Dec.  2,  1895.] 
THE  TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
41 1 
CEYLON  SOILS  y\N7)  .MANI  KES. 
In  tlu?  ye<ii’  LS77,  iiii<l('r  ixn  iinanyoiuent  witli 
Mm  C’eyloii  J'lanters’ Association,  Mr.  .Jolin  Hughes, 
F.C..S.,'  tlio  Analytical  Chemist  visited  Ceylon,  and 
after  touring  througli  all  the  most  important  dis- 
tricts, undertook  the  work — lasting  over  three 
months  in  t.'olomho — of  aualj’sing  the  country’s 
soils  and  tiie  more  usual  manures,  the  permanent 
outcome  of  winch  labours  was  a goo<lly  little  guide- 
book of  150  pages.*  ^Ve  lri\'e  recently  been  looking 
over  this  book,  and  we  find  that  altliough  it  was 
writteninlheintei'c.sts  of  cofl’ce  beforethe  era  oi  te.a. 
it  must,  in  the  nature  of  thiug.s.  be  ijuite  as  valu- 
able for  tlie  tea  iilauter  as  it  was  for  the  coll'ee 
planter.  Nut  tliat  we  e\er  heard  of  any  sus- 
tained interest  following  its  pufilication  in 
coflee  days:  but  that  was  not  Hie  fault  of  Hie 
book,  but  rather  of  the  despair  and  losses  which 
leaf  disease  causeil  to  develop  and  fall  upon  all 
so  rapidly  after  that  date,  everywhere  in  Ceylon. 
1)Ut  now  times  are  changed.  In  )ilace  of  advanc- 
ing despair,  we  have  the  strong  forward  march 
of  ju'osjicrity  ami  conlidence;  in  ]ilace  of  a decay- 
ing staple  over  a limited  area,  we  have  a paying 
product  spreailing  over  an  unlimited  area  of  pro- 
duction, w hich  cannot  be  all  alike  rich  and  fer- 
tile. It,  therefore,  seems  to  us  that  this  book 
by  Mr.  IIufiiiK.s  ON  Soils  and  Manures  will  be 
foimil  to  be  more  valuable  to  the  tea  planter 
than,  under  adverse  circumstances,  it  ever  pro\ed 
to  be  to  the  coflee,  planter.  Lor  it  treats  not 
only  of  the  .soils  of  many  districts  and  well- 
known  estates,  but  of  the  manurial  values  of 
all  the  available  lertilizers  ordinarily  used 
Such,  for  instance,  as  castor  cakes,  and  other 
miscellaneous  cakes,  linseed,  coconut,  cotton-seed, 
bones,  fish  and  conpiost.  It  teaches  the  use  of 
lime  and  instructs  all  al.unit  limestone,  calcareous 
sand,  granitic  limestone,  gas  lime,  wood  ashes 
and  cattle  manure  and  pigs  and  oxen,  and  how 
to  feed  them. 
The  fact  that  tea  nourishes  wdierever  collee 
grew,  as  well  as  in  places  where  coffee  would  not 
grow',  is  sullicient  ])roof  that  all  that  was  gooil 
for  coffee  must  bo  gooil  for  tea,  and  any  tea 
jdanter  of  a yiracLical  turn  desiring  a trust- 
worthy guide  in  scientific  cultivation  cannot, 
we  think,  alford  to  be  without  a copy  of  this 
iiu])ortant  little  work  (along  with  Mr.  Coch- 
ran’s Manual)  bearing  exclusively  as  it  does 
upon  Ceylon  estates,  soil,  and  climates. 
In  his  general  remarks  Mr.  Hughes  says : — 
“ Bones,  cake,  and  superior  kinds  of  fish-manure 
are  the  materials  which  are  best  calculated  to 
be  economically  used  as  fertilizers  ; also  com- 
posts whenever  the  estates  are  sulliciently  near  a 
railway  to  allow  of  the  application  at  a moderate 
cost.”  This  broad  rule  applies  e([ually  to  tea; 
for  the  cost  of  carriage  to  the  estate,  and  distii- 
bution  over  the  fields  of  the  estate,  must  ever 
be  the  iir.st  items  to  consider  after  the  cost  of  the 
article  itself.  How  to  discriminate  in  the  selec 
tion  of  suitable  fertilizers  is  a very  iinjiortant 
})art  of  a planter’s  duty  Doubtless  cattle,  stable 
and  line  inanurcs  will  still  be  the  planters’  best 
friends,  but  on  a large  estate  they  go  such  a little 
w'ay  that  other  fertilizers  must  be  thought  of, 
and  no  better  guide  in  their  selection  than  Mr. 
