mi 13 
THE QUALITIES AND COST OU THE 
LEADING EERTILIZERS EMl’LOYED IN 
COFFEE CULTURE 
BE oxbaaetively dealt with in 
Mr. Pringle’s letter which we 
publish below. Of course the 
main principles which apply 
to ccRco culture, apply equal- 
ly to the tea enterprise ; and 
aa but few estates in Oeylon 
can afford to provide cattle manure on a 
large scale, planters will do well to give full 
consideration to the arguments, founded on 
the enhancement of original price by coat 
of carriage in favour of taking every pre- 
caution to secure artificial manures of the 
Very best quality: those in which phosphates 
and ammonia are most concentrated. It is in- 
teresting to learn which are the best of the 
mineral (fossil) phosphates of Europe or America, 
but with so fruillul a source of fresh bones next 
door to us in India, our busine-ss is to see that , 
wa obtain the best of these. So with castor oil 
cake ; while, if we use fish, we are bound to see 
that it contains a minimum of the substance 
with which eorne grocers are said to mix their sugar. 
liMge dealers in fertilizers to whom appreciable 
orders are sent, cannot object to bear the cost of 
analyses of the substancoB they sell, so that the 
buyers may have a guarantee of the real value of 
the articlee they purchase, with the prospect in 
most cases of considerable cost of carriage by rail 
carts and on coolies' heads ; all of which are aa 
heavy tor inert as for active matter. 
f® of some considerable interest 
still in Ceylon, and the enterprise may some 
day revive. Meantime, Ceylon planters will, 
>I guided by their own experience alone, feel 
surprise if not scepticism, at the effects attributed 
to manures in “ backing up ” trees badly affected 
by leaf disease. What happened here, when the 
disease became virulent was that manuring merely 
enabled an affected tree to put on a fresh coat 
of leaves for the fungus to suck the life blood 
out of. But there was a second enemy which 
Was fed, especially by cattle manure, and that 
was the deadly rootlet-devouring white grub. 
While much is said in these Sooth of India letters 
of the ravages of the stem borer (a very minor 
and rare evil in Ceylon) there is not a word eaid 
abont TBS peat which in our case sapped the life 
of the tree at its root, while the fungus destroyed 
crop after crop of foliage, in the elaboration of which 
the unfortunate coffee bush exhausted its energies. 
Happily, tea seems exempt from both of these 
deadly plagues, and as yet no other of much oonse- 
quonce has visited our staple. But as the estates 
advance in age, more or less exhaustion of the 
nutritions elements of the soil will be inevitable. 
The loss must be eupplied, mainly with artiflaial 
manures ; and the information supplied by Mr. 
Pringle must be of value to the planter, in 
bis efforts at effective but economical manuring 
VALUE AND VALUATION OF MANURES: 
FART II. 
Bv William Pbinoi.r, m. b. c.i,, 
AOBICUtTUBAL CHKM18T TO MESIKS. MATHMON & CO. 
( Under tptcial arrangement for puUication in the 
“ Oeylon Ohaerver ” and “ liopical AgrionUurist.") 
Bones os mentioned in Part I have rbosphatea e. 
Trj^Ioio phosphate varying from 39 40 per cunt up to 
57TI8 pet oeiit and Ammonia from 3 01 per cunt up 
to 5'23, taking the cost of standard quality bones on 
the coast say RGO, then the value of the samples 
would bo as follows 
jGtaudard. 
Highest. 
Lowest. 
Phosphates 
48 pec ot. 
. 57'P8 per ot. 
39.40 per ot. 
Ammonia 
PhOB- 
4 „ 
523 „ 
301 „ 
pbaici at 113 
36 
4381 
29-65 
Ammonia at BO 24 
3P38 
18-06 
Tolal value 
R60 
75-19 
47-1 
The buyer pays 1160 for an arliclo that may only 
be worth R47'6l or it may be worth 117519 ; there 
is a money value cf R27T)8 between the bighost and 
the lowest. 
Supposing that 4 owt. of standard quality bones are 
to be used and the poorest quality are supplied it 
will be necessary to use 4 owt. 3 quarters and 
13 lb. nearly 5 cwt, to make the quantity of phos- 
phates equal; while with Aminonia to make it up to 
the standard 5 owt. 1 quarter and 91h. would be 
needed ; so that to make No. 3 equal to the standard 
it wonhl he advisable to odd 30ll>. of 6 per cent oil 
cake to the 4 owt. 3 quarter and 13 lb. of bones 3rd 
quality to bring it up to the equivalent of the standard. 
With the highest quality the whole is reversed. 
Roughly spoakieg. snppr*se the phosphate vslue to bo 
set against the Ammonia, the proportion required 
would be highest 3i cwt. standard 4 owt. and lowest 
5 cwt. that is to get the money equivalent on the 
