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 1-1/2 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 7-1/3 per cent.
of ammonia and nearly 9-1/2 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 2-3/4 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
occasio