e 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