942 
THE tROPlOAL AQRICULtURlSt. 
[June t, 1892. 
According to my new analyses of sun-dried cow- 
dung cakes every ton of these bratties contained 
in round numbers the following quantities of the 
important plant food oonstituents. 
Lime .. .. ■ .. 43 lb. 
Nitrogen ., . . 33 „ 
Potash .. .. .. U „ 
Fhosphuric eoid . . . . 12 ,, 
102 „ 
Whfln such a manure is burned aa fuel the 
nitrogen which originally in the manure existed as 
organic matter becomes converted into gaseous 
products which are either directly absorbed by the 
growing plants or crops in the neighbourhood Or 
are carried down by the rain into the soil and re- 
tained for subsequent use as plant food. 
The loss, therefore, of nitrogen by the use of cattle 
manure for fuel purposes is byro means as completo 
as is generally supposed to be the case. 
While the whole of the mineral salts incluaing 
the valuable lime potash and phosphoric acid are 
retained in the ashes which under proper sanita'y 
arrangements ought to be carted out oq to the land 
together with the usual house refuse and vegetable 
rubbish always associated with domestic dweihngs. 
It should be remembered that about 80 per cent 
of the atmosphere consists of free nitrogen, and 
that according to the most recent scientific reseiroii 
leguminous plants such as clover, peas, beans, &c., 
have the property of absorbing nitrcgen from the 
air and so yield large crops of valuable food, as 
#ell as by virtue of increasfd root developement 
increasing the nitrogen in the soil, so that not only 
a good crop has been obtained but the soil is 
BOtually enriched and better able to prociuee other 
drops of a different eharaster. Id a smaller degree, 
most crops may be expected to absorb nitrogen 
from the air, to that in tropical climates it may be 
found that nitrogen is of all the important plant 
foods the one which can be most easily obtained 
by natural means, and if so its artitioial supply in 
the form of manure may be diepeneed with the 
least loss. 
Certainly the custom so general in India of 
burning the stubbles after harvest and so destroying 
the straw left on the fields would teed to confirm 
the view that nitrogen in the form of organic mat- 
ter is not BO much required by the soil of the country 
ae might have been supposed, bearing in mind too 
the well-known mechanical advantages of farmyard 
manure ; also its moisture holding proptrties which 
in a hot country would strike most observers as 
of special value. 
Again the fact that some 40 to 50 thousand 
tons of bones and bonemeal are being now 
annually exported to Europe, stiil further proves 
that there cannot be any great demand of really 
firet-olasa fertilizers in India. Indeed a country 
which has produced year by year crops of corn, 
rice and gram for centuries without suffering any 
appreciable loss of fertility in the soil can probably 
afford to go on for centuries in the eame manner. At 
the same time there should be judicious improve- 
ments of existing customs and practices, as it would 
be most unreasonable to maintain that no improve- 
ments were necessary in order to provide for the 
vast and rapidly increasing population. 
In the past periodical famines prevented any 
undue increase of population, but with the exten- 
sion of railways and improved transit, the starving 
people can bo readily reached with supplies of rice, 
EO that aided by thoughtful and fn<rgetio adminis- 
tration famines will not prove the terrible scourge 
they did in former times when thousands died in 
certain parts of that vast continent, while in other 
jparte there waB an abundant plenty. 
In the discussion which followed the reading of 
the paper Professor Wallace supported the present 
practice of burning cattle manure chiefly on the 
ground of the necessity of the case, pointing out 
that until wood or coal was provided by the 
authorities the poor natives were not to blame. 
For myself I am always inclined to believe that 
local customs are usually the result of sound and 
long established experience, and in the foregoing 
remarks I have ventured to put forth my views in 
Eupport of the present custom by way of explana- 
tion rather than of any new principle or theory. 
JOHN HUGHES. 
[There is this qualification. The practice of 
burning cow manure as fuel is defensible because 
there is no wood. But why is there no wood ? 
Because the people keep the all-devouring animals, 
goats. These beasts are amongst the most formi- 
dable enemies of forestry in Ind'a.-~ED- T. AA 
~ •• - - J 
The Madras Agri-Horticultural Society : 
—The Madras Mail of 14lh M y - :— 
The Committee of the Agri- Horticultural Society 
of Madras recently brought to the notice of the 
Madras Government that for a period of 35 years, 
or from 1854 to 1889, seeds to the value of E4,0(X> 
annually were, by order of Government, purchased 
from the Society by regiments serving in this Presi- 
dency, but that since 1889, in accordance with an 
order of Government all indents have been made on 
the Government Botanical Gardens at Gotacamund. 
The result of this has been a serious loss to the 
Society, which was established in 1835 for the pro- 
motion of agriculture and the encouragement of 
improvements in agriculture generally. The Society 
claims to be the only body in the Presidency which 
the Government can consult and seek assistance from 
in introducing new plants or improving those indi- 
genous to the country. Such advice was, it is urged, 
often asked and always cordially given. The Society 
has also for many years supplied seeds to and prizes 
for the products of soldiers' gardens, and aided the 
Government in the introduction of Mauritius sugar- 
cane, which now grows in all the sugar-growing 
Districts in this Presidency ; and it established a 
nursery for raising and distributing species of timber 
trees, foreign or peculiar to other parts of India. 
During the American War the Society tested every 
procurable species of cotton, and furnished much 
valuable information to Government as to the com- 
mercial value of the fibre of each and its suitability 
for the climate of Southern India. The Society has also 
been of great service in the teaching of botany in the 
Government MedicalCollege,thePresidency College and 
the Agr ionlturai Oo lege at Saidapct. Sp' cimens of 
p'ant'f are supplifd gratuitously for the Lecture Eooma 
of the Professors, and the pnpils regularly visit the 
Society's Gardei s to receive practical lectures on the 
plants growing theie. The Society was the first body 
in India to institute a scientific inquiry into the 
natural history of coffee borer ^nd to seek to obtain 
some remedy for its terrib'e ravsgf s which have caused 
such loPS to the planter. Further Dr. Bidie, the then 
Ilotiorary Secretary of the Secieiy, was selected by 
tho Madri'S Government to carry out the ecquiry into 
the raVHges committed by the insect and suggest a 
remedy therefor. His rep-^rt was published by the 
Madras Government and Dr. Bidie was thanked for 
the manner in which he had con 'ucted the ei quiry. 
Considering, therefore, the great and valuable services 
rendered by the Society to the Presidency generally, 
and the fact that without the Government subsidy, 
according to the Committee, the Society cannot exist, 
the Committee requested the Madias Government to 
order that the privilege of providing seeds for soldiers' 
gardt ns should be again restored to the Society. We 
hear now that Government has declined to sanction 
any alteration in the existing procedure under which 
seeds for soldiers' gardens are now supplied, as the 
present arrangement was sanctioned by the Govern- 
ment of India after mature consideration, and in view 
to assimilate the practice with that obtaining in Bengal 
and Bombay, 
