626 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [March  i,  1897. 
There  is  a danger,  tliat  if  the  rates  of  ex- 
cliange  decline  a little  as  they  well  may,  plan- 
ters will  think  the  storm  cones  may  be  lowered, 
as  the  storm  is  passing  away  ; if  they  think  it 
cannot  return,  tliey  will  find  themselves  mis- 
taken and  may  be  wrecked  before  they  reach 
a harbour.  Let  tliem  remember  it  has  taken 
ye.ars  for  the  wail  of  the  Siu'-ar  planters  to 
reach  the  ears  of  Government,  and  when  it  has 
reached  them  they  are  soothed  with  a Grand 
Committee  to  find  out  what  is  patent  to  the  whole 
world,  namely,  that  they  have  been  ruined  by 
bounties  on  the  production  for  export  of  Beet 
Sufiar. 
The  mischief  I have  written  to  you  about,  is  an 
insidious  one,  but  on  that  account  is  not  leas 
real.  If  exchange  on  the  piesent  system  goes  back 
to  Is  2d,  as  it  may  some  months  hence,  it  will 
still  exist. 
Ceylon  should  endeavour  to  free  itself  finan- 
cially from  a Government  which  for  its  own 
purposes  will  “corner”  its  currency,  as  it  did 
when  it  ceased  to  mint  silver  for  the  public. 
1 sent  my  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State  to 
Mr.  VV.  E.  Thompson  Sharpe  as  bein'!  the  member 
for  Ceylon  and  asked  him  to  be  good  enough  to 
forward  it  direct  to  Mr.  Chamberlain.  I have 
not  yet  had  an  acknowledgment  of  its  receipt. 
[About  Java  is  our  corres|)ondent  not  aware  that 
the  standard  is  a gold  one  there,  or  at  any  rate 
that  it  is  based  on  gold,  although  the  actual  cur- 
rency is  silver,  the  coins  being  merely  tokens  as 
in  England.  We  think,  therefore,  that  Java  tea 
planters  can  have  no  advantage  over  us  through 
Exchange?— El)  T.A  ] 
By  today’s  mail,  we  have  received  the  fol- 
lowing : — 
“ Jan.  29. — I enclose  copy  of  Mr.  Chamberlain’s 
reply  to  the  letter  I wrote  to  him  of  which  I 
sent  you  a copy. 
“ It  is  the  one  I was  led  to  believe  I should 
receive,  but  as  mentioned  to  you  in  my  letter  of 
the  1st  inst. , the  grievance  I asked  you  to  be 
good  enough  to  ventilate,  did  not  exist  wlien  the 
inquiry  took  place.  The  Indian  Kates  of  Ex- 
change were  regulated  by  the  market  prices  of 
silver,  and  as  long  as  that  was  the  case,  Ceylon 
had  no  cause  of  complaint.” 
(Copy.)  Downing  Street,  Jan.  28. 
C.  ShaND,  Esq. 
Sir,— I am  directed  by  Mr.  Secretary  Cham- 
berlain to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  letter 
of  tlie  4th  inst.,  relative  to  the  Tea  rade  of 
Ceylon,  ami  the  Currency  system  of  that  Colony. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  has  given  your  letter  very 
careful  consideration  ; but  he  is  unable  to  see 
suHicient  reason  for  reopening  the  question  of  the 
Ceylon  Currency,  which  was  most  fully  considered 
in  all  its  bearings  by  tbe  Silver  Currency  Com- 
mission, whose  report  was  imblished  in  the  Co  onv 
in  1894. -I  am,  Ac.,  JOHN  BUAMSTON. 
TEA  CLTLTIVATIGiN  AND  TROUBLESOME 
WEEDS— WORTH  DIGGING  IN? 
[The  following  has  been  put  at  cur  service 
by  a Colombo  mercantile  firm. — Ed.  2’. -■(.] 
February  (>,  1807. 
From  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  llakgalu. 
Dear  Mr. , — The  Oscalis  that  is  such  a tronblo- 
some  weed  is  O.  Violacea.  It  bolong.s  to  tiio  Gera- 
niam  family  (Geraniacea))  and  therefore  cannot  be 
called  a trefoil  which  belongs  to  the  order  Legumin- 
osae,  and  generally  applied  to  Tri/'oliiini. 
The  Oncalis  I'iolacea  is  a native  of  United  States. 
(Signed)  W.  Nock. 
Copy.  City  Analyst’s  Office,  Colombo,  Dec.  8,  180G. 
