THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



January 17, 1914. 



COTTON. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date December 29, with reference 

 bo the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton: — 



Since we last wrote, you about 120 bales of West Indian 

 Sea Island cotton have been sold, chiefly Montserrat 16Jd to 

 ISd., Nevis and St. Kitts 18rf. to 20d., Barbados l6|c?. 

 to I9d. with some Stains at 9hd. to lOd. The market 

 remains steady. 



The demand continues to run upon the finest qualities, 

 the lower grades being seldom enquired for. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending December 20, is as follows: — 



The demand has continued throughout the week for the 

 limited offerings of Extra Fine and Extra Fine off in colour 

 to be found in the daily receipts and this demand is not 

 yet satisfied. There was also a good demand for Fine to 

 Fully Fine off in colour, and Fine at prices ranging from 

 18c. to 20c., taking such lots as Factors were willing to sell, 

 resulting in sales of about 500 bales. 



For Fully Fine there are apparently no orders in the 

 market. The unsold stock of this quality is large and Factors 

 would make some concessions in price to dispose of quantity, 

 wishing to sell before the holidays. 



There has been some inquiry for the Planters' Crop Lots, 

 but no sales have been reported 



We quote, viz., 

 Kxtra Fine 26c. = 14|(f. c.i.f., <fe 5 per cent. 



Fully Fine 



2.3ic. 



Uld. 



= lljd. tol2J(/. 

 = 11 Ad. 



Fine 20c. to 22c. 



_EullyFineoff|20c 

 in preparation / ^ 



This report shows that the total exports of Sea 

 Island cotton from the United States to Liverpool, 

 Manchester and Havre, up to. December 20, 1913, were 

 2,787 bales, 4,571 bales, and 2,729 bales, respectively. 



-CONTROLLING THE FORMATION OP 



COTTON BRANCHES. 



There appears in Circulai- No. 115 of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, a 

 paper by O. S. Cook entitled. The New System of Cotton 

 Culture. This system is based on the application of the 

 principle that the control of the vegetative branches of the 

 cotton plant depends largely upon the methods of thinning. 

 The formation of vegetative branches can be arrested by 

 leaving the plants closer together during the early stages, 

 until the stalks have grown beyond the stage where 

 vegetative branches are produced. The essential feature of 

 the new system is later and more gradual thinning. This 

 makes it possible to leave more plants in the rows than is 

 at present customary. The control or suppression of the 

 vegetative branches allows of an earlier development of 

 fruiting branches and leads to the production of an earlier 

 crop. As regards the results which have been obtained in 

 practice with this system, it may be mentioned that in a 

 -field of Durinso cotton that was thinned in the usual manner 



to ordinary distance.s, the yield, on an average, was at the rate 

 of 909 tt). of seed cotton per acre; whereas alternate rows 

 that were thinned late and left with the plants closer together 

 yielded at the rate of 1,391ft., p^r acre, or about 5:3 per 

 cent, higher than the others. The rate of ftowering is also 

 increased by the ne^v system. It is interesting to note that 

 many of the plants in the hedge-formed ronfs — characteristic 

 of the system- possess no vegetative branches at all. 



AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING. 



MECHANICAL CULTIVATION OF RICE. 



An abstract appears in the Monthly Bulletin of Agri- 

 cultural Intelligence and Plant Diseases (August 1913) 

 which seems to show that the mechanical cultivation of 

 rice yields positive results of considerable importance. 

 The experiments on which the information is based were 

 conducted by the [ndo-Chinese Piice Growing Association 

 along the following lines: The seed was sown by a small 

 hand sower which proved to be a superior method to the 

 transplanting system of the native cultivator. By means of 

 the hand-sower 0'6 acre can be sown in one day and the rice 

 is distributed in small holes in rows 12 to 16 inches apart 

 and 14 inches apart in the rows. The superiority of the 

 machine sown grain was .soon demonstrated, though the 

 necessit)' for .sowing on clean land became evident, as hoeing 

 was a difficult process on the submerged soil. The sown 

 crop came into ear earlier and gave a better promise of yield 

 than that planted in the native style. 



The crop was harvested in two different ways in order 

 to compare the results obtained by transplanting and direct 

 sowing. (1) A reaper and binder was used to collect the 

 crops sown or transplanted on 1 hectare (217 acres) of 

 ploughed land which was harvested by hand. The largest yield, 

 namely 1 ton 16i cwt. per acre was obtained in the case of 

 the rice sown on ploughed land, as against 1 ton 'ih cwt of 

 rice transplanted on ploughed land. 



Trials were made with a mechanical reaper, but it is 

 believed that really satisfactory results will not be obtained 

 before botanical selection has established a variety with 

 a rigid straw. 



ANOTHER MOTOR PLOUGH COM- 

 PETITION. 



Some time ago in this journal considerable prominence 

 was given to the subject of motor cultivation, and in continua- 

 tion of the articles referred to, the results of a recent motor 

 plough competition at Konigsburg, published in the Monthly 

 Bulletin of Agricultural Intelligence and Plant Diseases 

 (October 1913) will be of interest. 



The motor ploughs, thanks to the very favourable soil 

 conditions, worked well. The Stock machine did best, 

 completing 173 acres in an hour, compared with 136 acres 

 ploughed in an hour by the Ihace motor plough, and 111 

 acres by the Wede machine. The cost of the Stock plough 

 without reversing gear is £833; with it £882. Pieaders of 

 the Agricultural News will remember that a full description 

 of the Stock plough was given some time ago, when the 

 importance of this reversing arrangement was very definitely 

 pointed out. The Ihace motor plough costs £1,127, and is, 

 of course, a much larger machine than the one just referred 

 to. Its breadth of work, for instance, is 7 feet 9 inches, com- 

 pared with 6 feet 7 inches in the case of the Stock nxachine. 



