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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1899, 
ing to decry the discovery : it is interesting and 
important, but some scientific discoveries get too 
much magnified by some, and I think this is one 
of them. Agricnlturej in particular rotations of crops, 
have all, unconoious of the scientific fact, been re- 
cognizing its practical utility for a very long period, 
but nothing at all out of the ordinary has happened. 
The way of this I think is because it is not a great 
discovery, but essentially a small thing. Those pre- 
eminently distinguished and now venerable Agricul- 
tural Chemists, Lawes and Gilbert, make it aban- 
dantly clear. In spite of all we know thus far, the 
nerrick, as it were, of nature below the surface is 
largely undiscovered. 
However, in the matter of organizing free nitrogen 
from leguminous plants for tea, the time very speedily 
comes when it is necessary to destroy the organizers 
by digging them into the soil, in favour of a rota- 
tion crop, and it is not until some time after des- 
truction, during the process of full decay that the 
full advantages of the free nitrogen is available and 
consequently in the ordinary course of things the 
succeeding crop gets the advantage, if iueeded that 
is not nature's deliberate intention. In this case, 
however, it is for the tea plant ; it will follow then 
that the rotation crop must also be dug in, and 
this crop to be of the best advantage all round must 
differ from the legume. The planter will do well to 
have always in mind that no soil, least of all much 
tea soil, will go on growing leguminous plants; and 
further that, although they organize free nitrogen 
by bacteria through the nodules of the roots, the 
plants themselves require a different nourishment, 
in part including abandance of lime, and no soil, 
and particularly tea soil, will go on successfully 
growing, of all plants legumes. There must be the 
indispensable and advantageous rotation and there- 
tore in this case periodic destruction of both. Your 
correspondent will at once see this implies periodic 
renewal and re-sowing, and the pertinent question 
oomea in here. Will the exigencies of tea operations 
admit of the planter saving his own seed ? Because 
if it won't, then I fear it won't pay j unless indeed, 
"and what certainly ought to happen by perseverance, 
the increase of tea is such as to admit of periodic 
purchase of new seeds. These are practical ques- 
tions planters can solve for themselves. In any case 
it is well to have in mind that while nitrogen is 
locked up in the nodules of the roots of legumes it 
is not very likely to be of much service to deep- 
rooting tea ; in order to be serviceable there must 
be a simple system of rotation, digging in, and re- 
newals. But I believe the fact that some legumes 
organize free nitrogen is by no means the sum of 
advantage likely to accrue from planting them for 
the advantage of tea. I had here intended to have 
made a direct quotation from Mr. Cooke (Sirocco) 
but unfortunately have failed to find the particular 
sentence I wanted. However, this, if I remember 
rightly, is the gist of it : — " We do not sufficiently 
realize how much we gain or save by making less 
tea." This looks very like a paradox. Now I would 
advance a closely allied proposition, namely, that 
we do not sufficiently realize how much we should 
gain by doing less — in the way of cultivation — more 
especially if the cultivation is extended over leng- 
thened periods, and I am fully convinced from a 
number of experiments of the great good of rest ; 
total abandonment of cultivation, allowing nature to 
come in and do, as she undoubtedly does, some 
beneficent work. Very many planters should be sent 
on a tour round the world on foot or a bicycle for 
two years, and if the soil and tea could only speak 
I believe it would say Amen to the proposal very 
promptly. 
Coming to practical suggestions for your corres- 
pondent, I would advise him to try a bushel of the 
ordinary field the pea-soup pea of commmerce. 
I feel sure as a cold weather crop, and provided 
' the soil is not diiffcient in lime, this would succeed 
in many cases well. Then it should be allowed to 
fully mature its crop, and here comes the question 
whether he should save hia seed. I think from one 
bushel two might be taken and all the remainder 
dug in. What would happen precisely, I cannot say; 
tor Assam doubtless the hot weather would be too 
much for the dug in seed, but if that was not, the 
rains would be, I quite expect. However, if would 
not much matter what happened, because the seed 
as well as the plant would be a highly nitrogenous 
manure. There are very few legumes or food plants 
which contain so much nourishment as the pea — 
about 930 per cent, per 1,000 parts for the seed. 
This plant lays low and grows dwarf, and would not, 
I think interfere wich the tea, and if the newly 
dog in seed grew, that would be an additional ad- 
vantage. Again I have formed a very high opinion 
of some annual grasses which grow luxuriantly, but 
not tall, during the monsoon, are excellent fodder 
plants, seed freely, and die down in cold weather. 
There is a period when a valuable dressing of manure 
can be hoed in, and any amount of seed insuring 
a full crop another year. It is so far as is known 
true these grasses do not organize nitrogen in the 
way legumes do, but they contain a quantity, and 
I venture to thiok it may very well be that good 
annual grasses would prove of the greatest possible 
service for tea lands ; any serious wash is impos- 
sible, soddened land is practically impossible. Once 
a year at the correct seed period the land could 
receive one throu°h hoeiug, no further cultivation 
being necessary. Of these grasses I will send your 
Dibrugurh correspondent a small packet of two kitids 
and ask him to be good enough to sow on the 
appearance of spring rains and watch their behaviour 
for Assam if be is satisfied Le can himself increase 
the area a thousand fold by collecting his own seed. 
They have the great advantage of being non-creep- 
ing, no under ground stems — termed by Botanist 
Soboles — and theie is no possibility of a permanent 
choked up soil. IVIy very strong impression is, herein 
lies a good thing for tea : — A legume for the cold 
weather season and a good annual grass for monsoons, 
and only two very thorough hoeings per annum, one 
for the grass, one for the legume. The grass seed 
will abide the monsoon period without germinating 
to any extent, and would not be interfered with by 
the leguminous crop. Some other day I may make 
a communication to the Planter on sundry grasses, 
as I am getting seeds of a number from widely 
different parts of the world, but the time has not 
arrived to say anything further about them. The 
burden of it is, everyone should make some definite 
experiment in the direction of surface crop, which 
will protect the soil, and abolish in a very large 
measure cultivation, and yet forsooth it would be a 
kind of culture highly advantageous. When it ia 
recognized that the tea plant is only a shrub above 
ground and that by artificial means and that below 
it has the roots of a tree; and that without manure 
you can neither add nor take from the soil over 
and above what nature allows ; and that by annual 
crops due in you come as close as probably it will 
ever pay to an immitation of nature's methods, — 
then I believe plauters will see their current methods 
in the long run are vanity and vexation of spirit ; 
and based on heavy knows what dustur perhaps, 
to solely and wholly for the tea plant and not as 
a general principle for anything. — " Secatue Indicus," 
— Planter. 
South Sea Island Papaya,— The Curator of 
the Government Botanic Gardens and Parks, 
Nilgiris, reports the successful raising of a number 
of plants from seed of the South Sea Island 
Papaya (Carica Papaya) and observes : — " As 
soon as it becomes established, it is hoped that it 
will prove to be a desirable addition to the list of 
tropical fruits grown on the lower slopes of the 
Nilgiris to meet the demands in the local 
markets." The fruit of this tree at Bangalore is 
much larger than that usually seen on the ordi- 
nary Papaya. — Planting Opinion, Sept. 30, 
