August i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
91 
bonea, oil cake, and fiah; now let ns examine theao 
materiala and aee what we are dealing with. 
Oattlo mannro ia Aral on the list. Its efleots are 
as mnoh mcohanical as obemioal, stud where it baa 
ahown the best reanlta I have generally found the 
aoil pOBseeeed a very poor power of retaining moisture 
as in analysis C. \Vhero cattle are kept solely for 
manorial purpoies, oatkle muck ia very ooatly, and 
does not always pay for the trouble of making it. 
When made by working bullocks it ia a by product, 
and often represents the sole profit on their keep. 
If it were not for the muck it would often bo 
just as cheap to hire bandies for the estate work. 
The following is the aolual cost of the upkeep of 
a bandy and bnllooks in this district : — 
Gram for 28 days 126 seers @ E60 M 
Straw 1C8 bundles® 1126 VM 
Suit 
Bandyman 
Oil, shoos, repairs to bandy... 
Wear and tear of bnllooks... 
Interest on capital @ 6 V cent 
R. a. 
e 4 
• R23 15 4 
In full work the bullocks and bandy earn 111 per 
day, and if^ they work 24 days out of 28 the profit 
IB only 8 pioe and the manure. Those two bullocks 
produced in 28 days 1,491 Ib. of dung having the 
following composition when air-dried: — 
„ Parts per hundred. 
Moisture ... ... ... 7-9.1 
* Organic matter and combined water ... 58'92 
Oxides of iron aud nlnmina... ... 1'18 
Lime ... .. ... 1-78 
Aikalino salts ... ... ... 1-12 
Phosphoric acid... ... ... ’88 
Insoluble matter &o. ... ... 28’18 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen ... ... -639 
dung contained moisture ... 73-99°/o 
The dry dung is worth at the most for the mauu- 
riBl Ingredient it contains R8 per too, the dung in its 
natural state about R2. Wall bedded with bracken 
tern it may be assumed as an outside cslimale that 
a pair of bullocka will produce one ton of manure, 
Worth about R2 per ton. The following ia ao anal^'siA 
of a firat-olass cattle manure produced by bedding 
oattlo with bracken fern, they were gram fed. 
'u a covered shed the bedding and muck were 
pushed out into a shed below, the urine flowed over 
the heap. 
The sample was taken in March aud appeared quite 
ory, when powdered it just looked like brown suoff. 
Parts per hundred. 
Moisture 
* Organic matter and combined water 
Uxioog 01 iron aud alamiua., 
liime 
Magnesia 
Potasli 
Soda 
Phosphoric acid 
Sulphuric acid 
Chlorine 
Insoluble matter, sand &o 
26-83 
5523 
111 
1-60 
•86 
■89 
•41 
•55 
•13 
•24 
18-25 
100-00 
■•Jo 
• 607 , 
• Containing nitrogen 
Equal to ammonia 
®f®®«‘’i''8"vnluable on' poor sand? 
toils but IS too short to be of much uso In opening 
and^.*''^ rotoutive lands, they require horse duni 
neL r i’‘l J ^9 Kood. Cattle manure should 
useful character— its 
‘hereby destroyed, aud it 
amka to the value of wood ashes or less 
We have seen that the miumre is costly to produce; 
Bhow.?^°*,i^ T T‘'e fallowing table 
in lb. what 10 (ten) tons first-olasa gram-fed 
c 
..attle manure iu its natural state oontaining 75 per 
eut moisture will yield ; many samples of eattle muck 
ou tain as mnoh as 85 to 95 percent moisture; other 
amples are hardly cattle manure at all, being ohiefly 
oomposed of line sweepings aud other rubbiab of little or 
no mannrial value. The table also shows the quantity 
yielded by bones, fish end oil cake ; — 
lb. per acre supplied by 
10 tons 4 owt. 4 owl, 4 owt. 
cattle 
raw 
pore 
oil 
manure. 
bonoi. 
fifb. 
oaka 
Tri-oaloio phosphate ... 
67 
226 
80 
5 
Ammonia 
34 
18 
31 
27 
Potash ... ... 
60 
4 
7 
6 
Lime 
49 
3 
32 
1 
Snlphnt-io acid ... 
7 
Total ... 
207 
251 
150 
39 
Ooet, rupees 
120* 
13i 
94 
11 
dost of application, rupees 
30 
5 
6 
5 
Total cost, rupees 
150 
18^ 
14J 
16 
*If the bullocks do not work, gram-fed cattle manure 
of that quality cannot well be produced for lees. ' 
Should the amount put down for the appUoati.on of 
oattlo manure appear excessive, let the questioner work 
out the problem on thosnpposition that there are 1,200 
trees per acre and that one basketful is given each tree 
Each basket bas to be tilled, the distance to the tree 
and back traversed, and the basket emptied. Suppose 
that the oolfee is moderately tliick, and that the roads 
nre 100 trees apart, then to reach tbo centre a coolie 
walks; — 
To the first tree and back 
4 
yards 
2nd 
8 
ft 
3td 
12 
9f 
4th 
16 
II 
6th 
20 
1) 
and so on. 
At the tenth tree be has walked 
230 
yards 
20U1 
850 
11 
30th 
1,880 
II 
40th 
3,280 
It 
50tli 
5,100 
l« 
and by the time ho has reached the 52ud tree, he has 
manured the 23rd part of aii acre, and walked three 
miles. 
Taking filling and emptying of baskets into account 
be will seldom walk a mile per hour. At such work 
a coolie would consider 100 trees a hard task, and cer- 
tainly it would be from lU to 20 times as bard aa pat- 
ting out 4 cwt of manure mixed with 1 cubic yard 
of burnt earth. The ooat of application entered under 
bones, fish, and oil cake, includes the cost of preparing 
1 cubio yard of burnt earth aud mixing it with the 
manure. 
This was given me by several managers as two ru- 
pees, aud for npplioation three rupees so that taking 
cartage &o. into account it is not safe to estimate 
less Than R30 per acre for the oattlo manture. In 
Oeylon where cattle are often kept solely for manu- 
rial purposes the cost is seldom much under KlOO 
per acre, and with the scanty grazing groniid of this 
district it would be difficult to produce any quantity 
of cattle manure, and the small quantity produced 
if the animals are well fed and bedded cannot well 
be made under R12 pet ton. .So that, except in the 
case of work bullocks, catUo manure of first rate 
quality may be dismissed as too expensive for ordinary 
use, and wo must look for somo other manure. We 
find iu good pure fish the cheapest native manure. 
Where first class fish manure is easily procurable 
cattle manure and oil cake, i. e. castor, Hindy, may 
bo looked upon as eipeusive luxuries, only to be 
indulged in whore the poverty of tbo soil demands the 
use of an organic manure. 
IJoties deoomposa very slowly in this district, and 
steamed hones are preferable to raw on that account, 
they should a'so be in the finest meal possible, it an 
immediate return for the money spent is expected. 
'J'bo use of inch bones in South Coorg might be termed, 
manuring for posterity, as this generation will reap 
little benefit from them. Thoooffoe tree is not greedy 
