Old Wynaad - Excerpts of the Reminiscences of the Old WynaadPlanter(Continued from February 2018 issue of PC)

摘要

After the yield of the maiden crops of Coffee manuring was undertaken to the greatest available extent, but only in a few instances did I ever see this important branch of cultivation carried out systematically, or with any marked degree of success. Agreat variety of artificial manures were imported from England and other countries, and applied at considerable cost with, in the majority of cases, no profitable results whatever. Those manufacture in the country, and consisting of a compound of fish,refuse oil seeds, crushed bones, and other ingredients alike proving of limited utility, resulting from various causes, perhaps not the least formidable of which being the voracious propensities of the white ant, that with unerring instinct quickly discovered the presence in the soil of any of the above-named foreign matters, and crowded in myriads to the feast, and as these substances were of necessity applied during the dry weather the insects had every facility afforded them of consuming the greaterportion of the intended Coffee-food before the rains set in or root action began. Cattle manure, produced at considerable cost, shared the same fate, the white ant being particularly partial to it as an article of food. Many planters, being fully alive to this serious hindrance to the object in view, ceased to expend money on manures altogether, and in consequence were not unfrequently blamed for bad and unthrifty cultivation by persons ignorant of the above facts.