THE TROPlOftL AQWttJOLTOWST. [March i, 1892. 
624 
MR. JOHN HUGHES ON " THE 
AGRICULTURAL VALUE OF SHODDY." 
When we first heard that a manure manfactured 
from old rags was to be applied on the well-known 
Mariawatte estate, we were under the impression 
that the use of such a manure as a fertilizer had 
been at that date comparatively, if not entirely, 
unknown to English agriculturists. Mr. Hughes 
had, as we were then told, noticed the effect of 
the application of old rags to the olive trees of 
Southern Italy ; and we had conceived that it was 
upon his attention being directed to the beneficial 
results of such manuring that he had entertained 
the idea of making essay with a manure of a 
similar nature to the tea estates of this island. 
We were subsequently informed, through a conver- 
sation had by our London correspondent, with Mr. 
Hughes, that a fertilizer of the character referred 
to was manufactured and used at home, but we had 
no idea that it had received such extended and 
lengthy application as we now learn from Mr. 
Hughes' letter to the Field it has bad. This 
application appears to have commenced some twenty 
years back ; and it is singular that, if it be 
possessed of the merit claimed for it by the Con- 
sulting Chemist to our Flanters' Association, it 
has not long before this been tried in (Jeylon. 
So far as we have learned, the results to the 
manure which has been applied on the Mariawatte 
estate have not yet been sufficiently developed for 
an opinion to be given as to the value it may 
poBsesB for our leading local industry. Mr, Hughes 
has, however, explained that one of the most 
valuable oharaoteristics of the manure is the 
slowness with which it yields up its constituents, 
and he has expressed the belief that in the course 
of time its relative value as compared with the 
other fertilsers our tea planters are in the 
habit of using will become manifest. If his 
opinion to this effect may be relied upon — and we 
know no expert in such matters upon whose views 
we should be inclined to place more reliance — 
the letter he has written upon the subject will be 
of great interest and value. Mr. Hughes applies 
the term " shoddy "—one of American origin, 
we believe, — to all kinds of woolen waste generally. 
This waste may be said to include the cuttings of 
the tailoring trade, old rags used by meohanics, 
and a countless number of other varieties pro- 
duced in different trades. The ingredients of such 
waste which appear, according to Mt. Hughes' letter, 
to be possessed of chief value as fertilisers are 
nitrogen and ammonia. Upon the quantity of these 
constituents in the manure depends its economic 
and financial value, and we see that samples which 
contain 8'85 per cent of ammonia are valued at 
£3 68 4d per ton, the quantities and value de- 
creasing through a series of twelve samples until 
the lowest stage is reached in which there was 
present but 3'13 per cent of ammonia v/ith a 
decreased value of £1 33 .5d per ton only. These 
figures show how imperative it must be, before 
reliance can be placed upon the manure purchased, 
that it should be subjected to close analysis and 
valuation by an expert. Mr. Hughes writes that 
it is owing to the variableness of the quality of 
this shoddy manure that its use in Kent, where 
its has been applied for many yearK past to the 
hop vines, has of late considerably fallen off. He 
refer? in his letter under nolioo to the experi- 
ment made on Mariawatte, writing as to this : — 
" Quite recently, in Ceylon, shoddy (manufaotujed 
into a fine powder by treatment with sulphuric 
acid) has been tried as a manure for the tea 
plantations : and for these, bearing in mind its 
riohneBB in organic nitrogen — it promises to prove 
an excellent fertilizer, if only it be properly 
applied and of good quality." We recollect that 
with reference to the sample applied on Mariawatte 
Mr. Hughes stated some time back to our London 
correspondent that unfortunately its shipment had 
been made without opportunity having been 
afiorded for his making analysis to satisfy himself 
as to this item of quality upon which he places 
so much stress. It is possible, therefore, that the 
at all events deferred success on that estate may 
have been due to some inferiority in manufacture ; 
and as two swallows do not make a summer we 
should be disinclined to accept an incomplete 
result to the sole trial it has received by our 
planters to denote that it has failed as a valuable 
fertilizer for tea. We are quite sure that Mr. 
Hughes would not accept such a conclusion ; 
and from all he has written on the subject it 
would seem to be certain that this shoddy manure 
might well receive a further trial on our tea 
estates, care being taken that the supply to be 
ordered should be subject to the result of analysis 
of samples taken after the stuff has been placed 
on board ship. We should much like to hear 
from the proprietors of Mariawatte what opinion 
they have now formed as to the result of the trial 
given by them to this manure. We have such 
confidence in Mr. Hughes' judgment, that we feel 
sure he would not have written so strongly as he 
has done in its favour unless he felt himself to be 
fully justified in doing so. 
PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
(From the StraiU Times, Jan. 13th ) 
In Java, there is hitherto bo Labour OrdinaDce to 
regulate the relations between planters and coolies 
though there are enactments of the kind in the out- 
lying possessions. The Home Goverument thinks that 
Buch laws are only required in those parts of Nether- 
lands India, where planters depend on imported 
labour. As planters in Java do not carry on business 
with labourers from foreign lands, there is, so it is 
held, no need to i-egulate by law the relstious between 
them and their coolies. Java planters find this hard 
as sometimes j .bourers recrnited from distant parts 
of the island desert, and the only remedy against the 
evil is an action at law lor the recovery of advances 
that happen to be made to them at the time of 
desertion. Of late years, planters in the thinly peopled 
districts of Java fiDdaD0th»r hindrance in their way 
arising out of difficulties in drawing labourers 
from populous trac's there, as they have to con- 
tend against foreign competition in the Java 
labour market. There are enactments going 
against the recruitment of Javanese for estate 
hbcur beyond the Dutch Indies, but applications 
for exemption fiom this prohibition generally meet 
with a fdvourable answer from Government. In this 
way large numbers of Javanese have latterly been 
recruited for labour in German New Guinea, the 
Malay Peninsula, the S'raits Settlements, Aus- 
tralia, and Dutch Guiar.a. In 1890, the Govern- 
ment was petitioned by the planting interest 
ill Java to pass a Labour Ordinance there and 
also to forbid the engagement of coolies in Java for 
labour abroad, so loug as their services are required 
in the Netherlands liulies, but the Government replied 
in the upgative. The planters have not given it up yet 
and keep bringing the subject before the public. To 
strPDgthen their position, they dwtiU upon the alleged 
fact that in Briliflh Norlli Borneo there are thousands 
of Javanese who have never got permission to emigrate, 
Kud that these coolies die there in hundreds. On 
behalf of the planters, it is also alleged that while, so 
muoh vjork is made to counteract slavery in Africa, a 
regular, though an underhand coolie slave market 
exists at Singapore. The latter assertion has been 
made on behalf of the Planters' Association at 
Sukabumie, which evidentlly seeks to lay particular 
stress on restricting ooplie emgration from Java. 
