Vol. XIV. No. 346. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



251 



In iddition to this, there is tin loss due to the injury 

 in those bolls which persist and ■ pi n ri tin' plant. In these 

 only on'' locule may be infesteil riu fibre and seed in this 

 locule are almos t certa spoiled, 



the whole boll so th in the uninfected locule 



is of inferior quality, Staining of I he fib 

 the attacks of thi 



It would i thai th'' pink boll worm has been intro 



duccd tnt ni\ new localities with, or in, cotton seed for 



planting. Examples of this are probably to be found in the 

 Hawaiian Islands, in Egypt, and eeral colonies in 



Africa where ii is non well established. Ii has no 

 been introduced into the United States, but in 1912 a ship- 

 ment of 500 I' 1 , of Egyptian cotton seed got as Fai a 

 Arizona, where it was discovered i > be infested bj pink 

 boll worm, ami the whole shipment wis destroyed bj fire 

 Since then on several occasions the pink boll worm lias 

 intercepted in shipments ol i eed in the United States. 



■i i n July I. 1913, the I • dei il j'U.S i Horticultural 

 Board promulgated a quarantine ag-» in i itton eed from all 



foreign countries, with tl bjeel of preventing the invas 



nf the pink boll worm. Since this quarantine has 1 



effect, several shipments of cotton seed h ive I" en tnti rcepted. 

 All were found to lie infested by the pink boll worm; one 

 shipment which was i" i"' forwarded to Arizona, showed an 

 infestation of 20 per cent. 



•In th;< connexion it may be stated that there is no 

 longer any need for importing cotton seed from Egypt, since 



there is an ample supply ol well elected and limatized 



seed available in Arizona.' 



The quotation cited above refers I i cotton seed imported 

 for planting, in connexion with the attempts that are being 

 made to establish the cultivation of long staple cotton. It 

 is most important to note, thai all shipments of seed inter- 

 cepted were infested with the pink boll worm. 



Each cotton-growing island in the West Indies at 

 present has a well developed strain of fine cotton, and on this 

 account importation of seed for planting is unnecessary. 

 If, for anv reason, the crop of one island should fail to pro- 

 duce a sufficient amount of good s I for the nsxl season's 



planting, it can be obtained from another island where the 

 conditions arc similar, the cotton from which would require 

 but little acclimatizing. Cottonseed is imported to some 

 extent into al leasl one island (Barbados) for oil extraction, 

 and this would constitute a menace to the cotton-growing 

 industry oi thai and all other islands of the Lesser Antilles, 

 it seed should be imported from any country where the 

 pinK boll worm exists. 



In determining what precauti old be idopl id in the 



West Indies against the introduction of the pink boll worm, 

 the following should be considered: 



(a) The pink boll worm would undoubtedlj prove as 

 destructive in the West [ndies to the cotton industry as any 

 pest has ever been to cotton in any country, which i- equal to 

 Baying that the pink boll worm would most likely put an 

 end to the cotton industry in any West Indian colony win-re 

 it becomes established. 



(In \i the presenl time the West [ndies, the United 

 States, Central and South America are among the few cotton 

 growing localities where the pink boll worm is not yel known 



tO exist. 



(,-! Localities not now knoww to be infested with the 

 pink boll worm m ty become so at in) time, and cotton 

 ■sent out from them may then easily carry the pest. 



In these circumstances, it would seem that those islands 

 in which a cotton-growing industrj exists ought to put a 

 total prohibition on the imporl iti ill cotton seed, except 



when small quantitie red for experimental pla 



and such seed should be admitted only if it conies from 



ity known or ci rtified to 1"- f from pink boll worm, 



and :ondition that tin seed passes directlj 



custody of the Agricultural Officers by whom il bi 



i i erlj i reated ami, if m 



II. A. I', 



INDIAN TOBACCO. 



A bulletin just issued by the Agricultural Research 

 institute, at Pusa, bj Mr. and Mrs. Howard, who have done 

 much valuable econom ical worL in [ndia, recalls the 



strides that in recent years have been made in the imp 

 menl of tobacco cultivation in [ndia, particularly in Bihar. 

 There are none in India now who remember the i 



.tin- manufacture of which, apparently, lang 

 after the Dutch disappeared from [ndia; but if it was made 

 from the crude Italian tobacco, it could not have bi 

 delectable weed. There may be some, though, who 



the attempt of a Calcutta firm who, al I thirtj yeai igo, 



tried to introduce at Pusa the mam f pipe toba o 



from indigenous leaf. 'l'le- best that can be said ol the 

 result is that, as a smoke, it left much to lie desired, and 

 attempts to popularise it ill Calcutta failed. Since then we 

 have heard of more than one attempt I" grow and cure 

 a tobacco in India, both ia Bihar and South India, that 

 will take the place of the American tobacco that forms 

 so large a part of the cigarette and pipe tobacco import- 

 ed into this country. ... In L910 or thereabouts, 

 several of the tobacco factories came into existence, ami 

 cigarettes made from Indian tobacco began to find their 

 \\ 1.3 into the market, The best known of these is 

 the Peninsular Tobacco Co., with factories at Monghyr, 

 Bangalore, and other places. Having the huge and wi i 

 Trust, the Imperial Tobacco Co., behind it, the Penii 

 Tobacco Co. has been able not only to undertake the 

 manufacture of cigarettes on a gigantic scale, but to 

 experiment on its own account, and to co-operate with the 

 Department of Agriculture in trying to secure a tobacco of 

 fixed and uniform grade suitable for the making ol i e 

 The Bulletin under notice, and a previous one by 

 the same authors, are largely an account ol these experiments. 

 After man\ discouragements and in the midst of many 

 difficulties of cultivation and curing, it has been possible to 



aire what was desired, A type of Indian leaf has 



discovered which has the light colour, the fine texture, md 



the in SSary elasticity when cut to make good fillings for 



cigarettes, and the flavour and aroma are said to be fair. 

 In making these experiments imported varieties of Ameri :an 



lid not, under the altered conditions, reproduce the 



qualities desired, and the Indian varieties gave more 

 promising results. 



The main reason for this was that the American varieties 

 were nol quick growers, an imperative necessity in Bihar, 

 the tobacco must be planted and cut in a few months 

 towards the end of the yen. In securing a tobacco of suffi- 

 ciently high grade for the manufacture of cigarettes, i 



mt saying that promising results have 1 n secured in 



the improvement of other varieties of tobacco, which was 

 a consummation much to be desired, because we are rem 

 that from an economic poinl of vie n there are obvious draw- 

 backs to the production of a high grade cigarette to 

 only. The only customer in Bihar for this tobacco is the 

 Peninsular Tobacco Co.. as the local dealers do not l 

 this product. (Jtitnihil :>til<< Royal Society ol Arts, June 

 11, 1915.) 