Report  on  a sample  of  so-called  Trefoil  leaves,  received 
for  analysis,  on  the  25th  November  1890. 
The  sample  of  so-called  trefoil  plants  consisted  of 
§rds  by  weight  of  stem  and  leaves,  and  ^rd  roots.  The 
leaves  and  stems  of  the  so-called  trefoil  consisted  of 
about  90  per  cent  moisture,  and  10  per  cent  dry  matter. 
The  roots  consisted  of  about  60  per  cent  moisture 
and  -10  per  cent  dry  matter. 
In  100  parts  of  the  whole  plant,  there  were  20 
pai  ts  of  dry  matter,  and  80  parts  of  moisture.  The 
roots,  thus,  furnished  66'66  per  cent  of  the  dry  matter, 
and  the  stems  and  leaves  funiished  3;j’33  per  cent. 
The  dry  matter  of  the  leaves  and  stems,  and  that 
of  the  roots,  were  analysed  separately,  with  a view 
to  ascertain  the  proportions  of  the  important  elements 
of  plant  food,  taken  from  the  soil  by  each. 
ANALYSIS  OF  DRY  MATTER. 
Stems  and 
Leaves 
Roots 
per  cent. 
per  cent. 
Nitrogen 
..  2-794 
1280 
Potash 
. . 2-679 
-871 
Phosphoric  Acid 
•691 
•417 
Lime 
. . 1-596 
•352 
In  order  to  compare  the  amount  of  these  consti- 
tuents removed  from  the  soil  by  the  so-called  trefoil  and 
by  tea  respectively,  the  following  tabular  statement  will 
show  the  amounts  of  these  substances  contained  in 
1,000  lb.  of  tea,  of  Trefoil  leaves  and  stems,  of  Tre- 
foil roots,  and  of  the  whole  Trefoil  plant,  all  in  the 
dry  state. 
Tabular  statement  showing  the  amounts  of  impor- 
tant constituents  of  plant  food  contained  in  1,000  1b. 
respectively  of  tea,  Trefoil  leaves  and  stems,  Trefoil 
roots,  and  this  whole  so-called  Trefoil  plant  dried  at 
212°  F.  ;— 
Nitrogen 
d 
O 
H 
lb. 
46-02 
Potash 
23-64 
Phosphoric  Acid 
7-98 
Lime 
5-88 
. 
CO 
'5 
c3  ^ 
o 
o 
f*  . 
P4 
H a 
0)  — 
'O  >75 
o 
•q  ^ 
§ 
V 
H 
lb. 
lb. 
lb. 
27-94 
12-80 
17-85 
26-79 
8-71 
14-74 
6-91 
4 17 
5-08 
15.96 
3-52 
7 82 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  so-called  Ti'efoil  plant  con- 
tains, weight  for  weight  of  dry  matter,  about  28  parts  to 
the  1,000  in  its  leaves  and  stems,  as  against  46 
in  the  case  of  tea;  but,  as  the  former  is  a legu- 
minous plant,  a portion  of  this  nitrogen  must  be 
assumed  to  be  derived  from  the  air,  and  would, 
therefore,  be  a distinct  gain  to  the  soil  if  dug  in. 
The  plant  seems  also  to  be  rather  greedy  in  the 
matter  of  Potash  and  Phosphoric  Acid,  which, 
from  an  agricultural  point  of  view,  are  the  two  most 
important  constituents,  after  Nitrogen,  of  the  tea 
plant,  and  which  are  altogether  derived  from  the 
soil  or  from  manure.  While  the  so-called  Trefoli  plant 
is  growing,  therefore,  it  competes  with  the  tea  plant, 
for  those  elements  of  plant  food  as  it  draws  its 
supplies,  however,  from  near  the  surface,  the  advan- 
tage to  be  derived  from  digging  it  into  the  soil  as  a 
green  manure,  might  more  than  compensate  for  the 
preliminary  abstraction  of  these  elements  from  the 
soil,  these  being  again  returned  in  a more  readily 
available  state  for  use  by  the  tea  plant. 
(Signed)  M.  Cochran,  f.c.s..  City  Analyst. 
Silk  in  India. — Silk  Is  not  likely,  says  the 
Eiiyiishmnn,  to  become  one  of  the  products  of  the 
North-West  Provinces,  unless  great  meteorological 
changes  come  about.  Repealed  attempts  on  the 
Cawn))ore  e\i)erimental  farm  to  roar  silk  worms 
from  As.sam  have  proveil  a failure.  The  hot 
temperature  is  fatal  to  the  worms,  which  die  scoq 
after  being  received. 
