AU(3UST I, 1891.] THE TROPiCAL AQRICULTURIST. 
133 
fishery. Whether it ia the shortsightedness of the 
fishermen thiukiug to keep up the price of coral, or the 
■want of knowledge in ttie use ot the apparatuSj we 
cannot tell ; but in the cases where we have supplied 
diving apparatns the owcers hava spoken of their 
great success in obtaining pure specimens in all 
colours, from the paie pink to the dark red, and in some 
oases black, and we believe they have not complained 
either in the commercial point of view. Amber is 
found iu the Baltic, on the coast of Prussia, in toler- 
able quantities, but as yet the use of the diving 
apparatus has not formed any imponant industry. We 
hope wli&u the attention ot practical men has been 
brought to this fishery, like those aiready mentioned, 
the diving npparatns wiil be the only means of obtain- 
ing this important resiuous exudation of an extinct 
genus of coniferous trees from the depths of the sea.* 
How TO Dive. 
Here are a few hints which Mr. Gorman gives to 
divers :-— With inexperienced men it is advisable to have 
a rope ladder down to the bottom, but an expert diver 
prettre simply a rope ; they must both be weighted at 
the bottom. Each diver while under water requires a 
eignalman to hold Ins life line and air-pipe, buth of 
v?iiich should be kept just taut, clear of the gunnel, so 
that any movement ot the diver may be felt. The diver 
should descend slowly, halting for a tew minutes after 
his head is under water, to satisfy bimselfthat every- 
thing is correct, and thtn continue the descent. If he 
feels oppressed or experienses any humming uoiso in 
Lis ears, he should rise a yard or two and swallow his 
saliva several times; he must not continue to descend 
unless he feels comfortable. If oppression, singing in 
the ears, or headache continue he must not persevere, 
but return slowly to the surface. To dive to great 
depths, such as 130 or 150 feet, requites men of great 
practice and able to sustain the consequent enormous 
pressure. On arriving at the bottom the diver will give 
one pull on the life-line to notify that he is " all right." 
In returning from great depths the diver should ascend 
vei-y slowly, and thus avoid the effects of passing too 
Bhruplly from considerable pressure to that of the optn 
air; if he stops now and then, he gels gradually and 
regularly accustomed to the change. The asceiit from 
the depth of fweotj fathoms should occupy ahoat five 
minutes. "It is more important to move slowly in 
rising than in descending." The divsr takes down witb 
him the ladder line, which he secures to the foot of the 
ladder or rope by which he has descended ; this line 
should be coiled up in his hand with a loop round 
his wrist, and as he leaves the ladder he lets the line 
gradually uncoil, so that if he be at any distance off 
he can find his way back to the ladder when he wants 
to return. If woiking in thick water, while at the 
bottom he should never let go the ladder line ; if by 
any accident he does so, and cannot find the latter, he 
must make the signal to be hauled up. — Pall Mall 
Budget, 
THE ART OF MANUEING COFFEE. 
To the Bditcr Madias Mail. 
Sir, — In your issue of the 9ch instant you have a 
long article on this subject by Mr. Pringle, iu which he 
gives the public gratia iuformatiou that; has cost us 
£5,000 sterling. In the first column, on page 5, he 
writes : — " The great question is, what is necessary, 
and how much ? To help in the settlement of this 
qastion, I submit the aggregate results of seme of my 
experiments, giving the weight of clean cotFcie yielded." 
