638 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1898. 
Ca ttle manure mixed with so-called artificial manures 
have been known to yield good results in European 
agriculture. Perhaps, it may be said that the results 
would have been better but for the combination. 
In the culliv;rtir,a of coconuts locally, the addition 
of cattle manure to the usual mixture of castor cakes 
and bones is known to yield better and more lasting 
results than when they are applied alone. There 
appears to be one way of preventing or at least 
miuimiziiig the denitrifying process and that is by 
using well-rotted cattle manure. Locally this means 
a well-decayed mass of vegetable matter with mostly 
all the potash and nitrogen washed out of it. 
I believe more than one coconut estate has been 
experimenting with aftificial manures on the lines 
laid down by Messrs. Freudenberg dr Co. But the 
drawback with coconut cultivation is that the ocular 
and material demonstrations of improvement arc 
so slow. 
The experiments in manuring as suggested by 
Messrs. Eieudenberg & Co. are so elaborate and im- 
practical iha.t I fear they will never become general. 
Certain sub-tances are not to be mixed as the com- 
bination will came the loss of nitrogen. Then again 
the application of the other substances are not to 
be made at once, but at intervals. Altogether the 
same ground has to be gone over from three to five 
times. This will add to the cost of application. 
Then again the mixing of the manures, their 
weighing and serving out will have to be done under 
the personal supervision of the Superintendent. He 
cannot delegate the work to a subordinate. Then 
there is the strange suggestion that the manure 
should be buried in ileep holes to reach a large root 
surface, Usually wide holes are used to attain this 
object. The unwisdom of applying such soluble 
substances as those recommended, especially sulphate 
of ammonia, in deep holes impressed itself on me. 
I found this view supported by Mr. John Hughes in 
a recent communication to the Observer. 
I was always struck with the yellow color of the 
fronds of coconut trees growing on sandy soils. I tried 
to account for it by attributing it to the presence of 
water at the roots ; but against that theory was the 
fact that cocomit trees growing on rather high, sandy 
soil had yellow fronds. Mr. Leclerc has said that 
“ the yellowii'g of plants is due to defective transpiration 
and not to excess of moisture in the soil. When the 
air is moist, tran.spiratioii is slow, when diy it is fast.” 
Another authority say.’ Sandy soils are powerful 
attractors of the moisture of the atmosphere. On the 
sandy plains of Chili vegetation is almost entirely de- 
pendent on dew for its moisture.” That may be one 
explanation. 1 have given the matter much thought 
and my theory is that coconut trees growing on 
sandy soils suffer from wh it I will call vegetable anae- 
mia due to the almost entire absence of iron in the 
soil. Chlorophyl, or the green colouring matter in 
leaves, is found only when iron is present in the soil. 
Without chlorophyl the assimilation of plant food by 
the leaves is not possible. Anaemia may he due to other 
causes as well, such as debility 'due to want of cultiva- 
tion. In red clayey or c: tiooky soils, the yellowing of the 
leaves from want of cultivation is not so apparent and 
marked as in sand ■ soils, for they have a large ad- 
mixture of iron in their composition. In the animal eco- 
nomy, the red blood corpuscles take the place of chloro- 
phyl iu the vegetable economy. Their absence is 
remedied by the administration of iron. Iron has 
been pnoved to be applied with benefit to vegetation. 
Wc read in the “ Ceylon Manual of Chemical Analy'ses” 
that ‘‘ it was formerly considered that most soils 
contaim d suflicieut iron tor the use of plants, and that 
it exercised rath-r a hurtful effect on plants. Dr. 
Griftitlis appea.is to p-iovothe efficacy of applying iron 
in a soluble foiiji even to land already containing a 
considerable )jiopoilioa of iron in an insoluble form 
He says that bis original pioi’osition, that a fairly 
large piropiortion of solnble iion in a soil is favourable 
to the growth of plants, developing a large amount of 
chlorophyl, lias been oonfiimcd by all his suiisequeut 
investiga.tions. He strongly recommends sulphate of 
iron both as a mamue and as an antiseptic substance 
for appilication to other manures,” 
This brings me to the subject of Basic slag. It is 
obtained when converting iron into steel in crucibles 
lined with limestone. Mr. Thomas discovered that 
the phosphoric acid in the iron combined with the 
lime in the limestone and formed phosphate of lime. 
Hence its name, Thomas’s phosphate powder. He 
experimented with it and found it a valuable fertilizer. 
Its weight suggests a large proportion of iron. Perhaps 
Mr. Cochran will be able to tell us whether in a soluble 
form or not. If in a soluble form, the beneficial effects 
of its application to sandy soils especially will be 
beyond question, for by the development of chlorophyl 
the assimilation of the plant food already in the soil 
and that applied as a manure will readily take place. 
I should wish to see this question discussed bay 
scientist. B. 
THE PROTECTION OF GAME. 
Ratnatenne, Madulkele, Jan. 21st. 
Deaf. Sif,— I have read with interest your 
article on the Protection of Game, and am only 
too glad to hear evidence for the other side. 
There is 1 admit some danger of game being 
over-protected, which luacticaliy comes to the 
same thing; as being iirotected tor the .sake of 
Sport and Spoilsmen. 
This is a danger which must be carefully 
guarded against. 
Such proposals for the protection of game, as 
the returning of all native firearms at the com- 
mencement of tlie close season, may be passed 
over as absurd. 
We come then to reasonable measures for the 
protection of game, and I am firmly of the opinion 
which I believe coincides witli your own that 
the existing ordinance if really put in force, 
together with the establishment of sanctuaries 
for game in vn-inhabited districts meet all 
requirements. 
It is not so ninch in populated districts, that 
game requin.s protection a.s in almost unin- 
habited wilds. 
This may seem ah.snrd, but a knowledge of the 
subject soon proves the correctness ot the state- 
ment. Almost all the |)o)nilated districts, more es- 
pecially tlioseof the Gentrai, Western and Southern 
Provinces, and great areas of tiie North-Western 
Province ; aie well within the iiilluence of the two 
monsoons. The.se districts either on account of their 
mountainous nature or the thick growth of forest 
and scrub which covers tlie waste lands afford al- 
most sufficient protection to game, without the inter 
vention of law. In the great wildernesses of the 
Nortliern and Ea.stern Provinces, the habitatj 
par excellence, of t!io Spotted Axis, and Buffalo 
the case is different. Here on account of the 
open nature tf the land, and the dry seasons, 
game of all kiiid.sis at the mercy, not or the villa- 
ger, for practically, tlie villager does not exist 
there, but of the hide and horn merchant. It 
is llierefore not the villager from whose raids 
game should hepreserved, for the Sinhalese villa- 
ger at any rate, is as a general rule innocent of 
any idea of accnmulatiiig wealth in this line ; 
hut it is the vagabond Moor with whom we have 
todeal and ids hunting grounds are the aforesaid 
open plains and dry wastes of the north and east 
and HO legislation— no measui es can surely he too 
severe to apply against him and him only. 
It is perhaps not generally known, that the 
chief offenders are not those wdiom we meet down 
in tlie wilds, but that tliey are in our mid.st. 
By store-keepeis iu Matale, Kandy, Badulla and 
elsewdiere — a common practice amongst these 
scoundrels- -is to obtain a licence from the Kach- 
cheri to collect myiabolams, wild cinnamon 
hark or sneb jungle produce ; with this licence, a 
