Soil Erosion on Tea Estates

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The current number of the Agricultural Journal of India contains an interesting contribution by Mr. R. D. Anstead, M. A. the Deputy Director of Agriculture, on the prevention of Soil Erosion on tea Estates in Southern India. The problem presented on many Estates in South India is how to stop soil erosion in old established tea and with the object of solving this problem in a practical and economic manner two methods have been adopted with success. The first is a modification of what is known as Java terracing work. At the time of pruning trenches are opened along the contours of the slope at intervals of four or five rows of tea bushes. These trenches are put in with a road tracer and made 1 ft. to 2 ft. deep and in them the tea prunings are buried, the upper layer of pruning being packed so that the butts project from the ground level when the trench is filled up 6 or 8 inches. The soil in the intervening rows of tea is then forked and manured, if necessary, and in some green dressing crop is sown on it. The fence of buried prunings serves to catch any soil which is At the washed down from above and retains it. next pruning season, the terraces are repaired and improved and new ones made in the same way. This method has been found to stop soil erosion to a very marked extent and it is coming much into favour on moderately steep slopes. The second method used is to abandon forking and clean weeding on very steep slopes, and to keep the soil covered all the time by some selected weed. This method of dealing with steep slopes has been found successful, It is sometimes thought that forking prevents soil erosion but this is far from being the case. Experiments carried out in Ceylon showed that the erosion from a forked surface was more than from a similar surface kept clean weeded. The method adopted is to establish some particular weed by means of selective weeding. This is kept in situ all the time; the utmost that is done is to sickle it and clean it from round the bases of the tea bushes. In this way soil erosion has been almost entirely prevented even on the steepest of banks and in heavy rains the run off is clear instead of being laded with silt. Moreover the weeds accumulate the humus and add by their decomposition a valuable surface layer to the soil which is retained. A number of weeds are used for this purpose, the ideal plant being a leguminous one, which will fix the nitrogen in the soil, a plant

which does not either climb into the tea bushes or make too thick a mat on the ground and one which grows only a few inches high. The intelligent use of weeds has gone far to overcome a form of soil erosion which has in the past caused a great loss of soil and done a lot of damage in some parts of the tea districts of Travancore, It is to be hoped that those planters who still find the soil erosion problem a serious one will main tain a permanent crop of selected weeds to stop the loss of surface soil or adopt the terracing work.

Agricultural Bulletins

The Agricultural Research institute at Puss have just issued two valuable bulletins, one on South Indian Coccidae by T. V. Ramakrishna Ayyar (As 14) and the other on South Indian insects (Re 1-4). South Indian Coccidae have not been systematically studied so far as they are so small as to deceive observation and on account of the fact that they are not to be found here in such large numbers as in America, Australia and other countries, where they have done the grea test havoc to nurseries, gardens and orchards. Coccidae have a fascination for fruit and attack fruit bearing plants generally. The plant attacked does not die but its growth is interfered with, with the result that the crop is reduced both in its quality and quantity. Mr. T. V. Ramakrishna Ayyar, the Acting Government Entomologist, Madras has given in this excellent publication a brief life-history, the enemies and the classifica tion of these insects, which are commonly found in South India with special reference to those having some economic importance.

The Second Hundred Notes on Indian insects is a further contribution to the useful informa tion on the subject of the names, habits, lifehistories and occurrence of some of the myriads of the insect pests that are a bane to man, animal and plant in India. The details that are most interesting to people in this province are those relating to the weevil that has been causing great destruction in Bellary among water melons, and the discovery of a new type of mosquito, the 'Cule X Nilgiricus' at Ootacamund. Another very interesting note relates to the Eyefly and Mr. Ramakrishna Ayyar states that the mango has nothing whatever to do either with the origin or the propagation of the Eyefly. The bulletin which is profusely illustrated contains a great deal of matter of intense interest to the householder and the agriculturist.

Handbook of Commercial Information for India. By C. W. E. Cotton, 1.C.S., Superintendent, Government Printing, Calcutta (also G. A. Natesan and Co., Madras.) This valuable handbook is specially designed to give a bird's-eye view of the foreign trade of British India. The earlier chapters deal with the principal ports and harbours and enumerate their respective facilities for trade. There is also a detailed account of the leading commercial organisations and their activities. "In the case of every article of present or potential importance" says the author in the preface "an attempt has been made to specify the areas in which it is obtainable, the port or ports from which it is shipped, the method of marketing and the unit of sale and shipment." The book is supplied with a map, index and appendices to facilitate easy reference.

By

Two famous Madras Memorials
Lieut.-Col. H. A. Newell, 1.A., Higginbothams
Ltd., Madras,

Now that the question of suitable peace memorials is exciting widespread attention Col. Newell's account of the two famous Madras Memorialsthe Banqueting Hall and the Memorial Hall,— will be read with special interest. The author gives a clear and detailed account of these two historic buildings which are handsomely presented in the pictures appended to the pamphlet. Essays on Indian Economic Problems. By Brij Narain, M.A.,-The Panjabee Electric Press Lahore. pp. 307. price Rs. 2-8-0.

The keynote of the book is to show that the advocates of a purely national science of economics for India have yet to show that general economic principles do not apply to our country under present conditions and to maintain that Indian economics is not a science with peculiar laws or principles or any proposed solutions of Indian economic problems, or any new method or methods of dealing with them." Indian economic studies can show us how the laws of economics work in India, but cannot become the basis of a new science of economics; and their chief value consists in explaining and illustrating the operations of economic laws.

