ven particular attention, though I was, of
course, well aware of its value in a general way, and may begin by
stating that two samples of what we were using on my estates have been
analyzed by Dr. Voelcker, the object being partly to ascertain the value
of the soil and partly to compare its cost with the cost of cattle manure.
After estimating the cost of making cattle manure, and calculating as
closely as possible the cost of obtaining and applying jungle top soil
from land adjacent to the plantation, it was found that in the case of the
best sample of top soil, obtained by removing only four or five inches of
the soil, it paid nearly twice as well to use it as a manurial agent as it
would to use cattle manure, and I may add that three tons of the soil
contain the same manurial matter as two tons of ordinary well-made English
farmyard manure. In the case of the second sample analyzed, and which I
was sure from the character of the land must be of inferior quality, it
was found that 2-1/4 tons of the soil would contain as much manurial value
as one ton of farmyard manure, and that the cost of using the two
materials would be about the same.

I had also analyzed at the same time a sample of a kind of decayed
pink-coloured rock, as I had found that coffee had thriven well in the
pink soil which had evidently been formed from the rock in question, but
the manurial value was so small that Dr. Voelcker thought that it might
merely be of use in improving the physical condition of the soil. I
however applied it to some backward coffee, and also applied some of the
best top soil to a contiguous piece of backward coffee, and was much
surprised to find that the pink soil, to which little direct manurial
value was attached by Dr. Voelcker, showed results superior to the best
top soil applied alongside of it, and I am now applying it on a large
scale. This soil, I may mention, is applied by the natives to the surface
of their vegetable beds. They do not attach any manurial value to it, but
apply it to keep the vegetables cool, as the soil has quite a remarkable
effect in keeping itself cool while the adjacent soil is quite hot, and I
have now applied it to the flower beds near my house, and also to the
walks around the bungalow. This pink decayed rock is sometimes streaked
with a white decayed rock, which the natives call jadi mannu, and
sometimes the latter so much preponderates that it looks nearly white. I
am told by the natives