February i, 1892.] THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURtST 
531 
the Report foreshadows changes which will mark an 
era in the industry. The Report is divided into four 
parts,— Introdnction, grrowth, and cultivation, general 
suet^estions and general remarks. 
To show the manner in which the subjects have 
been handled, we give the beads under which 
frrowth and cultivation ne dealt with : — " (a) 
Chemical composition and physical properties 
of the foil ; (b) chemical composition of the Tea- 
bu^h (woid and leaves); (c) chemical composition, 
and value of manures used; chemical composition, 
amount, and distribution of rain-fall." Bach of the 
Bnbjeots are snb-divided into sub-heads, and are oon- 
■cisely but clearly dealt with. We will content ourselves 
with two extracts ; Tbe first is from General Sn(7pes- 
tiona and lays down t^ie object of vianuring: — "The 
object of manurinfT is to return to the soil certain 
constituents of plant-food in which it is deficient, and 
which were either almost entirely absent from the 
soil in the first instanoe, or have been removed 
by continued cropping, or lost by drainage. Most 
soils contain nearly all the elements of the plant 
in abundance, with the exception of one or two of 
the more important constituents ard it is these which 
must be retarued or added to the soil to enable 
the plant to grow," The recond extract is also 
from the general suggestions under the head 
"Economy of Using Suitable Manures ": — " As men- 
tioned in a previous part of this paper, tea soils 
difirtr considerably in chemical composition, some being 
deficient in only one or two plant constituents, while 
others are poor in all ; consrqently, a general manure 
cmnot be economically appMed in every cise for in 
the first instance, where only one or two of the plant 
constituents are deficient, the application of these 
alone would be as beneficial aa the application of all, 
and at a much lower cost ; whereas, in the second 
esse, where the soil is poor in all, tho application of 
one or two only would have little or no effect, until 
the others, which are alfo deficient, have been supplied." 
The laws laid down here are not in themselves new, 
it is ouly that their application to Tea has apparently 
been lost sight of. At any rate, the replacing of the 
constituents of the soil used up by Tea in a scientific 
manner has not, we believe, been attempted prac- 
tically. Should the Committee not prosecute the re- 
searches further, they have already done enough to 
convince practical agrionlturists thut money would be 
well spent in obtaining a full analysis of "the soil of 
any portion of a Tea garden which it is proposed to 
manure, and in getting the advice of an expert on 
the kind and quantity of manure required. We hooe 
that the inquiry will be continued, and that light 
may be thrown on the chemical changes which take 
place in the toa leaf during tho process of manufacture. 
In these days of close competition, planters can no 
longer afford to continue manufacturing in igno- 
rance of the laws and ciuaos of the changes which 
Ro on under their eyes. It is curiou=i to think that 
where so much cipital and enterprise have been ex- 
ponded, the prepent is the first serious attempt to 
gain a scientific insight into the process of manu- 
facture. — Englishman. 
AGRICULTURAL WORK BY HORSE 
AND MARE POWER. 
A Lecture By Mk. J. H. B. Hallen. 
PooNA, Dec. 10th. 
Mr. .1. H. B Hallon, General Superintendent of 
TIorae-Broeding Operations in India, delivered a 
highly interesting lecture yesterday evening at the 
Albert Edward Institute, toona, on tho subject of 
'• Water- Li fling and Agricultural Work By Horse 
and Maro Power." Khan Bahadur Kazi Shahabudin, 
(M.F.., presided on the occasion, and there was a large 
attendance. BIr. llallon having been introduced to 
Iho audience by the cliairman proceeded wit.li liis 
locturo. Ho said:— In India biillock;i aro used for 
agricultural work, such as ploughing, harrowing, and 
raising water for irrigation purposes. They are 
found salisfaclry workers, but their pace is alo\Y — 
about one mile per hour in the plough and about 
two miles in carts on roads. The price of bullocks 
for agricultural work vary from E1.5 to 1150 each. 
For submerged and morass land buffaloes are better 
adapted. The price of a buffalo for such works is 
from R15 toR35each. Their pace at plough is about 
one mile or less per hour. The co«t of the keep o( 
a bullock or buffalo varies from R2i to R5 per men- 
sem. In England for many years past only horaea 
have been employed in ordinary farm work, as they 
a^e found ahle to do work at a faster pace, both ati 
plough and ordinary cart work, and thus economy of 
time and saving of money results. Moreover, the 
horse power employed is chiefly mare-power, as mares 
do all work quite as well as stallions and geldings. 
Mares are allowed to breed on the farm, so that the 
farmer has the benefit of selling the produce thus 
obtained, if Dot required in the farm, and the money 
realised by the sale of the young horse stock, bred and 
reared on the farm, contributes to paying the rent of 
the farm, and very often the greater portion of it. The 
period of gestation in a mare is about eleven mou hs, 
shecan boused at slow agricultural work up to within 
a fortnight before the time of foaling, and again twelve 
or fourteen days after foaling, so that a brood farm 
mare can work for eleven months in the year. And 
she is in better health for having work, slow work 
and thereby becomes the more sure foal- 
producer ; and her foal alwa:va is, as a rale, 
a stronger and more vsluable animal. As in 
Europe, it may be accepted that horses will be 
found likewise in India more satisfactory working 
animals on a farm. Horse do not cost moro for keep 
than bullocks, for it may be safely assumed that a 
horse or mare will do well on a iliet that will not 
cost more than what a well-fed bullock gets. Horse- 
power is used generally throuzhout India for draught 
as well as saddle work. We see horses doing excellent 
work in carriages, dak gharriei", tongas, ekkas, &e.. 
and it is acknowledged that they can work well in 
saddle and in drauaht even under the tropical sun of 
India. It therefore seems strange tbat horses have 
not been used for agricultural purposes. Granted 
that fh« pace of a bullock is perhaps better adapted 
for the physical power of a native plooghman. but 
tho latter has been found quite equal to working a 
plough with horses if given better wages and thereby 
having better food. A few yenrs ago when at the 
Remount Farm at Hosur, near Bangalore, I found 
that horses were always used for ploughing and 
other agricultural work in the farm, and I had the 
opportunity of seeing that they did their work in a 
moni satisfacforv manner. Shortly afterwards I 
had the chance of employing horse-power on the 
Government Farm in charge of the Horse-Breeding 
Department at Babugarb, near Meerut. Up to the 
time of my receiving charge of that farm bullock- 
power only had been used for the farm work. I 
sugcrested to Government that the bullocks should be 
disposed of and horse-power employed, and in order to 
prevent unnecespary expenditure in purchasing horses 
I asked that fifty pony mares, of a large number 
belonging to the Transport Department and no longer 
required at the expiration of the last Afghan Campaign, 
might be handed over to me to carry out the farm 
work. Sanction was accorded, and fifty pony mares 
arrived at the Depot Farm. These were animals of a 
very ordinary class, from 1-3 to 13'2 in height, probably 
worth in the market from E25 to 50 each, and most of 
them had never been employed for brood purposes. 
The pony mares were soon broken into plough and 
harrow. The harness employed on the pair when at 
plough was similar to ordinary tonga harness, made 
in the bazaar by ordinary tnoochies at a cost of 
from li3:^- to llir; for the pair. With this harness 
the ponios pulled" from their back — the best style of 
drought. The harness was found to answer, and by 
offering prizes for the best ploughing with the pony 
mares I was gratified to find that in three months' 
time eeveral ploughmen able to do in a day with a pair 
of ponies ranch nore than could be done by a pair of 
bullocks, and after a year or two the men wore able 
to do half as much more ploughing in a day than 
