810 
Supplement  to  the  “ Tropical  Agriculturists 
[Mav  1,  1807. 
them,  in  terms  of  guaranteed  analy.'^e.s  which 
should  he  furnished  by  the  vendor.  Tlie  deci.sion 
as  to  what  manure  suits  particular  crop.s  and 
particular  soils  must  rest  witli  agricultural  ex- 
perts and  institutions.  Where  fertilizers  have 
to  be  mixed  before  use,  it  is  important  that  those 
ingreilients  should  not  be  brought  together  which 
will  react  upon  each  other  so  as  to  cause  the  los.«of 
valuable  manurial  elements.  Where  stable  manure 
is  not  obtainable  or  can  only  be  obtained  or  ap- 
jilieil  at  great  cost,  chemical  fertilizers  must 
of  course  be  resorted  to,  though  it  is  best  that 
the  two  should  be  used  together.  Plants  will 
not  thrive  the  better  for  one  e.ssential  element 
of  ])lant  food  being  in  excess  of  the  others  but 
require  them  all  iu  due  proportion.  By  thought- 
lessly adding  a special  fertilizer  which  might 
just  be  supplying  the  eleme  it  which  is  already 
abundantly  jiresent  in  the  soil,  results  wholly 
diffi'rent  from  those  exjiected  will  be  got.  Special 
manures  will  create  a larger  consummation  of  the 
elements  of  plant  focd  iu  t/ie  xoil  and  not  supplied 
by  the  manure,  so  that  the-  comjiosiHon  of  the  .soil 
will  be  materially  altered  by  its  reserve  materials 
being  drawn  upon.  Theeffectof  such  .special  manur- 
ing is  thus  only  of  temporary  benefit  and  ends  by 
destroying  the  equilibrium,  so  to  speak,  of  plant 
food  in  the  soil,  ami  .so  tending  to  interfere  with 
the  proper  growth  ami  development  of  the  plant. 
To  avoid  such  results  intelligent  cultivators  have 
been  making  trials  wit li  different  special  manures, 
alone  ami  mixed,  but  these  e.xperiments  require  to 
be  carried  out  with  tlie  greatest  po.ssible  care  to  be 
of  any  value.  In  the  absence  of  any  other  agricul- 
tural establishment  in  Ceylon,  1 tliink  the  School 
of  Agriculture  (on  a better  site,  and  with  aver- 
age soil)  should  give  itself  up  to  energetically 
carry  out  exi)eriments  with  different  products. 
Given  the  chemical  composition  of  the  soil  ex- 
perimented upon,  the  result  of  these  trial  should 
provide  a basis  towork  iipon,  and  I am  sure  will 
be  very  acceptable  and  beneficial  to  the  general 
agricultural  community. 
C.  Z. 
« 
TllK  JIKBITS  OF  NATIVE  DRUGS  IN 
V ETERINAEY  I’R  ACTICE. 
Certain  drugs  are  commonly  distinguished  by 
the  epithet  “ Native,"  and  certain  others 
“ European."  This  is,  in  many  in.stances,  an 
aibitrnry  division,  the  crude  drug  being  often 
termed  “Native”  and  its  refined  ]ireparation 
‘ ‘ Euro])ean."  Wheie  tlie  object  of  the  refined 
preparation  is  to  get  nd  of  some  deleterious 
substance  or  quality  found  in  the  crude  drug, 
the  former  is,  no  doubt,  preferable  to  the 
latter  in  jiroportion  to  the  hurtful  nature  of  the 
princ’ple  got  rid  of  from  the  crude  drug.  In 
instances  where  a refined  preparation  contains 
the  curative  ]irinciple  of  the  drug  in  an  active 
and  highly  concentrated  form  and  is  intended 
to  jirodnce  a promjit  and  sure  offeci,  such  a 
prejiaration  is  to  he  preferred  esjiecially  in 
disea.«es  which  jiresent  urgent  symjitom.s. 
