182 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Junk 1" 



1918. 



COTTON. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON MARKET 



Thf Report ot Mossrs. Henry N\ . Frost & Co., on 

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, ior the 

 week ended May IH, 19LS, is as follows: — 



isL.VNDs. Since our circular report of the 4th in.stant 

 the market has been very quiet witii no demand for the odd 

 bags clas.-^ing Fine to Fully Fine, of which there are about 

 7('0 bales in stock remaining i.nsold. Although the Factors 

 are showing more disposition to sell, they are unwilling to 

 admit that they would consent to make any niarkec' conces- 

 sion to sell. 



During the latter part of thi.-s week, there has been .some 

 demand for the remaining Planter's crops of Extra Fine, 

 resulting in the sale of them on private terms. 



We quote, viz: — 



Extra Fine 7.")c. to 80c. = 77c. to S:^c., c.i.f. 



Fine to Fully Fine 73c. to 74c. = 75c. to 76c. ,, 

 Fine to Fully Fine, oflFin preparation, 70c. to 71c. = 72c. 



to 73c., c.i.f. 

 Fine to Fully Fine, stained, 65c. =67c. c.i.f. 



GEOKfliAS .\Ni) KLoKiDA.s. During the past fortnight the 

 market has continued very quiet with no demand. 



The unsold stock is still held on a basis of Extra 

 Choice 72{c. 



Freight to all New England points is difficult to get, the 

 Ocean Steamship Co. refusing to make any engagements for 

 the present. 



The shipments from Savannah for the past two weeks 

 have been either Government cotton or contracts entered 

 into some time since. 



In the absence of demand we renew our last quotations, 

 viz: — 



Ayerage Extra Choice 



7-_'^c,==74ic. 



.f. 



The exports from .Savannah since ihiy 4, have been, to 

 Northern Mills l,.'i50 bales, and from .Jacksonville to North- 

 ern Mills, 839 bales. 



BRITISH COTTON GROWING ASSOCI- 

 ATION. 



The one hundred and seventy first meeting of the Coun- 

 cil of the P.ritish Cotton (Irowing Association was held at the 

 Offices, 1 ">, f'ross Street, M:inchfster, mi Tuesday, .May 7. 



In the absence of the President (The lit. Hon. the K.arl 

 of Derby, K.G.) Mr. J. B. Tatter.sall occupied the Chair. 



WEST AFKI(J.\. It is estimated that the purchases of 

 cotton in Lagos this sea.son will not amount to more 

 than ."),000 bales; it now appears that the crop is smaller 

 than usual, and the A.'^.sociation's manager reports that an 

 increased quantity of cotton is being u.sed for the local 

 weaving industry, which hiis been revived on account of the 

 high cost of European manufactured cotton goods. 



The purchases of w.tton in Lagos to April 30 amounted 

 to 1,6.">4 bales, as compared with 5,4^<0 bales for the same 

 period of la.tt year, 6,648 bales for 191C), and l.SKO bales 

 for 1915. 



The purchases of cotton in Northern Nigeria to April 30 

 amounted to 2,238 bales, as compared with 3,540 bales for 

 the same period of last year, 9,617 bales for 1916. and 282 

 bales for 191.".. 



For the time being all shipments from Wtsc Africa 

 have been suspended with the exce|>tion of ground nuts, 

 palm oil, kernels, and tin ore; an embargo has been placed 

 on the shipment of cotton and cotton seed, but foitunately 

 the Association have had very little to ship for some months; 

 but a quantity of the new crop is now ready, and it is hoped 

 that anangements may shortly be made for it to be shipped. 



The Council are of opinion that the Government should 

 take steps to open up roads in Northern Nigeria as unless 

 something is done in this direction there will never be any 

 great extension in cotton cultivation. 



NVAs.^LAsn. A letter from the Director of Agriculture 

 for .\yasaland was read, stating that the returns for native 

 cotton, 19 1 7, have been completed, and the crop amounted to 

 1,070 tons of seed cotton (about "i,0O0 bales) against 944 

 tons in 1916. This is the second lartjtst crop yet produced 

 by the natives, and there has been the keenest competition 

 for the crop, and no difficulty in selling it to a large number 

 of interested buyers. The Director of Agriculture states that 

 the results are splendid in view of all the work the natives 

 have been called upon to do, and demonstrate the popu- 

 larity of cotton growing in the districts provided with 

 reasonable transport. 



uoANiiA. The A.s.sociation's local manager reports that 

 the crop this season is not likely to amount to more than 

 50 per cent, of the average crop or. say. 15,000 to 

 20,00(1 bales; it had been anticipated that there would 

 be a crop of 40,000 bales, and the result, which is 

 due to unfavourable weather during the planting and 

 growing .seasons, is very disappointing. At the same time 

 the prospects of any cotton bought this year in Uganda 

 being shipped from Mombasa are not at all promising, and it 

 may be that the cotton will hive to be held in the country 

 for .some considerable time. 



(iENEUAL. It was reported that the Annual Meeting of 

 the Textile Tnotitnte had been held in M^inchester on ^lay .'!, 

 and that the .Meeting had been addressed by Sir Arthur Steel 

 -Maiiland, .M.P., Head of the Department of Overseas Trade, 

 who made an interesting reference to the Association. As 

 a former I'nder Secretary of State fur the Colonies he bore 

 testimony to the good work which has been done by the 

 British (Jotton firowing Association under the Chairmanship 

 of Mr. Hutton, and .said that up to the present this is the 

 only instance on the part of British manufacturers in any 

 trade, to combine together to provide su])plies of their raw 

 materials 



A LENGTH-SORTING MACHINE FOR 

 COTTON FIBRES. 



This machine, to which reference is made in the 

 editorial, has been devised for the measurement of the cotton 

 fibres in ginned lint, in sufficient quantity to eliminate 

 sampling error, and to determine not only the mean maximum 

 length of the .sample of fibre, but also the distribution of 

 lengths of all kinds, and to do these operations (juickly. A 

 coni])aratively sim|>le mechani('al arrangement, which can 

 be worked up to various degrees of operative complexity for 

 the sake of making the mechanism automatic, has been 

 invented, and a provisional patent has been obtained for it. 



Dr. Balls describes this length sorting machine in the 

 paper already largely drawn upon in the editorial of this 



