134 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August r, 1891. 
maietry would be ample. Aa 10 tons to an acre is 
under 201b. of mannre a tree it would not bo very 
bard work and could be easily done for 1110 an acre 
as the total cost of application. Carting oan generally 
be avoided, but if it cannot it would not average over 
k2 an acre (loss at 10 tous to tbe acre) aa carting nould 
not be necessary on all iields. As a matter of fact, 
planters apply 20 to 301b to each of 1,742 trace in 
an acre, or IS to 22 tons, and this can be done for n 
cost of from Hs. IS to 1U7'8 for application, aooordiug 
to tbe distance and lay of land etc. 
It would be a mot desirable state of things if we 
could dispense with bulky manures, and depend en- 
tirely on tho advise of the ohemist as to the nse of 
email doses of artificial manures, liutonly the result 
of which planters eo f.ar ero certain is that if they 
can apply snffieient bulky maunres, sneh as cattle 
manure or decayed vegetable matter, tlioy can be 
certain of abundant crops, Evan those who have been 
most suooessful with bone and poonao recognise that 
bulky manure once in three years at least ace a 
necessity, allhougli large accumnlatious of leaf are 
received from the shade-troes which are now a aiue 
yiitt non with coffee. Nor do they believe in small 
doses. i.'4 of steamed bone dust and 1112 of poonao 
every year is a miLimnm dose, and men would apply 
more if they oonld afford it. This may be absulnte 
waste from a chemist’s point of view, bat it is a 
fact that inch over manuring is tbe only way to 
make coffee pay. Nor is this remarkable when we 
know that over-dosei of pbosphorio acid improve all 
crops, even these which have only a small proportion 
of that element in them. I do not wish to seem 
captious. I am exceedingly grateful to Mr. Pringle 
lor the iuformation he has given us and would be 
delighted if he would eradicate borer and leaf-disease. 
But we have feued so often that the teaohiug of 
the chemist docs uot, lor sumo unfotesoon reason, 
prodnoe in the held the effect it theoretically should 
produce, that wo prefer to go on with our old waste- 
ful ways, — oertaiu that the result will be that if 
we can only apply enough, Bomelliing or other iii 
tho old fashioned maunres docs tell. If is only 
rotten wood, 2 or 3 inclies of it on 6 ieobes of 
mould, will grow snob coffee as no artifiolal manure 
can. If Mr. Pringle wishes to turn us from our 
ways let him grow fiuer fields on regulation doses 
of artificial manures and we will believe ; but that 
^•8 the only wey. Solvitok Ambulando. 
r. S.— How does Mr. Pringle get lucerne, clover, etc., 
to grow under good coffee f I have tried gram (koolty) 
and find it will not grow under any shade. Of course 
it might bo grown in young coffee. 

THE LFAE DISEASE OF COFFEE. 
Sir,— In your issue of the 30th there is a misprint, 
days being written for weeks in the scatences “ Wheu 
tbe cells are emptied a yellowish spot appears, generally 
visible about two to three weeks (nut days) after 
the parent spore is planted.” In the next column are 
three errors vix. “ the estate was rid of it from cud 
to end," shonld be “ the estate was red with it from 
end to end.” Lower down "The coolies pick up spores" 
should be “ coolies kick np spores,” anil tbe word 
<■ post ” for “ host.” Now in regard to your Ooorg 
oorrespondent’s letter of tho 27lh re leguminous trees. 
Daliergia latifolia (Bectio) is given in Vol. 1 of tho 
Mysore and Ooorg OacetUcr ns one ; it is certainly the 
best shade tree in South Ooorg judging by the coffee 
under it. 1 would suggest that Mr. Onmeron of tho 
Lai Bagb, and the Manager of the Madras Agri- 
hortioultural Gardens, Mr. Gleeson,be asked to fuinish 
a list of the legumiuoue trees that are not surface 
feeders. Here is an extract which will, I hope, show 
your readers how the question of tho fixation of 
nitrogen is being worked at : — “ It was first in tho 
year 1878 that it was shown by Schloesiog and Muntz 
to he dependent npon the presence of certain minute 
forms of life, or micru-orgauisms, or lo other words 
to be a fermentation ohangei” Quoted from 1\ and 
G. 0, Franklin's "The nitrifying process and its 
speoifio ferment," The following is quoted from 
‘ New experiments on the question of the fixation of 
free nitrogen by Sir J. B. Lawea and Dr. J. H. 
