Vol. III. No. 58. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



213 



COTTON NOTES. 



Cotton Cultivation in Montserrat. 



The following review of the past .season in 

 Montserrat, with regard to cotton growing, has been 

 prepared by Mr. A. J. Jordan, the Curator: — 



It is now possible to review with certainty the past 

 season's experience, as the whole of the crop has been 

 gathered and, with the exception of a few hundred pounds, 

 ginned. Forty-six thousand pounds of lint have already 

 been marketed, and the price obtained for this has ranged 

 between 10(7. and Is. 2(/. per lb. There are 4,000 It), more 

 lint to be shipped, making a total for last season's crop 

 of 50,000 It), 'rhree hundred and thirty-four bags of cotton 

 seed have also been shipi)ed. 



The estate which did best was Trants where, taking 

 advantage of the wet weather in May, when there was 

 a rainfall of 6"-12 inches, the seeds were sown in that month. 

 Although 15 acres gave no returns, owing to the land being 

 exposed to the sea winds, the total amount of lint obtained 

 was U,000 ft. 



No cotton planted late did well. The planting extended 

 from May to November and the returns show that the later 

 the seeds were .sown the smaller was the yield, thus confirm- 

 ing the experience of the two previous years. 



It is estimated that the leaf-blister mite did damage to 

 the amount of £2,000, and that the so-called ' black boll ' is 

 respon.sible for a further loss of some £3,000 sterling. 



It has been demonstrated that the leaf-blister mite can 

 be kept in check by the application of sulphur and lime. 



Two tliou.sand, eight hundred and thirty pounds of the 

 improved variety of cotton seed imported by the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture have already been distributed 

 this year. Another thousand £)ounds is required but cannot 

 be obtained, owing to the delay in orders reaching the 

 Department. Five sowings of this seed have been made in 

 boxes. The highest returns gave 95 per cent, of plants the 

 lowest 68 per cent. ; the mean was 81 "8 per cent. The seeds 

 had been disinfected. 



Experiments in St. Kitt's-Nevis. 



Mr. F. R. Shepherd, Acting Curator of the 

 Botanic Station at St. Kitt's, has forwarded the follow- 

 ing note on the experimental cultivation of cotton at 

 Conaree estate, kindly prepared by the manager : — 



You asked me sometime ago to reckon the cotton trees 

 on the small patch you examined and to let you know the 

 quantity with a few remarks, which I now do. 



Nund)er of cotton trees, .3,109; planted October 23, 

 1903, on the centres of land prepared for cane on every 

 other row, that is, 1 feet by 4 feet. 



The entire field was fairly manured under the banks 

 with i)en manure mixed with .sea weed; no extra attention 

 was paid to the spot used for cotton. 



Seed-cotton reaped to date from same patch, 2,494 lb. 

 I am quite sure it will give 600 ft. more. 



I have just commenced to pull up all trees on which 

 there are no fully developed bolls, as I cannot wait for 

 those now appearing. 



While growing the trees were not attacked by the 

 cotton worm and appeared quite healthy until within the 

 last two weeks, when a few liave been attacked by the leaf- 

 blister mite : these I am pulling up and burning. 



What I was particularly struck with was that all the 

 bolls on the trees came to maturity, none dropping. 



I counted the Isolls on several trees, over 200 on each, 

 one had on 287, and another 263. 



Some of the trees still have on 100 bolls. The cane 

 plants were planted at the end of November. 



We regret that an unfortunate error occurred in 

 the report of the results of the cotton experiments at 

 Nevis, published on p. 149 of this volume. 



The actual area of each of the plots (A,B,C,D) is 

 tV -icre, the total area is, therefore, -^ acre, and not iV 

 acre as stated. The total yield from the four plots 

 should be recorded as at the rate of 475 lb. of seed- 

 cotton per acre. 



St. Lucia. 



The following notice, signed by Mr. J. C. Moore, 

 Agricultural Superintendent, appeared in the St. Lucia 

 OjjUcial Gazette of June 4: — 



The Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West 

 Indies has placed at the Agricultural School, Union, a Single- 

 acting Hand-power Macarthy Cotton Gin, received from the 

 British Cotton Growing Association. 



Cotton growers are invited to call and see the gin, and 

 bring samples of Sea Island cotton for trial. 



Growers of small lots of Sea Island cotton in the 

 Gros-Islet District who experience difficulty in getting their 

 cotton ginned, and desire to obtain the temporary use of this 

 machine, should apply to the Agricultural Superintendent at 

 Union who will e.xplain the conditions under which per- 

 mission may be granted for the free use of the gin. 



Cotton Seed Cake and Meal. 



Attention has often been drawn in the Agri- 

 cultural News to the feeding value of cotton seeds. 

 The following note on this subject is taken from 

 Snyder's Chemistry of Plant and Animal Life: — 



Cotton seed cake and meal are concentrated nitrogen- 

 ous foods and are obtained from cotton seed after the 

 removal of hulls and the extraction of the oil. The meal is 

 lemon-yellow in colour and is characteristically rich in crude 

 protein and ether extract. It contains somewhat more crude 

 protein than linseed meal. Cotton seed meal is a concen- 

 trated idtrogenous food and can be fed, when properly 

 condjined with other foods, to sheep and beef and dairy 

 animals. It cannot safely be fed in large amounts, nor for 

 a long period, to swine. When used in a dairy ration as the 

 piincipal food, it influences the character of the butter-fat, 

 [jroducing butter with a high melting-point. 



Utilizing Lawn Mowings. Some years ago I 



was driven into a corner for the want of stable litter or 

 ordinary farmyard manure. Having an enormous quantity 

 of short grass, which gave us some trouble because of its 

 offensive smell when laid into heaps, and the difficulty of 

 disposing of it, it occurred to me that this grass might be 

 used for feeding cattle, and to this end a small shed having 

 a yard surrounding it was prei)ared, and by way of ex|)eri- 

 ment a couple of young beasts were installed in it. The 

 grass was carted from the lawn and tipped into this yard; 

 the beasts ate what they required, the rest was trampled 

 down, and there being always plenty of tree leaves to be had, 

 a few loads were now and then carted in and tii)ped over the 

 grass, which made the manure all the better. The cattle 

 throve amazingly. {Gardeners' Chronicle, May 21, 1904.) 



