Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore / With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planter

by Robert H. Elliot

Burnt earth has been formerly used in Ceylon, and has been recommended by Mr. Pringle for use in Coorg, but I have no experience of its use, but if it pays to use it in Coorg it would pay equally well to do so in Mysore.

Wood ashes are much valued in Ceylon, where they are applied at a cost of 1s. 3½d. a bushel. We buy ashes at 2 annas (less than 3d.) a bushel delivered on the estate. Though costing as much as 1s. 3½d. in Ceylon, Mr. Hughes says they are the cheapest form in which potash can be supplied there.

It should be remembered that the ashes of the stem wood and thick branches are not nearly so valuable as those of young branches and twigs. A good sample of the last-named contains 20½ per cent. of potash and more than 30 per cent. of lime. In many places in the vicinity of the estates much good manure might often be made by cutting down weeds and jungle plants of any kind, burning them, mixed with earth, slowly, and applying the mixture to the coffee.

I have only heard of one planter who used night soil. He had planks pierced with the necessary apertures, underneath which buckets with some soil in each were placed; these were removed daily and emptied into renovation pits in the coffee. Anybody depositing elsewhere was fined, and the fine given to the Toty, who had thus an interest in looking out for defaulters. There can be no doubt that this is an excellent system, and obviously advantageous from a sanitary point of view, and that it could with, ease be carried out on an estate where all the coolies were of the lower castes, but it could not be carried out, and it would be very unwise to attempt it, in the case of an estate on which there are poor members of the better castes. It is even important on such a property to see that no pieces of ordinary paper find their way on to the farmyard manure heap, as, when such has been detected on my property, the women of the better castes refused to carry out the manure.

We have now examined what I may call the local manurial resources, and I propose to consider in detail those manures which have to be imported into the coffee districts from various quarters. Of these manures lime is one of the most important, and as three samples of soil from my property were all found to be very deficient in lime, it is probable that applications of lime are as desirable in Mysore generally as they are in the case of plantations on the Nilgiri slopes. Limestone can be procured from the interior of Mysore, and also from the port of Mangalore. It should always be burnt on the estate. It is a cheaper plan than having it burnt before importing it, and we got, besides, the ashes of the wood used for burning the lime. Lime is as valuable ground as burnt, and when it is ground is not so liable to suffer from rain as burnt lime is. It must not be mixed with bonedust, oil-cake, or potash salts, but should be put down some weeks before these manures. Lime should only be used in small quantities of half a ton or a ton an acre (it is usually used at the latter rate in Ceylon), as a free use of it would favour the escape of ammonia from the soil by too rapidly converting inert into active nitrogen, and, as a neighbour of mine once found, the result would probably be a heavy crop of coffee followed by exhaustion of the tree. Lime might be advantageously used more often where the land is liable to be soured, or where much vegetable matter has accumulated. It should be remembered that, as ashes contain about 30 per cent. of lime, we should diminish the quantity of lime when we have applied ashes. I have said that lime should be used at the rate of half a ton to a ton an acre, but I may remind the reader that Mr. Reilly had found that 4 or 5 cwt. regularly applied every three years was enough, and as to the quantity that should be used, the planter must be largely guided by the local experience. As lime is easily washed out of the soil, it seems to me that more should be applied in the case of a heavy, and less with a light rainfall.

Bonedust has been largely, and I think, as the reader will see from my previous remarks, very wastefully used in manuring coffee. It varies much in quality, and the purchaser would do well to obtain a guarantee as regards its genuineness. Bonedust should be mixed with fine top soil, and then applied to the land, or it may be mixed with cattle manure, or applied as a surface dressing, but either of the two first-named methods of application is to be preferred. In 500 lbs. of bones there are, in round numbers, about 250 lbs. of phosphate of lime, which consists of 125 lbs. of phosphoric acid and as many of lime. I may remind the reader that 5 cwt. of parchment takes from the soil 1 lb. of lime and 1½ lb. of phosphoric acid.

Fish manure is of great value, especially in bringing rapidly on backward or sticky coffee. A sample I have had analyzed contained 7⅓ per cent. of ammonia and nearly 9½ per cent. of phosphate of lime. The whole fish can be imported from the coast, and they should be broken up and mixed with top soil. This is not only advantageous for distributing the manure throughout the land when it is applied, but it is particularly necessary in the case of fish, as I have found by practical experience that, if applied whole and covered with soil, crows, kites, jackals and pigs dig them up and carry them off.

Oil-cakes of various kinds have always been a favourite manure, and it is a particularly desirable one, because the nitrogen in it is in a slowly convertible form. Of all the cakes castor is said to be of the highest manurial value (though an analysis I have had made of ground nut cakes gives a better result in nitrogen), and besides nitrogen it contains phosphate of lime, magnesia, and potash. In an analysis I had made of brown castor oil-cake, i.e., cake made after crushing the entire seeds, there was over 4 per cent. of phosphate of lime, or about equal to 5 per cent. had the cake been white castor, which is made after the seeds have been decorticated. But another sample of brown castor which was analyzed for me, only gave a little more than 2¾ per cent. of phosphate of lime. From this difference, and from the general consideration of the differences of all seeds in particular seasons, and also in some degree from various soils, it seems to me there must often be, from natural causes, a considerable difference in the value of cakes. The attention of purchasers should be directed to these differences; they should obtain, if possible, a guarantee as to the composition of the cakes they buy, and occasionally test the manure.

From what I have said as to the composition of castor cake, it is probable that white castor contains from 4 to 5 per cent. of phosphate of lime, and I desire to call particular attention to this, because oil-cake is usually regarded purely as a nitrogenous source of manure, whereas one of the oil-cakes commonly used—i.e., castor cake—contains an appreciable quantity of that phosphate of lime of which bones are generally considered to be the sole suppliers by the planter. But it is evident that if we annually used 300 lbs. per acre of white castor, we should, even if it contained only 4 per cent. of phosphate of lime, be supplying six times the amount of lime and more than three times the amount of phosphoric acid removed by an average crop of coffee, and though the lime is liable to loss from waste, it must be remembered that the phosphoric acid is firmly retained by the soil. It is important to remember that castor cake should, like bones, be mixed with a considerable quantity of fine top soil, so that the manure may be widely distributed through the soil.

Nitrate of potash, or saltpetre, is an extremely expensive manure, and not a desirable one, because the nitrogen in it is in a too quickly assimilable form, and is very liable to be lost in drainage. But it might be used with effect, and in small quantities, for bringing forward supplies, and I am informed that for this purpose it has been used with advantage in Coorg. I have used the nitrate of potash on my property—an experimental amount only—and it caused the trees to throw out strong and numerous shoots. It should be bought in the form of pure nitre.