that if you mix the red and white earth together
and apply the mixture to the surface of the land it will never get
dry.[54]

In concluding my remarks on soil applications, I may observe that if top
soil costs the same price as cattle manure, the former is to be preferred
for four reasons. It is much more easily handled and applied; it is a
better substance for mixing with other manures, such as bonedust or ashes,
for instance; it has a better physical effect on the soil; and is nearly
free from weed seeds which abound in cattle manure.

I may add that I have since made a calculation with the object of seeing
how, by the addition of manures to the kemmannu soil, I could make a
mixture which would have all the fertilizing ingredients of farmyard
manure in addition to the advantages possessed by the soil, and which I
have just enumerated. I find that if to 83 parts of the soil I added 1
part of bonedust, 12 parts of castor cake, 2 parts of potash salt, and 2
parts of lime, I should make up a compost equal to good English farmyard
manure, and at but a slightly increased cost, which would be more than
covered by the special physical and other advantages arising from the use
of kemmannu.

The pulp of the coffee is very apt to be carelessly treated, and it is
important to remember that Mr. Hughes, in his "Report on Ceylon Coffee,
Soils, and Manures," estimates that, _if properly preserved_, two tons of
pulp are equal to one ton of good farmyard manure. But it must not be
washed, as it often is by being run into a pulp pit with water, or nearly
all its valuable constituents would be lost. It should be mixed, he tells
us, with cattle dung, or, if that is not procurable, with liberal supplies
of lime, and he also suggests that it should be put under cover day by
day. We have adopted on my property a plan which I think in these climates
is the cheapest and best. A layer of top soil is placed in the road
alongside of the coffee where we desire to use the manure; then each day's
pulp is carted direct to the plantation and scattered over the top soil,
and more top soil added, till we have a layer as thick as we find
convenient, but of course not so thick as to prevent carts passing over it
to other parts of the plantation. On these layers of pulp and top soil
lime or bonedust may be sprinkled.

Dry fallen leaves is another local resource which should by no means be
neglected, and they are commonly used for littering the cattle sh