530 
Supplement to the ''Tropical Agricultumt. 
[January i, 1891. 
impressed on their minds, tliey should not mind 
the attempts of a few ill-willed critics who delight 
in ob8tracti^'e work, to discourage them. 
The School of Agriculture has for one thing, 
as stated by the new Director of Public Instruction, 
fostered an intelligent pride in good honest work 
and a sense of its dignity, and its almnni axe 
setting an admirable e.\ample to the st>idents 
of the coming Technical Institute, the expected 
benefits of which arc thus well summed u]) : — “The 
systematising of the instruction and training of 
our craftsmen, exteiuling already existing indus- 
tries, creating new ones, assisting the develop- 
ment and bringing about a more economic 
utilization of the resources of our country.” 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
His Excellency Sir Arthur Havelock, who .since 
his arrival has been going through most of the 
public institutions in Colombo, paid what may 
be said to be a surprise visit to the School of 
Agriculture on Monday the November. He 
■was accompanied by Mr. (Jerald Browne, p.s. and 
Mr. H. W. Green, late Directorof Public Instruction 
— Mr. Cull, the present Director, being absent on 
inpection duty in the Southern Province. His 
Excellency spent a good while in looking OA er 
the chemical laboratory, imspecting the newly- 
started dairy, and walking over the grounds, 
part of which was occiqiied at the time with 
paddy, Indian corn, sugarcane, arrowroot, 
turmeric, three or four varieties of cultivated 
grasses, native yams, beans and other vegetable.s. 
Some ploughing was also done with the impro\ ed 
“ Cingalee” X'lough before His Excellency by one 
of the students. Before leaving Sir Arthur 
expressed himself “ much interested in this use- 
ful institution.” 
On Tuesday morning, the 11th November, j\fr. 
S. Davie.s, travelling agent to an American firm 
of implement maker.*, accompanied by Mr. IV. 
H. Davies of Colombo, visited the school with the 
object of demonstrating the use of some new 
agricultural impalements. A trial was first made 
of two hand implements known :is the “ Planet 
Jr.,” double-wheel and single-wheel hoes. These 
were so constructed as to be furnished with 
various attachments for ploughing, moulding, 
drilling, harrowing, cultivating, raking and 
skimming. These litt le machines are as ijerfect 
implements as could be wished for, and did their 
work most admii’ably. The “Planet Jr.' double- 
•wheel hoe, which is furnished with two wheels, 
and weighs 40 lbs. is priced at £3-“ .sterling, 
while the “Planet Jr.” single-wheid hoe, 
furnished with a single wlmel and weighing 2G Ih 
costs .£1-11-0 sterling. They are well adaj)ted 
for all crops sown in rows, and would 
save an infinite amount of tinu' and labour in the 
cultivation of such cropis as Indian corn, arrow- 
root, sugar-cane, as w(dl as in vegetable garden 
cultivation. A trial was also made with a horse 
hoc ('attaclnal to t wo buffaloes) which could also 
be fitted for ploughing, cultivating, &c. This 
imjilement weighs fid 11) ami cost £2-1 d sterling, 
and is, we learn, la-ing much used in tobacco and 
sugarcane cultivation. ,\(r. l)a\ies had just 
relumed from India, where lie iutroducc<l tlic 
new implements, which he assured us were har- 
ing a very rapiid sale. 
Mr. A. E. Cbltton claims to have discovered 
in the Lathyrus Silcestrh “the fodder plant which 
successfully resists not only the most severe 
droughts, but also frosts, and deriving its mois- 
ture, carbonic acid and ammonia from the air, 
and air alone, grows luxuriantly, perennially 
producing enonnous quantities of the finest 
pos.sible fodder ; the ijlant which in course of 
years will cover throughout the world the vast 
areas of arid, uncultivated, and at jiresent mostly 
uncultivated land, supplying abundance of the 
most nutritious fodder to countless millions of 
horses, cattle, and sheep; the plant which will 
promote the permanent jirosperity and progress 
of stock-farming and agriculture to a certain 
degree unknown before ; the plant which will in 
due course form the greatest source of national 
■wealth to every land.” 
In the North British Arjriculturist of Nov ember 
19th, Sir John Lawe.s, “ the Isaac Newton of 
Agricultural Science,” contributes an article on 
Nitrate of Soda. Dr. Lawes dis.sents from the 
view which many Chemists are inclined to take 
that the nitrogen of the ibot-cropjs is obtained 
by the plants from the atmosphere. His own 
expieriment.s point to a very different conclusion, 
and he maintains that where root-crops can do 
without nitrogen if only suiijilied with phos- 
jihates, the soils are in a high state of fertility 
and contain a sufficient amount of nitric acid for 
the use of the crop. The result of a verv" long 
series of exxieriments account for two facts : One 
is, that a given weight of nitrate of .soda yields 
a much larger increase of roots than the" same 
weight of nitrogen in .suljihate of ammonia; the 
other is, that whereas it is necessarj^ to apply 
Xiotash in addition to iihosphates when we use 
salts of ammonia, there is no such necessity wdien 
we apply nitrate of soda. Dr. Lawes finds it 
difficult to explain why the nitrate is independent 
of any addition of jiotash, as soda is not found in 
the rijie seed, however abundant it may be in 
the growing }:)lant, and it is therefore tolerably 
evident that it cannot take the jilace of potash 
in some of its more important functions. Even 
in the potato there is no .soda. Although nitrate 
has a marked influence uxion pastures, cereals, 
and roots, its action is most uncertain upon 
leguminous erojis ; it should not, therefore, be 
employed for them. Dr. Lawes unmannred four 
course rotation, commenced in 1848 showed that 
the Swedes which gave the largest crop the first 
year gradually diminished in yield, till now 
though these are good plants they form no bulbs 
at all. The unmanured wheat and bai-ley, on the 
contrary, have all through this period produced 
faii-ly good crops, averaging 30 bushels of barley 
and 28 of wheat, and consequently taking uj) large 
quantities of jihosjihates from the soil. The 
nece.ssity for suiijilying jihosiihate of lime to tur- 
nip.s, concludes Dr. Lawe.s, is not because the 
soil does not contain it, but because the plant 
cannot take it from the soil. Soils manured with 
nitrate of soda should be kejit specially free from 
weeds owingjto the great avidity which they 
have for this manure. Of course as the weeds 
decay, the nitrogen in the form of nitric acid 
