Snjj'plement io the '^Tropical Agriculturist 
365 
Nov. 1, 1897.] 
not tlie best, tlie total expenditure might be 
spread over a number of years. 
Thus an orchard of say 20 acres upon a gentle 
slope may be trenched up in strips of land 
straight do\rn the incline with a drain along- 
side each strip. For example, let the first strip 
laid out be 20 ft. \^ide and the drain to follow. 
The next plot of 20 ft. is ploughed up in the 
first year and used for a catch crop. In the 
second year it is trenched up exactly as was 
No. 1. Next to 1 his comes the 3rd plot trenched 
up at the same time as N’o. 1. Then comes a 
second line of drain followed by plot No. 4 
treated as was No. 2 for a first year's catch crop 
and a second year’s trenching. And thus the 
alteration goes on over the whole area. By 
this means about half the cost of comjdetely 
tienching an acre to be devoted to fruit cul- 
ture would be distributed over perhaps two or 
three year.s. 
The time of trenching is the best time 
for manuring if the natural poorness of the 
toil requires that assistance. The old method 
of putting a bti-'liel of manure near the foot of 
the tree trill not do at all. The manure must 
be scattered with the aid of a six-pronged fork 
.“o as to diffuse it pretty evenly tlirougliout the 
whole mass of trenched-up soil. If your supply 
runs short reserre it for the upper trvo feet 
of soil instead of working it deeper, and if you 
have a still shorter supply you will have to be 
very .'•paring. You will find it more thrifty to 
leare the top surface of your land rough. 
Then scatter what manure you have over the 
rough surface and turn it in when you finally 
level it down to a cultivable smoothness. Prac- 
tically this amounts to a top-dressing only. 
When working with a clayey soil, manuie that 
is not particularly rich in animal matter, but 
contiiins much of incompletely decomposed straw 
find its best use in aeration and preventing the 
packing together of the soil. We are apt to 
look upon manuiing as a sort of cure all, 
which with the help of a copious water supply 
is to save the labour of trenching up the soil, 
pruning the trees to a fruitful condition, and 
looking well after them generally. Have we 
not given them plenty of compo-stP Then why 
don’t they bear satisfactorily ? The fact is the 
majority of fairly fertile soils that have been 
industriously cultivated will suit fruit trees 
without other manure than a light top-dressing, 
for years, if only they get the inevitable and 
necessary opening upby trenching. Heavy manur- 
ing is the cultural need of annual crops, which 
have to spring up, blossom and seed at racing 
speed, to get through with their short lives 
within the year. Y'our fruit trees do not take 
life so fast, and they therefore don’t require 
the stimulus appropriate to cereals where work 
is done in 5 or 6 months. 
(To be continued.) 
THE MANIOC PLANT. 
Dr. E. H. Clrenning, who in 1874 addressed 
the Secretary of State for India on the subject 
of inducing the people of India to freely cultivate 
Manioc, especially among their hedgerows, so that 
the trees may serve as an alternative foodstuff in 
seasons of scarcity and famine, has again taken up 
the question in connection with the present famine 
in India. Dr. Gieuning, who writing last year, 
describes himself as “ blind and in indiffeient 
health and in my 79th year” believes that manioc 
tuliers will prove a valuable stand-by when 
other crops are killed by drought, and refers to 
them as a God-ordained food for drought and 
famine’’ which will be the means of saving 
millions of pounds and millions of lives. Living- 
stone Calls it the .staff of life in Africa, while 
in Brazil, Chili, Peru and Central America it is 
a universal food, and it is a curious fact, says 
Dr. Gtenning, that in these countries we never 
hear of famines though there are often very 
long droughts. 
Two species of manioc are recognised, one with 
a sweet root (M. Aipi) and the other ( M. 
uiili'isima) bitter and poisonous from containing 
prussic acid in its juice. The poisonous pro- 
perties of the latter are, hovveTer, easily got 
rid of by squeezing out the juice or by heating. 
The poisonous kind differs from the other by 
having its leaves and tiie summits of the branche.s 
dirker, and the roots have a purple hue beneath 
the cuticle which is wanting in the sweet kind. 
But the easiest test is to taste the broken 
root.s ; one is sweet like almonds, the other bitter 
and repulsive. The Brazilian arrowroot of com- 
merce is nothing else than the starch (known 
ns “ polvilho ”) from manioc. Dr. Grenning be- 
lieves that manioc, which has practically the 
same composition as rice will exactly replace it in 
the economy of the native Indian during times 
of scarcity. He writes thus enthusiastically in 
a letter to Lord Lome: — “Men like Stanley, 
Selous, Bishop Tucker andotheiswho knoiv much 
of Afiica, could uscist and bear testimony to 
the thesis that manioc is God’s natural jirovision 
aganist drought and famine, and is the secret 
means of saving people when drought destroys 
rice and other kinds of food.” 
The Superintendent of Botanic Gardens, N. W. 
P., India, repoiting on Dr. Grenning’s scheme 
says that manioc is extensively cultivated in 
Bengal, and is al.'^o well-known in the Madias 
and Bombay Presidencies. It is not raised as 
a commercial crop as it cannot compete with the 
potato and sweet potato and so does not pay. 
The Superintendent of Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, 
does not believe in the drought-withstanding 
properties of manioc, and states that it would 
fail as a food crop in seasons when rice also 
fails for lack of moisture. 
Another authority on the subject is Mr. Eobert 
Thompson, who writing from Lan Cayetano, 
Columbia, mentions that some 20 varieties are 
know'n in cultivation there, and that the plant 
could be grown from sea-level to full 6,000 feet. 
He then goes on to say that its peculair and 
most commendable merit consists in its capacity 
to flourish in regions not only where prolonged 
droughts are experienced, but also in com- 
paratively desert regions. Under favourable 
conditions as much as 25 lb. is procurable from 
one plant, but allowing an average of five 
pounds per plant, ten tons per acre would 
result if they are planted a yard apart. 
It has been said that in most parts of India 
the manioc is not in favour with the people, 
