, 1872-06-19

a non-cuLirated, and perhaps over a century of
cultivated, period, / a time will come when the pro-
duce of these soils will gradually diminish year
after year.
This state of things has arrived in more than
one of our largest estates in British Guiana hence
the numerous efforts made within recent times
with various kinds of artificial manures. On q
soil which has not yet had time to become partial
Iv exhausted, especially III some OF the Jamaica
soils, where lime is present in sufficient quantity,
almost any kind of artificial manure will prove
more or less serviceable, and guano, sulphate or
ammonia, and superphosphate, if appled with pro-
per care, will undoubtedly produce good effects.
But it is very different upon a soil which has lost
so much of it's available mineral ingredients that
lining has become necessary as we'll as good sup
plies of staple manure. In the first place super
phosphate and phospho-guano, by their acid ma
ture, are, in my opinion, prejudlclal to the Cane
and to any plant of the same family. Unless
their acid can be at once neutralised by the potash,
lime, oxide of iron, or other bases present in the
soil, or supplied with those manures, they will not
do for the Cane what they do for the turnlp III
Europe. Every sugar grower is aware that acids
transform Cane Sugar into grape sugar or glucose
an inferior kind Of Sugar, which IS less sweet
less crystalline, and less soluble i'll water than the
other. And it has been also observed that plants
OF fruits which possess distinctly acid or sour Jul
ces, Weld this grape Sugar, whilst those which
have little acid in thcir sap, contain mostly Cane
Sugar. This is why | have more than once re-
commended planters to avoid the use OF acid man
uros and acid refuse from distillerics, OF boiling
houses. Moreover, the soils themselves are ire
quently very acid, especially those which arc
overw0rked. | discovered this one day by placing
moist samples of Demcrara soils upon blue lltmus
paper, which they soon turn red; not only were
the most acid soils those which yielded the small
est crops, but some samples OF the Sugar grown
thereon were extremely acid, and yielded on ana
lysis as much as ) or e per cent of glucose.
Unfortunately the two best manures above named,
Peruvian guano and sui phate of ammonia, supply
scarcely anything to the soil in comparison to what
is supplied by natural farmyard manure, or the Urban
Cane manure made from excreta. The ashes OF the
pressed cane or mGgass, which Is used as tueI, d. not
as some PERSONS thought, restore to the SOL every
thing that the Cane has except the carbonlc ACID, no
orally supplied by the air, whence the Sugar IS de-
riyei.'' This opinion is erroneous. The condition
fthe mineral matter in the Caneash is not that which
siInilable. This reminds me of Boussingaults eXpe-
riment, in which he tested the efficacy of the mineral
Ingredients of manure alone a ton of stable manure
was burnt, and the ashes applied to the soil, while an
other ton of the natural product was placed upon an
adjacent field, having a soil of the same composition:
the ash gave no crop that could be compared with
that produced by the unburnt manure. This Caneash
may, however, supply a certain amount OF potash ana
lime, besides which it contributes towards keeping up
the p5fosity Of the soil therefore wief6 the ash Is
produced | have always ~mmen its use II
mirht with advantage be mixed with a little super
phosphate, and about one tenth of good Peruvian qua
10, or it may be better incorporated together with
farmyard dung in a compost heap.
fIo be concluded.)