2S4 
Supplement to the " Tropical AgricnUv/rist.'^ [Oct. 1, ISOl. 
and the adult females which come to the surface 
of the water to deposit their eggs. The appli- 
cation retains its efficiency for several weeks. 
A Ceylon man a<^ piesent travelling in 
Australia, writing firm Perrli, ^r.ys :— "In Western 
Australia, which in quite a baby colony, what 
the visitor can ne\i-r fcrget is the wild growth. 
There is not a weed but has its pretty blossom, 
and in such luxuriance and variety that I would 
gooner walk througli into miles of sand than 
through a Botanic Garden or a park. No pen 
can describe the infinite variety of its attrac- 
tions. There is every colour and every shade 
of colour from pink to purple and the lightest 
yellow to orange and deep red. Then there are 
grasses of exquisite beauty and form, and 
" everlastings" of all shapes, sizes, and colour 
8ome of which I send you." 
Mr. Christian Fernando, late of Ceylon, writes 
from Durban : — " The cold season is past, and the 
days are warm, sometimes disagreeably so, and the 
mango trees are in blossom. Perhaps you are not 
aware that we have mangoes here ? Yes, we do, and 
iak as well, but they are miserable specimens 
compared with those in Ceylon. The mangoe 
trees blossom when they are merely saplings 
8 to 15 feet, and I have not yet seen a taller 
specimen. Fancy being able to just reach out 
your hand and pluck the fruits o£E the trees. But 
they are never very long lived, and I Relieve 
this peculiar phenomemon is explained by the 
energy and haste characteristic of stinted vege- 
tation in alien and unfavourable climes to blossom 
and reproduce their kind ere they die. 
" A Native Horticulturist writes to the Mercury 
recommending all fruit-growers to have an 
apiary as well, but this does not seem to be 
necesi-avy for a good mango crop, for all the 
blossoms I saw were largely visited by house- 
flies and blue bottles, and not by bees. Is this 
tlie case with our Ceylon mango blossoms ? They 
are too high up for casual observation. The 
juk, too, fruits when trees are from 15 to 20 ft. 
hicrh. The fruits are small, but esteemed 
a great delicacy by the Indian population, and 
fetch fiom 6 to 12 shillings each. (I have seen 
them priced as much last October.) Of course these 
fruits with Naartjes (a variety of mandarins) and 
bananas are only grown in the coast districts. 
From all I can gather there is much scope for 
Horticulture in Natal, if a convenient market 
could be found. If a direct line of steamers 
started running between Natal and London for 
conveying produce, just as has been done between 
England and the West Indies, there would be a 
deal of money to be made from fruit culture." 
A local vine grower?, who is experimentally 
growing grapes imported from Australia, and is 
studying the requirenients of the plants in its altered 
surroundings, decided to train his vines espalier 
fiishi n, as lie expects that that will give better 
control over the training and pruning than if 
the vines were allowed to run OTer a frame- 
work or pandal. 
We would draw special attention to the 
advertisement of "Gardener "on our back cover. 
The mixing and preparation of an insecticide 
according to a standard recipe is, we must con- 
fess, a most troublesome and tedious business, and 
we suppose one reason why amateur gardeners 
do not take measures against the infestation of 
their gaidens by pests of various sorts, (as 
evidenced by rose trees with their leaves all 
eaten away, ferns covered with scale insects, 
brinjals affected with "soot," and tomatoes 
drooping and dying owing to fungoid disease) is 
that they shirk the preparation of the "remedies." 
"Gardener" now offers ready-made preparation* 
which have only to be diluted with water in the 
required proportion, according to the directione 
that will be given. 
RAINFALL TAKEN AT THE SCHOOL OF 
AGRICULTURE DURING THE MONTH 
OF SEPTEMBER, 1901. 
1 
Sunday 
. -01 
17 
Tuesday 
1-62 
2 
Monday 
. Nil 
18 
Wednesday 
•21 
3 
Tuesday 
. -06 
19 
Thursday . . 
Nil 
4 
Wednesday .. 
. Nil 
•20 
Friday 
•02 
5 
Thursday 
. Nil 
21 
Saturday ... 
Nil 
6 
Friday 
. Nil 
22 
Sunday 
Nil 
7 
Saturday 
. Nil 
23 
Monday 
•10 
8 
Sunday- 
. Nil 
24 
Tuesday 
•02 
9 
Monday 
. Nil 
25 
Wednesday 
•09 
10 
Tuesday 
. Nil 
26 
Thursday . . 
•2.? 
11 
Wednesday . 
. Nil 
27 
Friday 
•03 
12 
Thursday 
. Nil 
28 
Saturday . . 
Nil 
13 
Friday 
. Nil 
29 
Sunday 
Nil 
14 
Saturday 
. Nil 
30 
Monday ... 
•02 
15 
Sunday 
.. Nil 
31 
Tuesday . . 
•72 
16 
Monday 
. -04 
1 
Total. .3^16 
Mean. . '10 
Greatest amount of rainfall registered in 24 
hours on the 17th Sept. 1'62 inches. 
Recorded by C. Dbiebkbg. 
MAINTENANCE OF SOIL FERTILITY. 
The triumph of successful agriculture, as a con- 
temporary truly remarks, is the growing of gocjd 
crops continually over a series of years, and yet 
keeping up the fertility of the soil. As long as 
there is fresh land to cultivate there is little need 
for the use of fertilizers, but with changed con- 
ditions cultivators have begun to understand the 
necessity of keeping the soil that has given returns 
for any length of time without added fertility. 
It is an axiom of agricultural science that land 
should be compensated for what is removed from 
it by the use of manures and by growing rotations 
of crops differing in their requirements. 
The more common form of manure consists 
either of animal excreta or decomposed animal or 
vegetable matter of any kind. In view of the fac. 
that cattle are not housed in the same wayya.s iu 
England, a great proportion of the manure ielded 
by them is lost to the cultivator. Under suck cir- 
cumstances the greatest care must be taken of 
