470 
THE TROPISAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 1, 1902. 
the araouat of organic matter and the nitrogen form 
the first and most important measure of the fertility 
of a soil for tea. of the likelihood of its being of 
permanent value, and also of the probabihty of its 
giving high quality tea. Unluckily the amount of 
orgamo matter is one of the most difficult things 
to measure, and the figure in the analyses oa,!led 
by that name is only valuable when a similar class 
of soils are compared. These constituents ace how- 
ever so essential and important that, unless they 
are present in large enough quantity, the other in- 
gredients of the soil are all but useless, 
greaieuis MINIMUM." 
But organic matter and nitrogen are not the only 
constitueuts required in the soil for the production of 
healthy and luxuriant bushes and of high quality tea. 
For both these results they occupy essentially the 
most important position, but without other ingredients 
they would be utterly useless. There is a law in 
agriculture known as the 'law of the minimam 
which states that if the minimum required by a plant 
of any constituent be not obtainable, all others are 
there in vain and the plant cannot be grown. Inas- 
much as the tea plant requires Phosphoric Acid, 
Potash, Oxide of Iron, and Lime at least, and prob- 
ably Magnesia aa well, it is absolutely necessary that 
these should be present in sufficient quantity and in a 
suffioientlv available form for the plant to grow well. 
I say ' in"a sufficiently available form ' because they 
may and often are present, bat in such a condition 
that the plant cannot use them. Thus, for instance, 
the quantity of potash in a clay soil is invariably 
Beveral times greater than in sandy land, and yet the 
latter may be actually richer agriculturally m this 
constituent at any particular moment than the former 
Bimnlv because in the former case it is so combined 
in the clay as to be in large measure useless for the 
plant: again, Phosphoric Acid is always less useful in 
the presence of large quantities of Oxide of Iron and 
Alumina than in their absence, &a. 
RELATION OF PHOSPHORIC ACID TO 
QUALITY. 
Whv does Phosphoric Acid play such a prepon- 
.Iflratin" part in the production of high quality teas ? 
^(1 albumens no cells, and hence no tissue can be 
formed in its absence. Now as those parts of the 
1 nt used in tea manufacture are those in which the 
Sroduction of new cells is extremely vigorous and 
^^oi-fffltic so is thia constituent of more importance 
fnr the perfect production of the crop than with ordi- 
nary agricaUural products. There is another reason 
PlRo It has recently been shown that the acidity 
of n'lant iuices depends on the amount of Phosphoric 
Acid in the soil. Now the younger leaves and hence 
fvTn^e which make the best tea are more acid than the 
older ones, and so one is, I think, entitled to assume 
that a certain proportion of acidity is necessary in 
the leaf for making the best tea and this is rendered 
Sore cei-tain by the ptesence of much Phosphoric 
^cid in the soil. poj^sg_ 
Thp constituent next of importance to the tea plant 
is without doubt the Potash. Its function in the 
uZt is most important, and there is httle doubt 
*Viot it plays a fundamental part: in the production 
tlnnin (the essential Moment in the pungency of 
tLT as well as in the formation of albumens and 
the production of new cells and new growth. 
BALANCE AMONa SOIL CONSTITUENTS. 
Vinallv what seems of greater importance for the 
Inxuriaat growth of high quality tea than the presence 
n large <iu?,atity of any particu ar constituent, is 
that the constituents of . the soil should be well 
v.a1« need-that is, that it should contain enough 
S^/aT.ic matter and nitrogen to satisfy the utmost 
needs of the plant (say not less than 0 8 per cent 
f nilrosen calculated on the soil less the sand), and 
fLn a sufficient quantity of other constituents _ to 
rireveut the plant having any trouble in obtaining 
pem U Is * '^'^6^ luantity of readily availablQ 
nitrogen— with the necessary organic matter— 
and not sufficient readily available Phosphoric 
Acid, etc., there will probably result a rank 
growth giving sappy wood, and leaf without the 
special qualities of high class tea. If, on the other 
hand, the nitrogen is too small in amount and the 
other constituents in excess, a high quality tea will 
be produced, — but only little of it. And further if 
both nitrogen and phosphoric acid are low, then 
neither luxuriance nor quality are obtained, and the 
garden is worn out — becomes the prey to blight after 
blight — fills with vacancies and probably ultimately 
disapears or is abandoned. 
OUR BELGIAN SCIENTIFIC VISITOR. 
M Lippens, our Belgian scientific visitor, is 
immensely charmed with his visit to Ceylon 
and looks forward to revisiting it at a later 
date. Meanwhile he pioceeds to India and 
Burmah, studying tropical products as he goes, 
and afterwards to Java, Sumatra, &c. be- 
fore returning to Belgium and thence to the 
Congo — to introduce new products. M Lippeus, 
we may add, is correspondent to that famous 
continental paper which has made so many 
startling but often correct announcements during 
the war, L' Indcpciidance Beige, wliicli, unlike 
the Petit Bleu — a purely popular paper — is the 
medium for communications from all classes of 
mparti-il and cosmopolitan critics of national and 
international events. 
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON ON 
"UGANDA." 
BEFORE THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 
The opening meeting of the new session of the 
Geographical Society was held last night in the 
theatre, Burlington-gardens. The president, Sir 
Clements Markham, was in the chair, and there 
was a very large audience. 
Sir Harry John.ston delivered a lecture 
on " Uganda Protectorate, Ruwenzori, and 
the Semliki Forest." The lecturer took the 
Uganda Protectorate province by province, and 
gave original iuformation about each province iu 
turn. 
THE PROriNCES 
are six in number — Eastern, Rudolf, Centra.1, 
Nile, Kingdom of Uganda, and Western. 
He said that the traveller from Mom- 
basa, before reaching the frontier of Uganda, 
passed through the country of Kikuyu, which was 
well forested and thickly clothed with vegetation. 
As he descended into the Rift valley the 
Kikuyu vegetation decreased in luxuriance. In 
the vicinsiy of Lake Naivasha there was a short 
sweet grass, which was probably kept low by the 
browsing of innumerable antelopes and the herds 
of Masai cattle. The Masai of the Naivasha, 
district belonged to the essentially cattle-keeping 
sami-nomad division of that race. Quite recenty, 
for political reasons, it had been thought advisable 
to make the Masai dwelling within the eastern 
province of the Uganda Protectorate independent 
of any political connexion with those of the ad- 
joining East Africa Protectorate or of German 
East Africa. Unfortunately at the present 
moment the Masai race was on the road towards 
extinction, either by dying out or by fusion with 
other tribes. The last year or so. however, there 
had been amarked increase in prosperity among the 
]Mas5ii of Naivasha, and t»e was therefore in hopei 
