230 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July 24, 1909. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme & Holland of Liverpool 

 write as follows, under date July 2, with reference to 

 the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — • 



An extensive business has been clone in West Indian 

 Sea Island cotton since our last report, at firm prices. 

 Spinners are not disposed to pay more than 14'/. for anything, 

 except a few small ' extra fine ' lot,s. 



The sales amount to about 800 bale.s, including Anguilla 

 I3ld. to lid., Antigua 13(1 to Hid., Barbados ISirA to 1.5c/., 

 Montserrat 12Jrf. to 13'/., Nevi.s" 1 2f.7. to \3d.', St. Kitts 

 lid., St. Croi.\'l2)'/. to 14'/., St. Vin<:ent 11'7. to 17'1, and 

 '.stains' 6i'?. to 10'/. 



The report of Messrs. Henry W. Frost & Co., on 

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the 

 week ending June 2G, is as follows : — 



The unsold stock of Islands now consists entirely of 

 planters' crop lots, held here or on plantation, aggregating 4.57 

 bales. The factors are still refusing to sell any of them 

 under 30c., and the larger proportion are held under 

 instructions from the planters at 35c. 



The position in this market 

 unchanged. 



thus 



remains 



EXPERIMENTS IN HYBRIDIZING 



INDIAN COTTON. 



Mr. P. F. Fyson, B.A., F.L.S., Professor of Botany 

 at the Presidency College, Madras, has published ah 

 article on the .above subject, in Vol. II, No. 6, of the 

 Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India. 



He worked mainly with two hearly related varieties of 

 Indian cotton, the Jowari and Jari, the first a variety of 

 Gosxypiiun hcrliaceum of Gannnic, the second a variety of O. 

 neijleciuin. Numbers of plants were grown, and the behaviour 

 of any pair of characters was studied through five generations, 

 a result, the author oomes to the c()n<'lusion that the two 

 pairs of characters observed, namely the ncijlifiina or lier- 

 bnceum shape of the leaf, and the yellow or white flowers, 

 segregate on Mendeliaii lines, the inijlcftiun leaf sliapr and 

 yellow tiowcrs Ixnng dominant. 



The experiments on the round and [lointed .shape of the 

 boll failed owing to the damage caused by insects, and 

 experiments on the ' fiuziness ' and nakedness of the seed 

 gave rather indefinite results, but the author thinks that 

 this may be due to outside influences and rather incomplete 

 dominance. In this he is supported by Mr. F. Fletcher, of the 



Bombay Agricultural Department, who finds that fuzziness 

 is influenced by irrigation. Other workers in India and 

 Egypt have found that fuzziness is dominant to nakedness, 

 but these experiments were only for two generations. 



!Mr. Fyson also finds that, for two generation.s, length 

 and fineness of lint are ..dominant to the short and rough 

 woolly nature, and the widely opening boll dominant to that 

 opening only a little. 



If further work reveals that these characters will segre- 

 gate through several generations, that is, that they will really 

 follow the Mendelian law, it will be possible to breed plants in 

 India, containing any desired characters, in a very short 

 space of time. 



The author also found that the hybrids, at any rate in 

 the second generation and usually in the first, showed con- 

 siderable increase in vigour — a result which agrees with those 

 of most other workers. He also expre.sses the opinion that 

 cross-fertilization i.s much more common in cotton than was 

 at one time believed. liecent work by Mr. H. M. Leake 

 supports this view. 



COTTON EXPORT FROM THE VIRGIN 

 ISLANDS. 



The amount of cotton exported from the Virgin 

 Islands during the quarter ending June ."JO, 1909, was 

 'S.5 bales, weighing 1<S,.S.54. H>. and having an estimated 

 value of £707. This quantity was made up of o.S bales 

 of Sea Island cotton having a weight of iS.o70 lb. and 

 an estimated value of £444 LS.*., and 47 bales of native 

 cotton with weight and value, similarly, of 10,484 lb. 

 and £2G2 2.s'. This is more than the (piantity shipped 

 during the whole of 1907, which was onlv .51 bales. 

 On comp.iring these figures wilii those of the similar 

 period last year, it is found that, during that tiine, 

 99 bales, of the estimated value of £1,202 I7.s. 8(/., and 

 consisting of 6() bales of Sea Island (estimated value 

 £99:5 !).s'.\ and 29 'bales of native (estimated value 

 £209 (S.s. .S(Z.) were exported. 



In connexion with the editorial on the subject of 

 Hurricanes, which appeared in No. l.SS of \'ol. VIII of 

 the A;iririilttrrid Xiir.f, it is interesting to note that 

 a set of rules for the general guidance of those who 

 are likeK' to sutler from them has been drawn up by 

 Jlr. F H. Watkins, I.S.O., Commissioner of the Turks 

 and Caicos Islands. 



