United States or New Zealand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In my case, there was an addition, at a moderate calculation of at least, 800 pounds of solid dry matter during the six years' use by an average of four adult persons. Prof. Voelcker's analysis showed that the unused earth contained about twelve pounds of nitrogen. Prof. Atwater's analysis shows that my two tons contained only about eleven pounds of nitrogen.
This growth of new rootlets, I may add, was also observed in another part of the plantation to which, a top dressing of the red earth had been applied. Voelcker's work, "The Improvement of Indian Agriculture," which contains other analyses of interest to the planter. This important work should, I may repeat, be in the hands of all those interested in tropical cultivations.
Voelcker's sample was somewhat different from the original constitution of my own; but practically, except perhaps for the addition of a trifling amount of residual carbon remaining after the decomposition, they were about the same; and, after being used ten times over, the whole of the 800 pounds of organic matter added, including 230 pounds of nitrogen, seem to have entirely disappeared.
Word Of The Day