1-1 E 
ONTHLY. 
Vol. XI. 
COLOMBO, NOVEMBER 2Nd, 1891. 
[No 5. 
THE QUALITIES AND COST OF THE 
LEADING FERTILIZERS EMPLOYED IN 
COFFEE CULTURE 
jEE exhauBtively dealt with in 
Mr. Priugle's letter which we 
publish below. Of course the 
main principles which apply 
to coffee culture, apply equal, 
ly to the tea enterprise ; and 
as but few estates in Ceylon 
oan afford to provide cattle manure on a 
large scale, planters will do well to give full 
consideration to the arguments, founded on 
the enhancement of original price by cost 
of carriage in favour of taking every pre- 
caution to secure artificial manures o£ the 
very best quality: those in which phosphates 
and ammonia are most concentrated. It is in- 
teresting to learn which are the best of the 
mineral (fossil) phosphates of Europe or America, 
but with so fruitful a source of fresh bones next 
door to us in India, our business is to see that 
we obtain the best of these. So with castor oil 
cake ; while, if we use fish, we nre bound to see 
that it contains a minimum of the substance 
with which some grocers are said to mix their sugar. 
Large dealers in fertilizers to whom appreciable 
orders are sent, cannot object to bear the cost of 
analyses of the substances they sell, so that the 
buyers may have a guarantee of the real value of 
the articles they purchase, with the prospecb in 
most cases of considerable cost of (jarriage by rail 
oarts and on coolies' heads ; all o£ which are as 
heavy for inert as for active matter. 
Cofiee is of some considerable interest 
Btill in Ceylon, and the enterprise may some 
day revive. Meantime, Ceylon planters will, 
if giiided by their own experience olone, feel 
Burprise it not scepticism, at the effects attributed 
to manures in " backing up " trees badly affected 
by leaf disoase. What happened here, when the 
disease became virulent was that manuring merely 
enabled an nlfected tree to put on a fresh coat 
of leaves for the laanns to suck the life blood 
out of. But there was a second enemy which 
was fed, especiully by o;ittlc manure, and that 
was the deadly rooHot-dovouring whito grub. 
While much is said in these South of India letters 
of the ravages of the stem borer (a very minor 
and rare evil in Ceylon) there is not a word said 
about THE pest which in our case sapped the life 
of the tree at its root, while the fungus destroyed 
crop after crop of foliage, in the elaboration of which 
the unfortunate coffee bush exhausted its energies. 
Happily, tea seems exempt from both of these 
deadly plagues, and as yet no other of much conse- 
quence has visited our staple. But as the estates 
advance in age, more or less exhaustion of the 
nutritious elements of the soil will be inevitable. 
The loss must be supplied, mainly with artificial 
manures ; and tbe information supplied by Mr. 
Pringle must be of value to the planter, in 
his efforts at effective but eoonomicBl manuring 
VALUE AND VALUATION OF MANURES: 
PART II. 
By William Pbingle, m. s. c.i., 
agbicultural chemist to messrs. mathiison & co. 
( Under special arrangement for puhlication in the 
" Ceylon Observer " and " Iropical Agriculturist.") 
Uonea as mentioned in Part I have Phosphates i. e. 
Tricaloic phosphate varying from 39 40 per cent up to 
57 08 per cent and Ammonia from ,3'01 per cent up 
to 5-23, taking the coat of staudard quality bones on 
the coast say R60, then the value of the samples 
would be as follows : — 
Standard. Highest. Lowest. 
48 per ct. 57-08 per ot. 39.40 per ot. 
4 „ 5'23 „ 3-01 „ 
Phosphates 
Ammonia 
Phos- 
phates atEf 
Ammonia at K6 
36 
24 
43-81 
31'38 
29 55 
1806 
Total value H60 75-19 47-1 
The buyer pays 1^60 fvir an article that may only 
be worth K47 61 or it may he worth 117519 ; there 
is a money value of K.27 58 between the highest and 
the lowest. 
Supposing that 4 owt. of standard quality bones are 
to be used and the poorest quality are supplied it 
will he cccessary to use 4 owt. 3 quarters and 
13 lb. nearly 5 cwt, to make tbe quantity of phos- 
phates equal; while with Ammonia to make it up to 
the standard 5 cwt. 1 quarter and 91b. would be 
needed : so that to make No. 3 equal to the standard 
it would he advisable to add 30il). of 6 per cent oil 
cake to tho 4 cwt. 3 quarter and 13 lb. of bonesSrd 
quality to bring it up to the equivalent of the standard. 
With the higheat quality the whole is reversed. 
Kaughly speaking, suppose the phosphate value to be 
eet against tho Ammonia, the proportion required 
would he highest; 3?,: cwt. Btimdard 4 owt. and lowest 
5 cwt. that is to get the money equivalent on the 
