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Voelcker, the object being partly to ascertain the value of the soil and partly to compare its cost with the cost of cattle manure.
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.
Prof. Voelcker, in a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, shows pretty conclusively that even the use of the same earth four or five times over, although perfectly successful in accomplishing the chief purpose of deodorization, fails to add to it a sufficient amount of fertilizing matter to make it an available commercial manure.
A sample of the following six kinds which are most approved of by the natives namely, Japel, Nairal, Ubble, Gowl, Mutty and Hunchotee, was analyzed by Dr. Voelcker, and the result gave 1/4 per cent. phosphate of lime, 3/4 per cent. of potash, 1 per cent. of lime, and 3/4 per cent. of nitrogen.
A discovery of phosphatic nodules has also been made near Trichinopoly, in the Madras Presidency, and though not of quality sufficiently good for export to England, has been reported on by Dr. Voelcker as being good enough for use amongst the plantations of Southern India. A deposit has also been discovered in the Cuddapah district.
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.
Samples of the guano have been sent home, and have been analysed by Messrs. VOELCKER & CO. It is rich in ammonia and nitrogen and has been valued at £5 to £7 a ton in England. The bat-guano is said to be richer as a manure than that derived from the swifts.
A sample of this material has recently been analyzed by Prof. Atwater, at the Connecticut Agricultural Station at Middletown. The analysis shows that it contains no more organic matter than Prof. Voelcker found in fresh earth prepared for use in the closet, say about two hundred pounds, nearly all of which organic matter it undoubtedly contained when first made ready for use.
Voelcker, and the result gave 1 per cent. of phosphate of lime, 1 per cent. of ammonia, and 3/4 per cent. of potash. Green twigs cut from jungle trees are of considerable manurial value, and the natives seem well aware of the value of the different kinds.
The special jury consisted of the following: Alfred Upward, Augustus Voelcker, Captain Alfred Henry Waldy, Thomas Richard Walker, Robert Wallace, Edmund Waller, Arthur Walter, Charles Alfred Walter, John Ward, Arthur Warre; the two talesmen, who were afterwards added to make up the number, were George Skinner and Charles Wilson.
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