THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Jamai;y 9, 1909. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON 



Messrs. Wolstenholme & Holland, of Livei-pool, 

 write as follows, under date December 22, wir.h refer- 

 ence to the sales of West Indian S^a Island cotton : — 



Since our last report onlj- 40 bales of West Indian Sea 

 Islands have been sold ; of these about 20 bales were Grenada 

 at 9;V/., 10 St. Kitt's at Hhd., a few bales of supertine 

 Barbados at 17(7., the remainder being stains at i'^il. 



Holders of Carolina Sea Islands are more eager to sell, 

 fine quality cotton being quoted at 12|(/^., and fully fine at 

 131(7. The stock of superfine planters' crop lots in that 

 market is very considerable (about 6,000 bales), and lots 

 which were held for 19(7. to 20(7., two or three months since, 

 are now offering at lid. without finding buyers. 



Spinners of Sea Islands cannot sell the finer i|ualitier( of 

 yarn, and are therefore spinning Oeorgias and Floridas, 

 which are selling at 10(7. to ll(?. per lb.; the outlook is 

 therefore not very encouraging. 



NOTES FOR COTTON GROWERS. 



Cotton picking has been in active progress for 

 some time on most estates where the crop is grown. 

 In many cnses the first picking has already been 

 completed, anel in Barbados and other islands, where 

 the leaf blister-mite iloes not exist, planters will shortly 

 be turning their attention to preparation for the second 

 crop. 



In view of the frei|uent and heavy showers of rain that 

 have been experienced in one or two of the islands of late, it 

 should be generally understood that it is not wise to pick the 

 cotton until it has' had a chance of drying thoroughly. For 

 the same reason jjicking should not be .started in the morn- 

 ing until the sun has been up sufficiently long to dry up the 

 dew that has fallen in the night. 



The advantage of a jiicking bag which enables stained 

 cotton to be separated from the clean product at the time of 

 gathering has been iiointcd out on more than one occasi(m 

 in the Ai/rirt(lfiii(i/ Srwx. A bag about 2 feet deep liy 18 

 inches wide, with a pocket on the outside, half the size of 

 the bag (1 foot deep and 18 inches wide), is very convenient. 

 The pocket is for the reception of the stained cotton. 



In sorting or grading seed-cotton, light, round 

 trays, of about 30 inches in diameter, have been found useful 

 on many cotton estates. From St. Vincent it has been 

 reported that a tray the centre of Which is composed of 

 a meslnvork of fine woven cane, with a diameter of wood, 

 has been adopted in .some cases. These trays are made 

 locally at a small price. The tray is held on the knee, and on 

 it the seed-cotton, as it comes fi..m the field, is thrown and 



spread out. In thi.s way it is easy to separate all stained and 

 undesiralde cotton. 



It has already been mentioned that cotton should not be 

 picked w-hen damp This is because it is impossible to 

 properly gin seed-cotton which is not thoroughly dry, and 

 naturally the price obtained for the resulting lint is not so 

 high as would have been the case if ginning had been properly 

 carried out- The advisability of thoroughly sunning the 

 cotton before .sending to the ginnery is therefore at once 

 apparent. 



The provision of due space between the cotton plants is 

 always an important matter, but it may be pointed out that wide 

 spacing and [ilenfy of room are more important when a second 

 crop of cotton is e.\-pected than when only one crop is to be 

 gathered. .At the time of the first yield, the plant is nor- 

 mally erect, with short lateral brandies given off from the 

 primary shoot on which the cotton bolls are borne ; after this 

 first crop has been gatliered. large, spreading, lateral branches 

 grow out from the bottom of the primary stem, and these 

 must have plenty of room to develop if a good secondary yield 

 is to be expected. On no account, therefore, should the plants 

 l)e crowded. There should he a space of from o to 6 feet 

 between the row^s, and if the plants Xre too crowded in the 

 rows, so that the secondary bninches interfere with each other, 

 occasional jilants should be pulled out. 



The growth for the second picking has to take place in 

 the months of .January, Kebruary. and March, which are 

 usually very dry. Since the plants need as much moisture as 

 they can get, in order to give the best results, it is iin['ortant 

 that the land be kejtt in such a condition that the supply of 

 soil moisture is conserved as much as possible. Frequent 

 hoeings should therefore be given, in order to prevent the 

 U[)per layer from caking, and to jirovide a mulch of loose soil 

 e surface. 



BREAD-FRUITS OF THE TROPICS. 



Vudri- the above title the Trupical AgricuUarist 

 of November last contTiins an article which deals with 

 the bread-fruit (Artocirpu.f mrisa) so well known in 

 the West Indies, and other specn's of .\rtoearpnS, 

 the liiiits of w hieh are used (or food in different rarts 

 of the world. Reference is also made to a number of 

 other tropical plants, to the produce (frniis, stems, and 

 tubers) of which the term ' bread ' has been applied by 

 the inliabitants of the country in which they grow. 

 Among those plants are Trt'riiUd dfricana, found in 

 Tri.pical Africa (and which belongs to the same natural 

 order— the Urticaceae — as the genus Artocarpns), 

 ]'(i,vl< mm Scram, &s\>ec\iiSoi screw-piiie with huge, 

 irlobul.u- pendant fruits, found in the Nicobar Islands, 