Gilbert": — “Experiments similar to the well-known 
ones of nellriogol, which were commeuoed in 1883, 
have boon made by the authors at Kothamated in 
1888 and 1889. The resulls fully confirm Hellriegel’s 
.statcnieuts, aud show large gains of nitrogen over 
that coiilainud in seed and manure iu many cases of le- 
guminous plants grown in prepared sand or soil contain- 
ing known percentages of nitrogen. The oases sbowiiig 
this Iniuriaut growth and increase iu nitrogen were 
those in which the root tubercles were well developed 
and this was bronght about by adding a little aque- 
ous extract of the crushed tubercles to the prepared 
pots, or by watering them with the washings of soil 
iu which Biinilar logmuinoiis crops, provided with root 
tubercles, had grown. The authors therefore are now 
prepared to endorse Ilia conclusion drawn from Uidl- 
riegel’s experiments that although ohloropbylious 
plants may not directly utilise the free nitrogen of 
tho air, some of them at any rate may acquire nitro- 
gen bronglit into combination under the influenoe of 
lower organisms, tho development of which is ap- 
parently, iu some cases, a ooinoidont of tho growth 
of tho higher plant whose nutrition they are to servo.” 
There oro over a dozen of the cleverest chemists of 
Europe and America worbiug steadily experimentally 
At these questions, and every paint is tested by in- 
dependent investigators, keenly critical, as is shown 
by tho above extract, Legnmiuoua plants may be 
said to have a parasitic beneficent lower organism 
developed with them, whioh posseasea the power of 
reuderiujt nitrogen oapsble of being fixed by the plant. 
Thus it is that they afford a cheap means of obtain- 
ing nitrogen from the air. As regards shade trees 
my eiperionco is that, in South Ooorg, all surface 
feeders are bad, and I do net think surface feeding 
leguminous trees would bo exception, but they might. 
Only experiments can decide the question. 
William Fbinolb, m. s. c. i. 
Bangalore, Jnly 2ud. 
COAL IN CEYLON ; ELEPHANT LEATHER. 
Great interest is felt hero in your annonnoo- 
mont that coal has at length been disoovoreil in 
Ceylon. If it can be ilomodBlratod that the 
material found is absolutely coal, any inferiority of 
quality whioh may be reported ns to the samples 
sent home need have no effect in disheartening you 
as to the ultimate value of the find. All ex- 
porienoo has shown that surface coal is of little 
relative value, and the real quality can never be 
asoertainod until a considerable depth has been 
reached. Should preliminary reports justify it, wo 
hope to hear that some deep borings have been 
made in order to obtain samples whioh may 
enable an aooutate teat of quality to be established. 
We thiok that geologists who have visited Ceylon 
hitherto have generally reported adversely aa to 
the likelihood of ooal being found in the island 
but these reports have not shaken the faith of 
many who have entertained a oontldent hope that 
the mineral would be discovered somedav or other. 
Having read yuur exlraot from an American 
paper referring^ to tho use of elephant leather, I 
paid a visit this week to Messrs, Toulmin & Gale 
to learn what they know of the subject. I was 
assured by them ^ that they had never heard of 
elephant leather being employed in the manufacture 
of the articles mentioned in your extract referred 
to. They said a leather was known in their trade 
as " elephant leather," but this was only oowhide 
stamped in imitation of tho latter, and they 
expressed their belief that it was impossible to 
work up the genuine thing into bags, pocket-books 
Ao. Tliey showed mo a piece of elephant hide in 
their possession and asked me if I did not see the 
impraotioability of so adapting it. However, they 
obligingly sent for the foreman of their works, with 
