Vol. XVIII. No. 456. 



THE AQRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



337 



year. The difficulty was now over, the cotton adapted 

 itself to the climate, and every successive year from 1787 

 saw the long staple cotton extending itself along the shores 

 of Georgia, and into South Carolina, when an enligntened 

 population, then engaged in the cultivation of indigo, readily 

 adopted it. 



'All the varieties of the long staple, or at least the 



germ of those varieties, came from that seed ; differences 



of soil develo^ied them, and differences of local situations 



are developing them every day. The same cotton sf ed plant 



on one field will give quite a black and a naked seed, while 



the same seed planted upon another field, diflferent in soil 



and situation, will be prone to ri'u into large cotton, with 



long boles or pods, and with seed tufted at the ends with 



fuzz. I should have great doubis if there is any real d'fTer- 



ence in these apparent varieties of the long staple cotton. 



But if there is, all who observe must know, that plants, when 



they have once intermingled their varieties, will requiie 



attention for a long series of years to disentangle them. 



'Subsequently to 17S7, as the cultivation of cotton 



extended and became profitable, every vaiiety of the 



cotton that could be gleaned from the four quarters of 



the globe has been tried, but none of them but one has 



resulted in anything useful. Mr James Hamilton, who 



formerly resided in Charleston, and who now resides in 



Philadelphia, was indefatigable in procuring seed, which he 



transmitted to his friend, Mr. Couper, of St. Simon's. 



Mr. Couper planted some acres of Bourbon cotton ; it grew 



and blossomed, but did not ripen its fruit, and perished in 



the water. 



' Mr. Hamiliton sent a cotton from Siam ; it grew large, 

 was of a rich purple colour, both in foliage and blossom, but 

 perished also witliout ripening its fruits. 



'The Nankeen cotton was introduced at an early period, 

 the same that Mr. Secretary Crawford distributed the seed 

 of some years back. It was abundant in produce ; the seed 

 fuzzy, and the wool of a dirty yellow colour, which would 

 not bring above the price of the other short staple cottons, 

 but I know it to produce three hundredweight to the acre 

 on Teykel Island, in Georgia, 



'The kidney seed cotton, that is a cotton which pro- 

 duces the seed all clustered together, with a long strong 

 staple extending from one side of the seeds, and which I 

 believe to be the Brazilian, or Pernarabuco cotton, was tried, 

 and was the only new species upon which there could have 

 been any hestitation, but this too was given up, because not 

 as valuable, and not as productive.' 



CACAO AND COCO-NUTS IN DOMINICA 



The yearly crop of cacao in Dominica cannot be stated 

 with any approach to accuracy, as it is well known that a 

 considerable amount leaves the is'and surreptitiously. All 

 that can be said on this matter is that production is consider- 

 ably in I xcess of the amount shown by official figures. 



There appears to be no increase of interest in this 

 cultivation. Apparently the p'anting of new areas is not 

 contemplated at present by either planter or peasant. 

 Without development work, the output must inevitably 

 decline in the course of years. 



The position as regards cacao showed some improvement, 

 during 1918-1'J as indicated in the figures given below. 



The falling off in the exports of coco nuts during recent 

 years nmkes gloomy reading. The position in 1918 may be 

 due, in part, to the Proolama'ion issued in March last, 

 prohibiting the export of coconuts, except under certain 



conditions. This was done in the interests of the food 

 supply. It is generally held, however, that the reduced 

 exports are ma'nly due to the effects of the hurricanes of 

 1915 and 1916. If this is correct — and it appears to be 

 so— it is a striking example of the aftermath of these dis- 

 turbances on tropical cultivation. At the close of the year 

 there were signs of an increase of activity in this business, 

 but it is doubtful if the position occupied in 19U will be 

 quickly regained. This falling off in production in 

 practically all the leading exports during 1918 reveals 

 a depressing situation, and one which requires careful 

 consideration on the part of those concerned with the 

 interests and well-being of the island. 



The shipments of cacao and coco-nuts for the period 

 1914-18 are given below : — 



Cacao. .-, 



cwt. Coconuts. 



1914 — 8,874 .554,549 



1915 — 10,810 .506 360 



1916 — .5,707 408,007 



1917 — .j,169 133,234 



1918 - 4,239 89,676 

 (Report on the Agricultural Denartment, Dominica. 



1918-19) 



BUDDED LIMES 



In Dominica a section of the lime e.Kperimeut 

 station is devoted to budded limes, and the results of 

 the experiments so far obtained are given by Mr. J. 

 Jones, in the Report on the Agricultural Department 

 for 191819. He states:— 



In this section there are two plots, each ^ acre, of 

 common limes budded on sour orange stocks, and one plot 

 of the same area of spineless limes on the same kind of 

 stock. Adjoining this is a plot of ordinary seedling limes 

 for comparison. During the past two years the trees in each 

 section have received a small dressing of organic nitrogen at 

 the rate of 4 cwt. per acre. One of the budded plots was 

 grown with Tephrosia as a green dressing, the other in 

 the usual way with weeds and grass, which was weeded 

 occasionally; the sphiele?s limes had a green dressing of 

 horse beans, and the seedling limes were clean-weeded. 

 Now that the trees are closing in, it is proposed to discard 

 the green dressing and apply a complete manure annually. 



The results show clearly the tendency to early bearing 

 which is characteristic of budded and grafted plants ; but 

 whether this is an advantage in the case of limes remains to 

 be shown. Early bearing in this case tends to arrest 

 growth, stunts tie trees, and may bring about a state of ill 

 health unless the trees are highly manured. Generally 

 speaking, it may be said that budding is the first step in 

 the direction of intensive cultivation, and full advantage of 

 its application will not be obtaited u dess intensive mjlhods 

 are applied throughout the lifetime of the plants. 



The second point brought out is that a green dressing 

 like Tephrosi <, which affords a good ground cover as well 

 as lateral protection over a period ol two years or more, is 

 very helpful to limes in their early stages. 



The crop returns from the three plots of budde^l limes 

 placed out in July 1914 were, in 191718, when between 

 two years and nine months and three years and nine monlhs 

 after planting in the field, at the rate of a little over 30 

 barrels of fruit per acre. The following year, 191S-19, the 

 three plots of budded trees and plot of seedling limes, 

 making in all 1 acre in cvtent, yieldid 84.1 b.irrels of fruii. 

 These are remarkable in.=tances of early bearing. 



