MONTHL 
Vol. XI. 
COLOMBO, AUGUST ist, 1891. 
mo 2. 
COFFEE [AliD -TEA] SOILS AND MANQRES. 
OPFBE in Coorg seems to 
have far bettor resisted 
the deadly influenoe. of 
Hemileia vastatrix than has 
been the case in moat parts 
of Ceylon, judging from the 
faot that Messrs. Matheson & 
0?i oonsidered it worth their while to employ a special 
Agricultural Chemist and to incur very large 
expenditure in prosecuting experiments in the 
direction of reviving an industry which with us in 
Oeylon seems abaolutely dying out, in this the 
twenty-first year since the fangas was first 
observed in the eastern outlying range of 
Madulsima. By arrangement with Mr. Pringle, 
the chemist in question, we commence today the 
publication of a series of papers he has prepared 
as the results of his investigations and experiments. 
The detailed and interesting information afforded 
in the paper we publish today may be useful to 
the owners of such coffee as still survives in 
Ceylon, whether the cultivation of Arabian coffee 
is STcr resumed here, on a large scale or not, and in 
any ease tea and cinchona planters cBunot but bene_ 
fit ; for we may take it for granted that, whatever, 
ia the shape of manure at least, is good 
for coffee, is equally good for the other products, 
eipeoially tea. We have been in the habit of 
aaying that a leaf-yielding plant like tea must 
be less exhaustive of the fertile constituents of 
a soil, than a fruit-yielding plant, like coffee. 
But let our readers mark the large proportion 
of plant food taken up by the twigs and leaves 
of the coffee tree, as shown by Mr. Pringle, 
bearing also in mind that the tea plant, 
besides being subjected to an almost inces- 
sant plucking process, is periodically pruned 
after » more severe fashion than that applied 
to coffee. It being certain, therefore, that, even 
more in Oeylon than in Ooorg, the decom- 
posing felspar and mica fairly keep up the 
Bupplies of potash, tea requires as liberal phos- 
phatio and nitrogenous applications as coffee does. 
In te^ cultivation as formerly in coffee, the con- 
clusion generally acted on in Ceylon is, that the 
best all round manure ia a mixture of finely 
ground or steamed bones and ivhite castor cake. 
If some superphosphate can be added so much 
the better. The bones supply the great element ;o£ 
phosphoric acid, with some ammonia ; the cake 
is rich in nitrogen, and contains a little potash, 
supplies the soil with organic matter in the best pos- 
sible condition. Mr. Pringle seems to prefer fish 
to oil cake; and no doubt pure fish is an excellent 
manure, better even for tea, we should say, than 
for coffee, but it is probably more evanescent in 
its effects than castor cake and does not act to 
such an extent mechanically on the soil by means 
of organic matter, which, in the case of the 
cake, does not Fit once decompose. Con- 
sidering the merits attributed to shade in 
South India coliee culture, surprise will be felt 
at Mr. Pringle's conclusions in an unfavourable 
sense. There is a difference, however, between the 
dry climate of Mysore and the moist climate of 
Coorg, and between the light shade otFicus glomerata 
and the dense canopy of the foliage of the jak tree ? 
In Ceylon, long before the fungus rendered every 
other question subordinate to one which with us 
was even more than equivalent to phylloxera in 
vine culture, we had come to the conclusion that 
where coffee required shade it would be un- 
profitable to grow it. From some experience we 
are inclined to believe that tea is far more tolerant 
of shade, both as regards flushing and flavour of 
flush ; and that the liberal planting of shelter, 
timber and fuel trees can be carried out on a tea 
estate, not only without injury but with benefit 
to the main product grown. We should like to 
hear experts on this point, and the modified shade as 
well as the fertilizing eflects of the growth of 
green plants amongst our tea, in order to carry 
down into the soil nitrogen derived from the air. 
Is there any danger of fungus from the decom- 
position of green stuff ? We are here reminded of 
Mr. Pringle's suggestive idea that a soil may get 
•' sick " of one unvarying product, and it may be 
a question whether this was not one cause of the 
predisposition of our coffee tree to the attacks of 
the fungus, and whether the eame danger has not 
to be guarded against in thecasa of tea, grown, ae 
it often ia, in wide unbroken expanses 
Lime applied in moderate quantity occasionally 
(after other manures have had time to dissolve 
and be assimilated by the tree roots) cannot but 
be of value in averting such a consequence, 
besides its action in loosening the soil, the latter 
a process which is less necessary in the culture 
of tea than of coffee. Tea also flourishes in soils 
where alluminous and ferruginous constituents 
are in greater proportion than was desirable 
for coffee. If Mr, Pringle ia correct in showing 
that a substance so moist, heavy and bulky as cattle 
manure costs generally in production more than it 
is worth,' especially if it has to be carried any 