Hughes’  book— supplemented  by  Mr.  Cochran’s 
Manual — can  be  got.  We  may  add  a <-ouple  of 
)>assages  illustrating  the  usefulness  of  Mr.  Hughes’ 
* Special  Eeport  to  the  Ceylon  Planters'  Associa- 
tion by  John  Hughes,  r.c.s..  Fellow  of  the  Institute 
of  Chemistry  of  Great  Britain  aud  Ireland — to  be 
got  at  “Observer”  Office  book-store,  price  v.p.p.  RP50 
post  free. 
little  book'.  On  the  use  of  “ Lime,”  which  in 
st)uie  Incalities  i.s  a\-ailable  for  jilantations  and 
which  can  always  be  obtained  on  i-ailway  trucks 
from  the  sea-siife  as  burnt  coral,  Mr.  Hughes 
writes  on  page  30  : — 
The  Use  of  Lijie. — During  my  tour,  I was  very 
much  astonished  at  the  small  value  apparently  attached 
to  the  use  of  burnt  lime,  prepared  either  from  coral 
or  from  some  of  the  numoi'ous  local  deposits  of 
magnesian  limestone,  which  very  fortunately  occur  in 
irregular  masses  interspersed  among  the  prevailing 
granite  formations  of  the  Island.  At  home  the  value 
of  lime  upon  all  arable  soils  is  so  fully  recognised 
by  practical  agriculturists  that  it  would  he  unneces- 
sary to  entoi'  at  any  length  into  a discussion  of  its 
merits.  At  the  request  of  the  Planters'  Association  I 
addressed  a short  note  u])on  the  use  of  lime  in  some 
form  as  a desirable  manure  for  coffee,  and  I have 
reason  to  believe  that  it  will  in  future  be  much  more 
e.xtensively  employed. 
Lime  is  a necessary  constitueni  of  all  permanently 
fertile  soils,  for  it  is  a requisite  element  of  the  ashes 
of  plants.  It  assists  in  rendering  both  the  organic  and 
inorganic  portions  of  soils  available  as  plant  food.  On 
all  flat  land  rich  in  organic  vegetable  remains,  lime 
will  be  found  especially  valuable  for  improving  the 
phvsical  as  well  as  the  chemical  condition  of  the  soil. 
Sir  Samuel  Baker  in  his  book  (“  The  Rifle’ and  Hound 
in  Ceylon  ”)  mentions  in  reference  to  Kuwera  Eliya, 
that  “ an  absence  of  lime  in  the  soil,  and  the  cost  of 
applying  it  artificial!)'  prohibit  the  cultivation  of  all 
grain,  and  restrict  the  produce  of  the  land  to  potatoes 
and  other  vegetables.”  The  analyses  of  upwards  of 
uO  samples  of  Ceylon  coffee  soils  drawn  from  different 
estates,  would  incline  me  to  think  that  the  great 
huntsman  need  not  have  limited  his  remarks  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  Nuwera  Eliya,  when  speaking  of  the 
poverty  of  the  soil  as  regards  lime. 
The  difficulty  of  applying  lime  artificially  is  one 
which  is  fast  disappearing  under  the  annual  extension 
and  improvement  in  the  means  of  transit ; good  roads, 
railway  extension,  and  plentiful  labour  supply,  will 
soon  enable  the  planter  to  obtain  bimit  lime  at  a 
moderate  cost,  say  Is.  per  bushel,  delivered  on 
the  estate. 
I am  told  that  ordinary  burnt  lime  applied  at  low 
elevations  (by  which  I assume  airything  under  2,000 
feet)  has  been  found  too  stimulating.  This  fact  should 
rather  be  taken  as  a positive  proof  of  its  quickening 
efficacy  at  once  indicating  the  powerful  action  upon 
the  previously  dormant  qualities  of  the  soil.  With 
the  alternations  of  heavy  rainfall,  followed  by  tropical 
heat,  the  effect  of  burnt  lime,  naturally  is  very 
pow'orful,  so  that  caution  must  be  used,  and  a far 
smaller  dose  applied  than  would  be  considered  sufficient 
according  to  English  modes  of  application. 
Also  on  “Cattle  Manure,”  the  other  nearly 
universal  fertilizer,  albeit  not  alway.s  in  suffici- 
ent quantity  IMr.  Hughes  on  page  90  has  the 
following  : — 
C.VTTLE  Maxuke.— It  is  quite  unnecessary  if  not 
superfluous  to  say  anything  in  favour  of  this  manure, 
its  merits  as  a general  fertiliser  for  all  crops  has  been 
long  since  determined,  but  there  are  one  or  two  points 
connected  with  its  production  aud  subsequent  use, 
upon  which  a few  remarks  may  be  made.  Ferguson’s 
Directoi-y,  1878,  contains  a very  able  article  upon 
“The  true  way  to  keep  Cattle  for  Food  aud  for 
Manure.”  The  W’riter,  who  is  evidently  an  experienced 
planter,  states  that  “Ceylon  is  perhaps  the  only 
country  wdiere  manure  is  the  sole  end  and  object  of 
stock-keeping,  and  Ceylon  is  a most  fortunate  country 
if  the  operation  will  pay,  even  when  coffee  is  above 
100/  per  cwt.”  The  author  adds:  “there  seems  to 
me  but  one  solution  of  all  these  complications,  and 
that  is,  to  make  the  stock  pay  for  their  food  in  heef, 
and  have  the  manure  over  aud  above.”  Certainly 
this  is  the  way  to  make  manure  profitably ; but  can 
it  be  done  ? and  if  it  cannot,  then  does  it  pay  to 
keep  cattle  ? Doubtless  this  question  has  been 
seriously  and  anxiously  considered  over  and  over  again 
by  planters,  who  have  at  length  come  to  the  con- 
clusion, namely,  that  of  the  two  altcrnativas,  it 
decidedly  the  hetter. 
