Vol. VIII. No. 178. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



(5:3 



WEST INDIAN PRODUCTS. 



Drugs and Spics3 on the London Market. 



Mr. J. K J.ickscin, A.L.S., has' forwarded tlie 

 foliowing ropoit. on iho London drng and spict; markets 

 during the month of December • — 



Throughout the month of Decemlicr the markets in 

 spices and drugs have been quite of a cliaracter that u.sually 

 prevails in tlie two or three weeks before (Llln-istinas. In the 

 .first two weeks of the month there was a firmer and more 

 stead}' undertone in drug dealings than is common at that 



- pei'iod of the year, but as the Cliristmas holidays api)roached 

 and stock-taking time was in view, business begali to Hag, 

 and at the end of the month the news of the terrible earth- 

 quake at ]Messina paralysed buiness generally, and at once 



j;- caused a serious rise in the products of the afflicted country, 

 .such as the essential oils of lemon and bergamot, which at 



,;time of writing had risen -50 per cent, in price, with the 

 probability that owing to stocks of bergamot oil in London 

 being nearly exhausted there would be a further rise 

 immediately in this product. The de^dings in West Indian 

 produce were without speciid interest, as the tVillowing items 

 •will show. , 



Gix<;ee. "^ 



At the second .spice sale on December 9, .Jamaica 

 ginger sold at steady rates. Of the 216' packages offered, 



. 146 were .sold, good ordinary small fetching from -t8.s. to 50s. ; 

 slightly inferior realized 4 6«. G(/. to 47.s. 6r/., and ratoon 39«. 

 Cochin and Calicut were oti'ered to the extent of fiOO packages, 

 all of which M-ere bought in, rough Cochin at .36.-:. On the 

 16th there was no .Jamaica offered, but '297 bags of ('ochin 



Were brought forward, all of which were bought in at 37.s'. per 

 cwt. for fair washed. After this date tlierci were no further 

 quotations. 



NUT3IK(;S, MACE, .iND PIMKXTO. 



Of nutmegs, at the spice sale on the 9th, 307 packages 

 of West Indian were offered, and neai-ly all sold at steady to 

 rather advanced price.s. At the auction on the 15th, 26 



- packages of West Indian were ofi'ered and disposed of at the 

 • following rates: 70'.s to 74's at 7d., 99's at ihd., and lil'.s 



at '.ihd. No further offerings were made during the rest of 

 the month. 



Mace was steady at auction at the first spice sale 

 on the 2nd, when 13 packages of West Indian were 

 ofi'ered and disposed of at l.s. -Id. to l.s. »d., for ordinary to 

 fair, and \0d. to \\d. for broken. A week later .5S packages 

 of West Indian were sold at \d. to '2d. aclvance on previous 

 rates, viz., l.'<. 6d. to Is. 7d. for fair to good ; l.s. 4d. to 

 Ls. od. for fair pale and reddish, and l.s. 2d. to l.t. id. for 

 fair to good red. Of [limento at the first sale on the 2nd, 

 100 oags were offered and bought in at tlie following rates : 

 Greyish to fair 2'/. to 2J,(/., and sittings at l^'Z. to 1 1(^. per lb. 

 On the 9th, when .567 bags were ottered, 44 only were 

 disposed of at from 2(7. to '2ld. for fair : at later auctions 

 there was but little demand and no change in price. 



SAKSAPAEILLA. 



The market in this drug remains firm with little or no 

 alteration. At the first drug auction on the 3r<l, grey 

 Jamaica was represented by 45 bales, Linia-.Jamaica by 7 

 bales, and native .Jamaica by 6 bales. The first retched 

 l.s. 4(/. to l.s. 6d. per lb. for fair to good, and l.s. :id. for 

 coarse. For Lima-.Jamaica, l.s. \d. to l.s. 2'/. per ft), was 

 paid, and l\d. to Is. Id. per tti. for the 6 bale.s of native 



- Jan>aica. No business of any importance has been done since. 



CASSIA FISTULA, OIL OK LI.Mp, LIME .TUICE. 



Three bags of good bold fresh Cassia Fistula from the 

 West Indies were disposed of at 22.s. per cwt. At the same 

 .sale a case of hand-pre.s.sed oil of lime from Dominica fetched 

 5.S. per tt). One ca.se of ordinary distilled wns sold at l.s. 

 9'/., and 5 other ca.ses were dispo.sed of at from Is. ~d. to 

 l.s. S. per lb. Ten cases of West Indian lime juice were 

 also brought forward at this auction, and 5 sold at l.s. [ler 

 gallon. 



IMPROVED COFFEE-HULLING 

 MACHINE. 



In view of the euormoug output of cotlee from 

 Brazil it, is not suiprising to'iearn that ;i' 'good deal of 

 effort i« being made to improve the machinery now in 

 use for preparing the product. These efforts are receiv- 

 ing assistance from the Government, and some have 

 met with a fair measure of success. 



In the United States' Consular Reports for November 

 last, it is mentioned that a new .machine for hulling coffee 

 lias lately been installed on a plantation in the State of Sao 

 Paulo, which is a considerable advance on those formerly 

 operated. This machine is about 16 feet high, occupies 

 about 3 square yards of space, and is worked by an engine 

 of 6-horse power. In ten h<.iurs it hulled 400 arrobas 

 (12,953 It).) of coffee, separating the beiuis into three grades. 

 This is coiisidercd a notable success. 



NEW B'IBRE-ESTRACTING MACHINE. 



Although the cultivation of fibre-yielding plants 

 cannot be included in the list of agricultural industries 

 which exist in the more ini[)ort;int of the West Indian 

 islands, yet sis.-il hemp fibre i.s largely produced in the 

 Caicos Islands, and in the Bahamas, too, the industry 

 is a valuable one. Some efforts, it may be mentioned, 

 have also been made to introduce the cultivation of 

 the sisal plant into Jamaica. 



Fibre-yielding plants are not usually expensive crops to 

 grow, but the provision of a. machine for extracting and 

 preparing the fibres is necessarily a comparatively costly 

 feature of the industry. For this reason the announcement 

 that a new machine, for which many advantages are claimed, 

 has lately been invented and put on the market in ^lauritius, 

 should be noted with interest by those concerned. The 

 chief fibre plant of Mauritiu.s, and one which is cultivated on 

 a fairly extensive scale in that island is Fiircrd^a [liyantcn. 



It is claimed for the machine in question that all the 

 fibres of the plant dealt with are extracted in their full 

 length, and in clean condition ; there is no waste whatever of 

 the fibre. The machine, it is stated, works automatically, 

 and when a regular supply of leaves is provided, all the 

 processes of defibration are carried out without human assist- 

 ance. In an average day's work (10 hours) it is said to be 

 capable of turning out 1 ton of dried Furcraea fibre, the force 

 required being about 10-horse power. 



In Mauritius the price of this machine is about £.300. 

 It is stated that its cost might be reduced in certain other 

 countries. 



The inventor is W. Maingard, and the machine is 

 known as ' Maingard's Automatic Dertbrating Machine.' 



It is affirmed that in addition to Furcraea, the machine is 

 eiiually capable of dealing effectively with leaves of si.sal 

 hemp, Manila hemp, Phormium, etc. 