The professor points out that the motives and features of production in India are the same as in the manufacturing countries of the west, and he opposes Prof. Radhakamal Mukherji's dicta that in our productive system, based as it is on land,

there is only exploitation of nature by man and consequently no exploitation of one class by another and that our economic organisation is very stable, never getting out of joint and knowing no economic disasters. Again the author is of the opinion, that the rise in prices has increased Indian prosperity, and led to an increase of wealth and a more general diffusion of it. He supplements this statement by another that "there has indeed been a very great increase in the annual income of India," though he adds with caution that some sections of the population have been adversely affected. The annual income of India, its national dividend, has considerably increased during the last 15 or 20 years, though here again, there could be postulated no necessary connection between the increase in the national income and the increase in the economic well-being of the people. The author urges, that as in the case of Japan, a discriminating protective tariff will stimulate our agricultures as well as our industries. His views on the numerous burning topics of current interest, the inflation of prices during the war, the economic basis of the Punjab unrest, the export duty on wheat and its effect, paper currency during the war, the export duty on hides and skins-are eminently sane and suggestive. Daily Mail Year Book, 1920. Edited by David Williamson, Associated Newspapers, Ltd., London.

The twentieth edition of this useful handbook is enriched with a number of special articles by distinguished writers. The book is packed with information on a variety of topics.

Pandit Motilal Nehru: His Life and Speeches By Kapil Deva Malaviya, M.A., Allahabad Law Journal Press, Allahabad. This book contains the Pundit's Presidential addresses to the Allahabad Provincial Conference and the Lucknow Special Conference, besides his views on the Punjab tragedy and the Montagu Reforms. Mr. Kapil Deva Malaviya supplies an interesting study of the Pundit's life and character.

Diaries and Calenders. Hoe and Co.,

Madras.

We are obliged to Messrs. Hoe and Co., Madras, Printers and Stationers for a handsome little gem Diary, a pocket diary packed with much useful information, an office wall calender and a blotting pad.

Literary

Mr. Edmund Gosse

In our last number we published the address presented to Mr. Edmund Gosse on his 70th birthday by his numerous friends and admirers. Writing to Lord Crewe, Mr. Gosse says in the course of his reply :—

"The wonderful letter with which you and the two hundred friends have startled me on my 70th birthday has filled me with an amazement which renders me almost incapable of speech.***

"All my life through, happiness has flowed in upon me through two channels, literature and my friends; and it is precisely through these, on this culminating occasion, that I am made fortunate and rich. This is no moment for coyness or mock modesty; I simply bask in the glow of so much goodness, and if my long life had been as impoverished as it has been pleasant and merry, this instant alone would redeem all its deficiencies.

"One of yourselves (dear Maurice Hewlett) has wittily said that The best way to make a man write better is to tell him that he has already written well!' If this be partly true, it should not be altogether too late for me to make myself worthy of your indulgent praise, which would then be merely antedated. It is due to your gracious sympathy that I should tell you that I feel in myself, in spite of the unavoidable three score years and ten, no flagging yet in my life-long passion for letters, nor in my eager curiosity regarding the immediate present and the probable future of the art of writing. I shall not admit that I am really old until this passion fades away. Long years have taken from me little as yet except limitations and prejudices, leaving, I hope, my horizon wider and my ardours more universal. You encourage me in the hope that I may even continue to pass on the lamp of enthusiasm to others.

The New Novel

Mr. John Galsworthy, in his new novel, "Saints' Progress," says:

"Life's going to be the important thing in the future, not comfort and cloistered virtue and security, but living. All the old traditions and drags on life are in the melting pot. Regrets and repinings and repressions are going out of fashion. We shall have no time or use for them in the future."

Should a Critic Criticise?

Should a critic criticise a book of which he does not approve merely because that book is written by a more or less famous man?

This point has arisen in connection with a severe criticism of Bernard Shaw's new book of plays by Mr. J. C. Squire, in Land and Water. Mr. Massingham, in the Nation, criticised Mr. Squire's criticism. Now Arnold Bennett rejects Mr. Massingham's criticism of Mr. Squire. He says:

'I can conceive no reason why Mr. Squire should sit humbly' at Mr. Shaw's feet instead of saying with frankness what he thinks about Mr. Shaw's work. Mr. Shaw is probably thirty years older than Mr. Squire, but is literary criticism to be governed by considerations of age? Mr. Squire has made a position for himself as one of the most accomplished and powerful literary critics in England, and in the exercise of the craft of which he is a master he is under no obligation to sit humbly at anybody's feet.

"If Mr. Squire either repents' or 'apologises for' his article I shall be sorry, and I know others who will be sorry."

Says Newman Prig, "He's best defined
As one who has a cultured mind "
Says Midas, "Culture? Blood? Pooh! Dash!
The true criterion is cash."

Says Priest," He is in thought, deed, word,
A Christ-like person-Church preferred."
Says Books.
"Whoever in he lets,

He never fails to pay bis bets."
""Ts clear enough he's one," says Shirk,
"Who for his living dosen't work."
"A pal," cries Bella Flapps. "who's prime
At giving girls a top-hole time."

"A real gent," says Ikey Chink,
"Don't know the price of any thing."
Between these various views they voice,
Come pay your cash and take your choice.