There  are,  however,  ninny  diseases  of  cattle, 
sheep  and  goats,  in  which  it  avc  uld  be  advan- 
tageous to  use  native  drugs.  Some  vegetable 
drugs  can  be  obtained  almost  at  the  very  door 
of  the  villager  without  costing  him  a single 
cent.  Ill  a fertile  tropical  country  like  Ceylo* 
which  abounds  in  vegetation  of  a vastly  diverse 
nature,  the  number  of  native  drugs  obtainable 
for  the  treatment  of  cattle  must  certainly  be 
great.  Some  of  these  are  well  known  and  are 
recognized  even  by  European  Veterinary  Surgeons. 
There  are  others  which  are  not  so  popular, 
and  are  known  only  to  the  native  vedarala.  Some 
insight  into  native  medicine  with  a view 
to  find  out  these  drugs  is  highly  desirable. 
For,  although  native  treatment  as  generally 
practised  is  more  empirical  than  rational,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  several  drugs 
used  by  the  vedarala  which  possess  valuable 
healing  properties.  A])roj)os  of  this  fact  the 
following  remarks  occur,  in  a description  of  the 
native  medicinal  plants  of  Ceylon  sent  to  the 
Colonial  and  Indian  Exhibition  of  1886: — “It 
must  be  admitted  that  the  mnteria  medica 
of  the  Sinhalese  will  compare  favourably  in 
many  respects  with  the  Pharmacopteia  of  the 
mo.«it  enlightened  countries  of  the  West.  Not 
only  is  every  cla.es  of  medicine  well  re])resented, 
and  sujiplied  in  lu’ofusion  by  the  boundless 
prodigality  of  nature  in  Eastern  tropical  clime.s, 
but  some  of  the  vegetable  productions  are 
valuable  enough  to  deserve  a place  in  the 
medicinal  resources  of  Western  science,  while 
very  many  can  easily  and  usefully  replace  the 
more  expensive  drugs  of  the  same  class  which 
are  imported  into  the  Colony  for  use  in  hospLals.” 
Economy  is  an  important  consideration  in  the 
treatment  of  cattle.  Tilings  have  to  be  done  on 
a strictly  commercial  basis,  and  the  question 
“Will  it  pay?”  has  to  be  seriously  con.sidered. 
The  cattle-owner  will  find  it  an  unprofitable 
concern  when  the  cost  of  the  medicines  comes 
to  more  than  the  value  of  the  sick  animal. 
Even  when  the  medicines  do  not  cost  quite  so 
much,  expensive  drugs  are  undesirable,  as  the 
ox  requires,  for  each  dose,  at  least  15  or  20 
times  the  quantity  of  medicine  required  for  a 
human  patient. 
Wdien  a number  of  village  cattle  in  a herd 
have  to  be  treated,  as  in  the  ca.se  of  an  epi- 
zootic for  instance,  the  owner  can  liardlj’’  afford 
to  pay  for  expensive  drugs ; and  where  the 
percentage  of  cures  will  be  necessarily  small, 
as  in  a virulent  outbreak  of  rinderpe.st, 
treatment  with  expen.sive  drugs  is  out  of  the 
question  altogether.  For  the  small  number  of 
recoveries,  -which  may  be  attributeil  to  the  action 
of  tlie  medicines  administered,  must  bear  the 
expense  of  the  treatment  of  the  whole  number. 
It  has,  therefore,  been  recommended  by  veterinary 
surgeons  in  India  that  if  anything  like  satisfactory 
results  are  to  be  obtained  from  the  treatment 
of  rimlerpest,  the  drugs  used  must  be  as  inex- 
pensive as  possible. 
Native  drugs  are  to  be  prefered  for  the  treat- 
ment of  cattle  not  only  on  the  score  of  economy, 
but  because  they  are  much  more  easily  acce.ssib’le 
in  out-of-the  avay  places.  'J  hey  can  either  be 
bail  from  the  jungle,  m-  be  ])Uicha'ied  at  the 
bazaar  or  boutiijnes.  Under  the  class  of  bazaar 
niedicines  are  also  includetl  mineral  medicines 
in  a more  or  less  ciude  form. 
Some  vegetable  drugs  sold  in  the  bazaar  are, 
however,  old  and  worthle.«s.  In  the  case  of 
lare  or  valuable  vegetable  drugs  that  cannot 
be  preserved  raw  for  any  length  of  time,  it 
is  desirable  that  some  elu'aji  standard  ]>repara- 
tions  such  .as  tinctures  or  extracts  be  made  and 
preserved  for  use. 
