51 



THE AGUICULTURAL NEWS. 



Fehriarv 23 1918. 



COTTON. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON MARKET. 



7i>f refK'i L >A' Messo. Henry \V. Frusl i: Co., on 

 Sea Island cotton in the Soiuhern States, for the week 

 -ended January •2(), 191.S, i^ iis follow.s: — 



iSL.vKP.s. During the pasi two weeks there has been an 

 active demand lur the odd bats cla.ssing Fine to Fully Fine, 

 resuliina in salts of about 8."0 bales, at 73c., showing an 



ad».inie of Ic. per 



Thi.s deniaiir has taken a large 



prijiortion of the cfferings, and has rendered Factors 6rmer 

 in their views, beir.g now unwilling sellers except at a further 

 advance, which ims not yet been paid As the prices ruling 

 heie are relatively Ic. lower than those being a.sked i'^r 

 'Georyias and Fr^rida-, the mills requiring any supply were 

 induced to place .-ome orders in ihi.< market. The buying 

 has been on account of the Nnrlheru .Nfiils 



The limited demand for planters' crops of Extra Fine 

 lias not resulted in any sales so far. 



We quote, viz: — 



Fine to Fully Fine 73c. to 74t:. = 75c. to 76c f.o.b. 



and freight. 

 Fine to Fully Fine, off in jtreparation, 70c. to 71c. = 72c. 



to 73c f.o.b. and freight. 



GEOEGiA.s AND FLOEIDAS. There has been a very limited 

 -demand, resulting in small sales on private terms. The 

 -offerings are smull and continue to be firmly held at quota- 

 tions, noiwiths'anding that there is very little inquiry, the 

 trade being apparently not interested . This is the condition 

 ruling throughout the interior markets, the holders of the 

 cotton being also under the impression that they will be able 

 to sell hi time at very full prices, on account of ihe difficulty 

 and uncertainty of getting Egyptian cotton to this country. 



We quote, nominally held:— 



Average Extra Choice 7-lc. = 76c. f.o.b. and freight. 



The exports from Savannah for the past fortnight have 

 fceen to Northern Mills 33 bales, and from Jacksonville to 

 Northern Mills, or^i bales. 



The Uniteu States Census Bureau report the amount 

 of cotton ginned to .January i 6, as follows: — 



South Carolina r>,2:!4 balesj 



Georgia -I^GSl „ making a total of 88,747 bales 



Florida 36,862 „ J 



ag. inst last year 11 r),463 „ total crop 1 13,109 bales 

 1916 90,736 „ „ „ 85,27S „ 

 19 ir, 79,484 „ „ „ 78,8.57 „ 

 1914 76,188 „ ,. „ 85,544 „ 



The above report indicates a total crop of 90,000 bales 

 to 91,000 bales 



BRITISH COTTON GROWING ASSO- 

 CIATION. 



The one hundnd and sixty-seventh meeting of the 

 •Conr.cil of the British Cotton Growing Association was held 

 at the Office?, 15 Cross Street, Manchester, on Tuesday, 

 Janu-iy 8, 1918. 



In the absence of the IVesident (The Ut. Hon. The Karl 

 -of I'erhy, K. G.) Mr. J. S. Hoyle occupied the Chair. 



WEST AFRic A. It was decided that the buying price io 

 Nigeria should be fi.xod at i'.'. per lb. of seedcoiton for the 

 1917-lS cotton crop, as compared with l;,d. per lb. which 

 was paid last season. As in previous yeaks, an extra price 

 will be paid for the loi.g staple cotton which is grown 

 under the auspices of the Government Agricultural Depart- 

 ment. It is hoped that this increase in price will induce the 

 natives to extend tlie area under cotton. 



IGANDA. The difficulties of shipping cotton from 

 Mombasa are still very serious, and a considerable (juantity 

 of the 191()17 cotton crop still remains to be shipped 

 Representations have been made to the Government, and it 

 is hoped that arrangements will be made for the shipment of 

 the cotton, which is urgently required in Lancashire. 



THE TOXIC SUBSTANCE IN COTTON 

 SEED. 



As was noticed in the issue of this Journal for January 

 25, 1918, p 19 the nutritive value of cotton-seed meal has led 

 to experiments, more or less satisfactory as to i's being used 

 in bread making in the United States and, on a small scale, 

 in St. Vincent. The well-known fact, however, of a toxic 

 properly in the meal has naturally induced caution in the use 

 of it as human fond. 



The results of investigations into this toxic property by 

 Messrs. W. A. Withers and Frank E. Carruth, of the Chem- 

 ical Division, North Carolina Kxperiment Station, are recorded 

 in a paper contributed by them to the Jou) nal oi A;/iindtural 

 Re-ieaich, January 1918. Previous work on this subject by 

 these two scientists was recorded in the same journal 

 (November 1915), and noticed in the A'^ricultund Ni irs. 

 Vol. XV, No. 358. 



They find that the toxio property of cott'inseed meal is due 

 to an active primiple, which they name gossypol, and which 

 is pre.sent in raw cotton-seed Kernels to the extent of about 

 OG per cent. Gossypol is readily soluble in acetone and 

 ether, and moderately soluble in ethylic alcohol. The 

 extraction of the gossypol by ether rendered the remainder 

 of cotton seeds non-to.xic when fed to pigs, whereas the ether 

 extract containing about 2 per cent, gossypol was highly 

 poisonous. 



It was found that cottonseed meal was much less 

 poisonous than raw cotton seed, owing mainly, in their 

 opinion, to the oxidation <'f gossypol by the cooking during 

 tha process of manufacture. 



The experimenters conclude that the toxicity of lotton- 

 seed meal varies with the conditions of cooking the raw seed. 

 Even after cooking for twenty eight minutes there was still 

 left ill cottonseed kernels 07 per cent, of gossypol, as com- 

 pared with the original 06 per cent They are of opinion that 

 thoroughly cooked cotton seed Hour and meal have no 

 apparent toxicity for rats, when supplemented by milk powder 

 in the diet, altliouiih inferior in nutritive value to cottonseed 

 kernels from which the gossypol has been extracted by ether. 

 It would seem, therefore, that it is po.ssible, probably by 

 a combination of extraction and cooking, to obtivin a 

 valuable foodstutf for human consumption from cotton seed, 

 if also the .seed is subjected to decortication for the purpoye 

 of removing the hard outer skin. Some such process is 

 probably tniployed in the production of cottonseed flour 

 in Texas, where, it is said, it is increasingly being eirqiloyed 

 in bread making. An extension of such manufacture in 

 all coti on-growing countries would materially add to food 

 le.soiircps, if after further 'rials the resulting flour can be 

 depended on as free from the toxic property which has 

 hitherto prevented its nse as a food. 



