i88 
Outturn. 
Rs. A. P. 
Grain, 8 maunds 26 seers % Rs. 3 2 per maund = 27 0 6 
Straw, 11 mauncis 28 seers (<> annas 2 per maund - 1 7 6 
•Total ... ... 28 8 0 
Balance ... ... 17 4 3 
or Rs. 34-8- per acre, which, after deducting a half-year’s rent, leaves 
a very satisfactory profit. 
(Mr. Percy W. Goodwin, in Quarterly Journal of Bengal Agricul- 
tural Dept). 
NOTES ON “SOIL AND PLANT SANITATION ” 
ON CACAO AND RUBBER ESTATES. 
This is the title of a small work by Mr. H. Hamel Smith, the 
Editor of Tropical Life, which has recently been received by us. The 
book opens with an introduction by Professor Wyndham Dunston, of 
the Imperial Institute, who calls attention to the proposals to found 
an Agricultural College in the Tropics, for training young men in 
tropical agriculture. The book itself consists of notes and articles 
on the hygiene and sanitation of plants in the tropics, chiefly of 
Cacao anci Rubber, with special articles by Fawcett, Hermessen, 
Johnson and others on rubber and its cultivation. The question of 
protective belts is dealt with and their use and value shown. Stump- 
pulling forms another chapter and some of the machines used are 
described. Somehow machines for extracting roots have not proved 
very suitable for the forest trees of the Malay Peninsula, and most 
planters seem to prefer the wo-k with thechangkol. Green manuring 
is next dealt with and the different plants used are mentioned. Valu- 
able as this form of manuring is, it is difficult to understand exactly 
what is meant by Tephrosia being a suitable plant for “clearing the 
land of troublesome or dangerous weeds.” It may be used as a 
substitute for other weeds and as a green manure cut down at 
intervals and dug in, and as a nitrogenous plant may prove useful, 
but it certainly will not kill out lalang, the only ‘‘weed” which seems 
to be really injurious in the east. 
A considerable list of green dressing plants is given, especially 
of those used in the West Indies, and looking through the list in 
which such cold climate plants as Cickory, Melilot, Vetches, Rape and 
Cabbages appear, impresses upon the reader ,the fact that what will 
be successful in one part of the warmer regions of the world will be 
undoubtedly a failure in the hot equatorial regions. The same idea 
strikes one on reading of the machinery, manures, etc., recommended 
throughout the book. How often have we of late years seen in various 
agricultural Journals the strongest recommendations of valuable 