Then follow the results. I think it right to warn your 
readers that these results are, by Mr. Pringle'a own 
oonfeasion, vidueless. He wrote Mesarf . Matheson & 
Co., in connection therewith, as follows :— " I am very 
sorry to say that the crop from the experimental plots 
is very disappointing," and in a letter to myself, ad- 
ded — " The plots were too small, and each one has 
affected its neighbour. I have compared the results in 
exery way, and it ia impossible to say what manure is 
best." Ho wrote mo again, on 3lst Murch last, " and 
* Amber is washed on to the shores of the Baltic iu 
considerable quantities after storms.— £iD, 2\ 
j though my experiments in regard to manures and leaf 
disease are incomplete, they have thrown considerable 
lighten the subjects, and the doij&yyJ results I have 
obtained may yet be turned to useful acooant." In fur- 
ther proof that the results are unreliable, I may men- 
tion thai the manured plots gave an average for 4 yaras 
of only cwt. 3 '20 per acrs, while the unmanured gave 
cwt. 3 05. The excess was, therefore, only cwt. 0'15 per 
acre, worth, on the trees, say R6, or about u suth of the 
cost of the manures and application necewary to 
produce it The self-evident conclusion is that 
manuring, except as a means of keeping the estates 
alive, is a mistake which carries absurdity on the 
face of it. His figurei" with regard to cattle and 
cattle manure, too, are fallacious and misleading. 
There is not a bandy and pair of bullocks in Coorg 
that costs K23-15-4 per mensem. If they did, the work 
they perform would be worth Bl-8-0 a day instead 
of a rupee, and they would work 26 days instead of 
24. The profit, therefore, instead of being 8 pie per 
month plus the manure, would be lil6 plus the manure. 
Mercara, 12th June. C. Metnell, 
Attorney for Matheson and Oo. 
II. 
Sir,— There is no doubt that planters like the 
farmers of old in England have a distrust of Aari- 
cultural Chemists. Two gen'slemeu now claim they 
can cure leaf-disease. It has long been known that 
any given coffee tree cau he cured and kept clear of 
leaf-disease by !.h6 use of sulphur and other agents. 
As far as a laboratory or garden experiment goes 
there is no great diiflculty in the matter. In fagj 
without the use ot any such agents, if the soil is 
made rich enough in the ingredients coffee loves 
(decayed vegetable matter beiug the chief) a coffee 
tree will practically defy leaf-disease— that is it will ; 
bear heavy and continuous crops aud not suffer from 
them. Wliat any man has to do who wishes to get 
planters to adopt his cure for leaf-disease is to show 
them a field of 10 or 20 acres in an estate which he 
has kept clear of disease for 3 years ; which has 
borne an average cop of at least 5 tons per acre 
for 3 years, and which sliows a marked superiority 
in appearaRce nnd yield to the fields adjoiuiug it 
Any man who can do that a^jd patents his 
process may be .sure of every planter adopting his 
process aud paying him a handsome royalty. No 
system which cannot do this at a moderate cost will 
ever be carried beyond a garden experiment. Now of 
the two gent^lemen who are offering their cures for 
our acceptance Mr. Vernede is I believe a planter 
and Mr. Pringle has been experimenting for 4 years on 
Messrs. Matheson and Oo.s' estates. Presumably these 
gentlemen have applied their cheap and infallible 
cures to at least one of the fields under their care 
Let them show us these fields and the records of 
their crops, and if they cau show they have made 
coffee averaging £Z per acre yield an average of £6 
per acre by keeping it clear of leaf-iiisease and borer 
the planter will be convinced, but nothing else xcill 
convince him. 
I should like to make a few remarks on the article 
on the art of manuring coffee as it rather illustrates 
why a planter distrusts an Agricultural Chemist 
Mr. Pringle gravely assures us that gram-fed cattle 
who do not work cannot be made to produce manure 
under R150 for ten tons of manure. I don't suppose 
nuy practical planter ever gives gram to cattle which 
do not work, but I can assure Mr. Pringle that a 
cattle manure which has excellent effects on coffee 
can be made in Wynaad and applied to the coffee at 
the rate of 15 to 22 tons an acre for R50 per acre- 
including every charge for tending cattle, cattle sheds 
a certain amount of feeding stuffs for the hot weather 
and medicines, carting and application, and that this 
is habitually done in the Wynaad over large acreages 
I have done as much as 100 acres a year for two or 
three years, and I know other places where it is done 
How Mr. Pringle gets his cost of application up to 
B3 per acre I don't know. If a cooly applies manure 
to 100 trees, that 13 3 per acre of 1,200 trees, ha 
could fork 70 trees, which would make a total of R704 
Another Rl for filling baskets and commission to the 
