June 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
847 
A FARMER'S EVERY DAY LIFE. 
(By " Cosmopolite." J 
The end of the month of Marcli finds all 
agriculturists busily eu^asjed with 
SOWING OPERATIONS 
and this is the time when the manure merchants 
use their most persuasive eloquence to induce 
farmers to purchase artificial manures, declaring 
that, without these, good crops cannot be obtained 
and high farming will become a lost art. Great 
Britain is spoken of as a country of intense 
agriculture, where farming is alway.s done at 
high pressure, and where the greatest amount 
of produce is taken from the land, and this 
productiveness of the soil is accounted for by 
the skilful and thorough cultivation thereof, to- 
gether with the liberal application of manures. 
We find a great deal of nonsense in the columns 
of the Agricultural Press, about the good that 
has been done by science in discovering various 
artificial manures, which have aided our farmers 
in attaining their present position in the fore 
rank of agriculture. It is not for me to set 
myself up as an opponent to the tlieories of 
those scientists ; but having tried, I believe, 
every kind of artificial manure, I consider that 
I have some small right to say a word on tiie 
subject. My present farm had been bidly 
konnached{io use a good Scotch word) for about 
20 years, so, when I signed my lease, I knew 
that I had a considerable up-hill work before me ; 
but, by an ample dressing of cattle manure, I 
so surprised the soil which had, for years, 
been accustomed to a scanty application of ar- 
tificials, that it forthwith proceeded to produce 
excellent crops. Not only do I manufacture a 
large quantity of bulky manure, on the farm, 
but I buy much more from any of my neighbours 
who are willing to sell, and Vi'lio jjreter the cheaper 
style of manuriag by artificials. In course of time 
people begaa to remark my fine crops and sup- 
posed that my bills for artificials was a very 
heavy one, to which my reply invariably was 
"not a penny." And now, when I see an extra 
good crop in any field, and am inquisitive enough 
to ask what it had been maiured with, the 
answer is "cattle manure." When I see a field 
of tarnips badly attacked by fii^ger and toe dis- 
ease and I ask what is the reason of thi«, 
I find that superphosphate has been applied. One 
year I spent some time at Swanley, in Kent ; 
it had been a very dry summer, and the crops 
were simply ruined. I paid a visit to a gentle- 
man who, as an agriculturist, was highly spoken 
of in his district, and was shewn round the farm by 
him. Coming to a field of potatoes, I found about 
50 DRILLS A MAGNIFICENT CROP ; 
the remainder of the field being almost barren soil. 
I asked for an explanation when he told me that 
he had manured these fifty drills with cattle man- 
ures, and the others with artificial. He also showed 
me a small field of wheat — a magnificent crop — 
which had been similarly treated, whilst his other 
fields \Tere as bare as those cf his neighbours who 
worshipped at the shrine of artificials. He added 
that they never, in that district, used cattle 
manure, as it was too expensive and laborious a 
task carting it to the fields, but purchased arti- 
ficials in preference, which meant ,a great saving 
in labour. Undoubtedly the master's eye and foot 
are the best manures for the field, for he can see 
what acts best on his class of soil ; but, so far as 
my experience goes, in various parts of the world, 
artificials sometimes give a good result, if tlie 
weather is suitable, but cat'le manure never fails. 
I have often heard propi ietors speak gru'lgiiigl.v of 
some of their ten -ntry, declaring that they were 
growing extra heavy crops and taking too much 
out of the ground. Could anything be raore ridi- 
culous ? 
HEWy CROPS 
cannot be grown systematieally without raising 
the condition of the land ; the more produce we 
take off a field — not spasmodically, but year after 
year— the better is the condition of the soil, 
because such a thing could not be done without 
a liberal and judicious manuring being ke[)t up, 
and if landlords would only have the sense to 
know what !s good for them, they would stick to 
the tenants who can grow big crops and get rid 
of those who, by hungering the land, are thereby 
stopping its productiveucNS. 
ACME TEA CHESTS, 
The Company is turning out 13.000 chests 
a week, the factory can do no more — imme- 
diately they are in a position to supply 
them to Ceylon you will hear. The veneer 
chest is a great success, nevertheless there 
are still many people sticking to the original 
steel chest which proves that your belief iu is 
from the beginning was quite correct. So 
they go manufacturing both kinds, and 
orders come pouring in without even being 
asked for.— Glasgow Cor. 
RETURN OF A FRENCH SCIENTIST. 
M. Prudhomme, director of the Department 
of Agriculture in Madagascar, who was in 
Ceylon in January last with two coUabora^ 
tors, M Guyon and Lircaze, returned 
to Ceylon per M.M. " Australien " 
from a three-months' trip in Sumatra and 
Java. His assistants in this mission of 
scientific and administi"ative enquiry 
left for Japan, and M. Prudhomme 
returned alone to spend the last available 
month in the East, of his year's leave from 
his official position, in Ceylon and India. 
M. Prudhomme stayed in the island for a 
week ; proceeding to Negombo and after- 
wards visiting Kandv. 
* 
DESTRUCTION OF RATS. 
Mr. P R Gordon, Chief Inspector of Stock, {^ivea 
the following simple method which, according to 
American papers, has been most successfiu in 
clearing rats off premises where previously they 
had defied the presence of from twenty to thirty 
cats :— Get a few small pieces of shingles or thin 
boards. On each of these put a teaspoonful of 
molasses, and over this scrape a small amount of 
condensed lye, and lay the boai'dsor shingles around 
the rat holes, or wherever their runs are. The 
molasses will draw them, and the lye will eat out 
the coating of their stomachs. Four days are 
given as the time wlien the rats will have been 
cleared out. From the fact that tliis mode of 
destruction has appeared, at intervals, in many 
well-conducted Journals in the States, for months 
past, Mr. Gordon is induced to think it is well 
worth a trial here. The recipe is simple, cheap, 
and easy to carry into effect.— Qiteewstovid Agri- 
ciiUural Journal, April 1, 
