERS. 
Fertiliser mixtures, uniform in quality and eqaa.1 
in every respect to the best factory-made fertilisers, 
can be made on the farm without milling machinery, 
A tight barn floor, platform scales, screen, showel 
and hoe are the only utensils needed. The materials 
having been weighed screened, and lumps pulverised 
the most bulky stock is spread in an oblong pile 
from six to twelve inches deep ; upon its levelled 
top the next material is placed, and so on until all 
have been added like layers on a layer cake. Com- 
mencing at one end, the pile is shovelled over, the 
operator reaching clear to the bottom every time. 
The pile is then levelled up, and the operation re 
peated three times. The mixture may then be screened 
again if desired. In thus mixing his fertilser the 
farmer knows definitely what be has purchased. Each 
ingredient can be tested by itself if desired, and in* 
ferior materials are not likely to be palmed off on 
him. He can also vary the proportions of the ingredi- 
ents to snit the requirements of varying soils. — 
Farmer and Stockbreeder. 
The mechanical analysis shews a great dif- 
ference in the proportions of fine earth in the 
two samples, which is sufficiently accounted for 
,by No. 1 sample representing steep land, and 
No. 2 representing flat land. 
The only constituent that is apparently de- 
ficient in No. 1 is the phosphoric acid, this 
deficiency being relatively greater, on account 
of the small proportion of fine earth in the 
soil. Ifc is true the proportion of phosphoric 
acid is decidedly higher than that of the mini- 
mum of the West Indian fertile soil; but the 
Grenada soil, which contained only -044 per cent 
of phosphoric acid, had 14'3 per cent of water 
in the air-dried soil, shewing that the physical 
condition of the soil must have been very dif- 
ferent. In sample No. 1 it is to be noted that 
the proportion of potash in the fine earth is 
'exceptionally high. 
In No. 2, the only constituent that is appa- 
rently deficient is the nitrogen or nitrogenous 
organic matter ; hence the beneficial effect 
observed on this soil from the application of 
cattle manure. It is to be noted, however, that 
the nitrogen in this soil, when calculated to 
dry soil, as in the case of the West Indian 
Analyses, is fully as high as in the sample of 
Venezuelan good soil. The phosphoric acid is also 
higher, but the Venezuelan soil has more potash 
and a higher power of retaining moisture. The 
sender of these soils makes no complaint of cacao- 
fungoid diseases. It would be interesting to 
know how far the trees on these soils which are 
■well-furnished with lime and magnesia are really 
free from cacao-disease. All of the West Indian 
fertile soilis analysed are well supplied with 
THE COLOMBO AGRI- HORTICULTURAL 
EXHIBITION. 
From an early hour on the 21st July, the grounds 
of the Agricultural School presented a bu.sy scene, 
the finishing touches to the decorations being all 
worked off some time before noon. That things 
were so far forward, as the earliest visitors {the 
majority of whom were judges) found then this 
morning was due to the untiring efforts of the ener- 
getic Secretary, Mr. C. Drieberg, who has worked 
with the utmost zeal towards the success 
of the Exhibition. Exhibits began arriving 
early yesterday and amongst the visitors 
then taken round were Mr. Fowler. Acting G.A., 
Western Province ; Mr. F. H. Price, Mayor of 
Colombo; Mr. Cookson, and Capt. Lowndes, of 
the Police ; to whose plans the efficiency of the 
police arrangements this afternoon are due. Mr. 
Nock also visited the School buildings yesterday 
— ever among the first and, indeed, the most indis- 
pensable gentlemen, where a show of our island's 
products are concerned. Having taken a care- 
iul look round in every section we may say 
that the success of the Exhibition was never 
quite so marked as this year. In individual 
sections, more notably the Horticultural ones, 
there is a regrettable lack of competition. For 
instance, the Ferns in Pots were conspicuous 
by their scarcity and those who remember 
the wealth of " fernery " that adorned the 
verandahs at the further end of the build- 
ings last year, will have been taken aback today 
by the want of display in this the most attrac- 
tive of the finer kinds of greenery. There are 
numbers of residents in Colombo with excellent 
ferns in their bungalows, which, for want of a 
little confidence or enterprise on the part of their 
owners, might have been seen adding materiaUy 
to the completeness of the Exhibits. But taken 
all round, there was a marked improvement, both 
in quality and quantity of the exhibits. This 
was seen most especially in local fruits and vege- 
tablesj e.g. jaks, pumelos, gourds, pumpkins, and 
brinjals — bananas alone forming a most surprising 
exception. 
But to take things in order. Approaching the 
Agricultural School down the long avenue, one pf 
