Vol. III. No. 55. 



THE AGKICULTUEAL NEWS. 



165 



COTTON NOTES. 



Cotton Factory at Grenada. 



The following announcement relating to the 

 opening of a cotton fiictor}' at Grenada, appeared in the 

 public telegrams of May 12 : — 



At a meeting to-day of leading gentlemen highly 

 representative of the commercial, agricultural and mercantile 

 interests of the colony, at which also were present, his 

 Excellency Sir Robert Llewelyn, Lady Llewelyn, Miss Gladys 

 Llewelyn and Sir Daniel Morris, the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture for the West Indies, a large cotton ginning 

 and baling factory, erected by Jlr. L. IJ. Mitchell, was 

 formally opened at the upper end of the Careenage, 

 St. George's. The machinery was erected by Mr. J. C. 

 McQueen, and is the first cotton factory erected in the island 

 since the American Civil War. 



Cotton Experiments at St. Lucia. 



The Agricultural Instructor at St. Lucia has selected 

 the following localities for cotton experiment plots to be 

 started under the auspices of the St. Lucia Agricultural 

 Society and the Imperial Department of Agriculture : — 

 Laborie, at Saphir estate ; Souf riere, at Petit Delcert estate ; 

 Castries, at Vide Bouteille estate ; Groa Islet, at Ileduit 

 estate ; Dennery, at Anse Canot estate, and Micoud, at Mde. 

 Micoud estate. 



Each plot will l»e divided into three sections : section 1 

 to contain Sea Island cotton, planted May-June ; section 2, 

 Lapland cotton, planted ilay-.June ; and section 3, Sea Island 

 cotton, jilanted September-October. 



Full instructions on cultural and other points are being 

 issued to each plot owner and special stress is being laid on 

 the necessity for the land being thoroughly forked before 

 planting. In addition to these plots, there will l>e 3 acres 

 planted in Sea Island and LTpland cotton on land adjoining 

 the Agricultural School at Union, and 3 to 5 acres will be 

 planted with varieties of cotton at the Eiviere Doree 

 Experiment Station. 



History of Cotton in the West Indies. 



Sir George Watt, Kt., C.I.E., M.B., CM., LL.D., 

 Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of 

 India, delivered a lecture at the West India Committee 

 Rooms on April 19 on 'Cotton Improvement.' The 

 lecturer gave an interesting account of the history of 

 cotton. We reproduce his remarks relating to the 

 history of cotton in the West Indies : — 



It is believed that in 1657 cotton had actually been 

 experimentally grown on some of the sugar estates of 

 Barbados. We also read that early in the 18 th. century 

 cotton had become an imiiortant auxiliary crop in .Jamaica, 

 Trinidad and elsewhere in the West Indies. Several writers 

 allude to at least two, if not three, of the best known cotton 

 plants of the world as having been found in a truly wild 

 state in the West Indies. As already indicated, they 

 supplied America with its finest seed, but the cultivation of 

 cotton in these islands seems to have been given up in favour 

 of sugar, thus leaving the American growers an absolutely 

 free market in the British supply. There is nothing to 

 show that the retirement of the West Indies was in any 

 sense due to inability to produce cottons as fine as, if not finer 

 than those grown in America. On the contrary, it seems 



fairly certain that the most prized cottons of the world (at 

 the present day) all, or nearly all, originated in these islands. 

 The American and West Indian series foi-in an assemblage 

 very distinct from that of the Old World. The leaves are 

 very much larger, broader, nothing like so deeply segmented, 

 and the bracteoles much more laciniate than those of India, 

 China, Africa, and Egypt. Being also very highly cultivated 

 states the seeds are mostly naked, after the removal of the 

 long, silky floss. But due to their higher cultivation they 

 are collectively much more liable to the ravages of pests and 

 blights than are the Indian cottons. The so-called short 

 staples of the American series are usually longer than the 

 long staples of India. But as manifesting the great progress 

 made by the American farmers, it may be added that the 

 short staples of the New World belong for the most [lart to 

 the Occidental series already mentioned. 



The New World it will thus be seen had been rapidly 

 and most successfully established as an important source of 

 supply in competition with the Old, and what was to India 

 an even more serious aspect, the American and West Indian 

 cottons were early recognized as superior to those of Asia. 

 In a remarkably short time, therefore, the whole aspect of 

 the cotton trade of the world changed. India fell into a 

 position of secondary iiniiortance. The West Indies gave 

 attention to indigo in preference to cotton, as their auxiliary 

 crop, but soon abandoned indigo and concentrated attention 

 on sugar. America, on the other hand, gave cotton produc- 

 tion a prominent position in its agricultural enterprise, and 

 with surprising rapidity distanced India both in quality and 

 quantity. Instead of furnishing Euroi)e with raw cotton 

 and cotton goods, India now became dependent on England 

 for her own supplies of the finer cotton textiles, and a large 

 import trade was in consequence established. "The triumph 

 was thus complete of improved mechanical contrivances and 

 intelligent agriculture over hereditary skill and child-like 

 traditions. 



CASTILLOA RUBBER SEEDS. 



The following note on the packing of castilloa 

 rubber seeds for transport is taken from the Consular 

 Re/xirt on Samoa for 1903 : — 



It is generally understood that great difficulties exist in 

 obtaining seeds of the Castilloa elastica in good condition 

 from long distances. These difficulties would not be so great 

 if the senders of the seeds would observe certain e.ssential 

 points, viz.: 1st., the seeds must be perfectly ripe, and should 

 not be allowed to stand any length of time before packing ; 

 2nd., they must not be packed in too large quantities — a tin 

 box, 6 by 4 by 2 inches, will hold 250 seeds (of course there 

 are exception.s, such as a person travelling with the seeds 

 giving them personal attention) ; 3rd., the packing (powdered 

 charcoal) should be wetted at least twenty-four hours before 

 using and when used should not be too wet. In packing place 

 a layer of the moist charcoal in the tin box, and then set in 

 rows the seeds, leaving a little .space between each seed, then 

 another layer of charcoal and so on until full. Seeds packed in 

 this manner under ordinarily favourable conditions should 

 keep in a slow growing condition for forty days. If the ger- 

 mination should happen to be rapid, or the box be a long time 

 in transit, and the seeds when the box is opened be found to 

 have grown into one another, then the sides of the tin box 

 should be cut down in several places and the block lifted out 

 intact ; afterwards, by carefully teasing the rootlets apart 

 with two pieces of pointed wood, most of the contents can be 

 used. 



