Vol. III. No. 5-t. 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



153 



Cotton Ginneries in the West Indies. 



An article on this subject appeared in the 

 Ayrh- u.ltwral Nevis for February 27. It was there 

 stated that 'in regard to all these ginneries it is 

 desirable to place on record an appreciation of the 

 very active part taken in their establishment by the 

 British Cotton Growing Association.' This is not quite 

 correct, as we leai-n that the ginneries erected by 

 Messrs. Sendall and Wade at St. Kitt's and ilontserrat 

 received no support from the British Cotton Growing 

 Association. The whole cost, including their erection, 

 was borne by the firm named. 



Copra in Samoa. 



The only important export from Samoa at the 

 jjresent time is copra. The Consular Report for 1903 

 states that the value of the exports of copra was 

 £68,-520, or over 98 per cent, of the total value of 

 exports. There was a serious decline in the value of 

 copra exported owing to a drop in price from £14 to 

 £9 l-5.«. per ton, f o. b. The S3'dney market absorbs 

 from 3,000 to 4,000 tons of Samoan copra j'early, the 

 product being used in the manufacture of oil and soap. 



The only other products of any value are cacao 

 {some 2,000 acres having been planted up to the 

 present), kawa or kava (the root oi Piper methysticum 

 which has narcotic properties), and a little fruit. 

 Attempts are being made to establish the cultivation 

 of rubber trees. 



Exports of Jamaica. 



The Colonial Report on Jamaica for the year 

 1902-3 gives some interesting statistics with regard to 

 the island's exports. 



From the table of the exports of the ten leading 

 products of the island it is seen that bananas occupy 

 the first place, yielding £1,134,750, or more than one- 

 half of the total value of the exports for the year. The 

 value of the other fresh fruit exported was as follows : 

 oranges, £101,0.54; grape fruit, £9,189; pine-apples, 

 £2,932 ; mangos, £005 ; limes, £502. The total value 

 of perishable fruit exported was 56 per cent, of the 

 total exported produce of the island. 



It is pointed out in this rejjort that, however 

 valuable the development of the fruit trade might be, 

 it could hardly be regarded as satisfactory that the 

 island should only have been saved from a decline by the 

 increase in the exports of so precarious a staple as 

 bananas. ' These remarks, ' it is stated, ' have been 

 regrettably emphasized by the devastation effected by 

 the cj'clone of August 11, 1903.' 



There was an increase in the values of the exports 

 ■of sugar and rum ; the total for the two products was 

 £324,244, placing them second on the list of exports. 

 The next staple on the list is coffee. Although the 

 output increased during the year, the value, owing to 

 low prices, was over £20,000 less than in the previous 

 year. It is pointed out that the salvation of this 

 industry is only to be looked for in improvement in 

 methods of cultivation and curing. The Blue Mountain 

 coffee is a product of a special class and always obtains 

 a more or less satisfoctory price. 



"Woolly Pyrol for Green Dressing. 



Foremost among the })lants used in the West 

 Indies for green dressing is the woolly pyrol (Bolichos 

 Laljlab). This leguminous plant is veiy commonly 

 used in Barbados, where it gives excellent results 

 when ploughed into the soil. As this plant is a low, 

 bushy grower, it has been suggested for planting with 

 young cacao trees for the purpose of nitrogen fixation. 



At the Agricultural Conference of 1900 (see 

 West Indian Bulletin, Vol I, pp. 218-9), a discussion 

 took place as to whether leguminous plants grown in 

 shade, as for example, under old cacao trees, were 

 capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. With the 

 object of arriving at a definite conclusion on this point, 

 it has been arranged for experiments to be carried out 

 at St. Lucia and Grenada with woolly joyrol as 

 a green dressing for cacao plantations. It is proposed to 

 endeavour to obtain in each island half a dozen plots of 

 cacao of about | acre, three being in j^oung cacao, where 

 the leguminous plants would obtain a fair amount of 

 sunlight, and three plots of fully grown cacao where 

 the ground is completely shaded. Seeds of the woolly 

 pyrol have been forwarded to St. Lucia and Grenada 

 for the carrying out of these experiments, which -will 

 be reported upon in due course. 



Cotton Seed OU Industry in India. 



The Agricultural Ledjer {IdOS — No. 9) is devoted 

 to a discussion on the cotton seed oil industry and the 

 establishment of cotton seed oil mills in India. The 

 following brief summary is likely to be of interest : — 



Cotton seed has always been a ■\-aluable agri- 

 cultural product in Egypt and India. In America, 

 where cotton seed was at one time practically a waste 

 product, oil mills with machinery for delinting, hulling 

 and pressing the seed are now extensively established. 

 The refined oil is exported as a substitute for butter and 

 lard, and also used locally for the manufacture of soap 

 and salad oil. The cake is both exported and used in 

 the country. 



The introduction of the American methods into 

 India would, from an agricultural point of view, be 

 preferable to a large export of cotton seed, provided 

 the cake is kept in the country. The export of oil 

 removes nothing which would add to the fertility of the 

 soil, whereas the export of the cake, which might be 

 used as a cattle food or directly as a manure, would be 

 an agricultural loss. 



Very large quantities of oil seeds are exported 

 from India, including linseed, rape seed, sesamum, 

 cotton seed, poppy .seed and earth nuts. The drain of 

 oil seed exports from India is ver}' severe on the 

 agricultural resources of the country, and the more 

 unsatisfactory because manufactured products obtained 

 therefrom are re-imported and these help in no degree 

 to return fertilty to the land. 



On account of the difficulty of freeing the seed 

 from lint, cotton seed oil cannot easily be j)i'essed in 

 the villages as is done with other oil seeds. Conse- 

 quently it is practically unknown in India, although 

 excellent feeding stuff's are made from ground nuts, 

 rape seed, sesamum, etc. 



