864 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1891 
and siill more as utterly inadequate to accoum 
for rainfall on the level ground forty miles in 
advance of them. , 
A more scientific theory has been propounclea 
lately to the effect that the hills cool the _ air by 
their elevation. As the monsoon breeze with it^ 
moisture-laden air advances towards the^ ni i 
has to rise to get over tberrii ana in rinsing 
mere is less pressure of air above it, and so 
it expands and the heat in it expands ala., 
and becomes less intense, and so the _ air 
and its contained moisture gets cooler, and rain is 
the result. .. 
That this theory is true and the process ins- 
cribed goes on, there seems no question. But that 
does not aSord by any means a safcisEactoiy solution 
of the phenomena of rainfall. If ihat were the oiuy 
cause or even the chief cause in operation, what 
we would have would be a continuous drizzle on 
the hills while the monsoon lasted. What we have, 
however, is showers — heavy showers — lasting generally 
for half-an-hour to two hours, while the rest of 
the 24 hours is dry. 
Of course there are periods of constant rain on 
the hills at the burst of the monsoon, but not all 
through; so that the heavy showers are not accounted 
for by that theory and the showers on the sea-level 
are not even considered in it. 
To account for the frequent phenomenon of a 
heavy downpour in the lowcountry alter a very 
hot day, something that is very partial in its action 
and also very powerful has to be considered. No 
cooling of air and moisture by the ordinary pro- 
cesees of conduction and radiation is sufficien .. 
The cooling is effected by some agent acting above 
and not from below as the cold wind that precedes 
the shower proves. 
Every such shower when seen from without snows 
a radiated texture, dark and light streaks either 
perpendicular or inclined invariably appearing, giv- 
ing the impression of the shower phenomenon being 
akin to the borealis or streamers which are supposed 
to be of an electric nature. 
Should we not find the chief cause of showers 
in connection with electric action, the thunder 
storms point to that. 
It appQars from the books on electrioity that uncisr 
eertains conditions heat is transformed into electricity 
and vice versa. 
Are we not justified in comina to the conclusion 
that somehow under the aotir he hills, the 
heat of the atmospl.ere passes ^^dly_ from the 
state of heat into that of electricity and so is conveyed 
away rapidly leaving the air and its moisture cooled 
to come down in the form of shower. 
Is it not worth investigating how the hills effect 
this, and whether (uiij other means could be used 
for effecting the same eii i ? 
Would not the Ir.igation Board best serve its 
purpose by petting out a thorough Meteorological 
Electrician, or somebody of that sort, and setting 
him to study the cause of showers and how to 
produce them. . 
And then get the necessary apparatus put in 
order so that a district coubi be watered, and the 
tanks filled wh' n re.juired. 
It only the way to tn]i the clouds could be dis- 
overtd it would bo bdter than Artesian wells or 
long watercourses.— Yours truly. 
EXI'EIUMENTALIST. 
LIBERIAN COFFEE IN TUE STRAITS. 
Government Plantations, Perak, Straits Settle- 
ments, April 30th. 
Sir.,— Enclosed I beg to hand you a paper thow- 
ing what is being done in Liberian coffee in the 
native States. 
The figures are Mr. Hill’s, an old Ceylon 
Planter, and speak for themselves, and I should 
feel obliged if you could publish them as they 
will interest most of your planting readers. 
Mr. Hill has a fine estate in this State (Perak), 
not yet in bearing, which I have seen. 1 was greatly 
pleased with the fine growth and healthy ap- 
paaranoe of the trees which give great promise of 
crops to come. 
Coffee Arabica is also being very successfully grown 
here, and I am trying to obtain stalistics of that 
also. 
I shall be glad to give any infemation in my 
power as to land, labour, &c., to my old friends 
in Ceylon. — I have the honor to be, sir, your 
obedient servant, 
OLIVER MARKS. 
Supt., Govt. Plantations, Perak, 
Kwala Kangsa, April 30th 189L 
[We have already published Mr. Hill’s figures 
and commented on them, — E d. T. A.] 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND A 
LOCAL NEWSPAPER 
Sib, — Not being a subscriber to the local 
“ Times ” I had not the pleasure of reading its 
remarks on “Salt in Coconut Cultivation,’’ till I 
saw them reproduced in the Indian Agriculturist. 
It is generally admitted that though common 
salt supplies no essential ingredients of plant 
food itself, its action in the soil in many ways 
makes it a chemical medium that should be easily 
available to, and readily taken advantage of by, 
all agriculturists. 
Common salt is by far the most abundant of 
the salts dissolved in seawater in which it exists 
to the extent of nearly 3 per cent — magnesium 
calcide, calcium sulphate and carbonate, and a 
host of other compounds (the difficulty is to find 
what the sea does not contain, f considering that it 
is the receptacle of all the soluble and insoluble 
substances carried away by terrestrial waters) being 
present in a much smaller extent. But the subject 
that has been written on till it has become almost 
a nauseant, is not the effect of seawater but 
of salt on vegetation, and though salt as 
produced in our salt districts cannot by any 
means be said to be pure, still, when the 
effects of salt on vegetation is discussed, 
it is the sodium chloride and not the 
impurity mixed with it that is considered. If, 
however, there be, as the “ Times ’’ suspects, a 
sufficient amount of impurity of value as plant food 
(some phosphate or nitrate?) to produce an ap- 
preciable eSfot on the fertility of the land, in spite 
of the amount being infinitesimal in sea water, 
rather than sterilize our lands by pickling them 
in salt with the object of getting at its im- 
purity (there is no need to burn down a house to get 
a roast pig 1), the “ Times ’’ suggests that we should 
make an eff irt to identify our modest benefactor 
— and with this end in view to begin by analysing, 
the hot springs of fertile Bibile — and having identi- 
fied him, proce d to “extract’’ him from the sea 
SU' h process, in the opinion of the “ Times,’’ might 
introduce to us some substance “not actually sodium" 
(a metal which, by the way, will be found to be 
rtthor a dangerous manurial acquaintance) to be 
used as a fertilizer. 
* As onr oorreepondent is aware, it oontains eilveJ 
in such appreciable quantity, that the extraction of 
that metal fnm it by a cheap process, is one of 
the problems which advancing science is likely to 
solve.— Ed, T. A. 
