Vol. XIII No. 307. 



THE AGRICULTUltAL NEWS. 



47 



WEST INDIAN PRODUCTS. 



DRUGS AND SPICES IN TBS LONDON 

 MARKET. 



Mr. J. R. Jackson writes on January 6, 1914, as 

 follows: — 



The month of December opened with but little or no 

 change in the condition of the markets since our last report 

 for November. As the month progressed, however, a better 

 tone prevailed, consequent probably, in some measure, to the 

 fact that the last drug auction was held on December 11, 

 to be resumed on January S of the New Year. Changes in 

 the prices realized for individual products may be noted 

 by the advance at the beginning of the month in West 

 Indian tamarinds, and later in that of grey Jamaica Sarsa- 

 parilla, while cm the other hand kola and citric acid were 

 lower. The .spice market has generally been dull, as will be 

 seen by the following details. 



GINGER. 



At the first spi^e auction on the 3rd of December the 

 offerings amounted to fiOO packages of Cochin and Calicut; 

 125 of these sold without reserve at the following rates: 

 6'2s. to 'j.5s. for bold wormy selected, and 35s. for small 

 cut' rouf'h wormy Formosa realized 16s. to 16s. 6d., 

 while washed rough Cochin was bought in at 25s. to 28s. 

 and rough bold brown Calicut at -9v. A week later the 

 offerings of ginger were all bought in, and again on the 

 17th when 19S bags of brown rough Calicut were bought 

 in at 25s. per cwt. After this date there were no auctions 

 on account of the holidays. 



NUTMEiiS, Mil E, AND I'IMENTO. 



Nutmegs were well represented at the first spice 

 auction, as many as 407 packages of West Indian 

 being offered, nearly al! of which were sold at the follow- 

 ing rates: ()2'.s to 72's. od. to 9\d , 74's to 84'3 5d. to Uhl , 

 85's to 95's 5(7. to 6d., 'MVs to" lOO's 4jA to i'ld., 119's'to 

 129's id to 4|d, 156's to 170's 4](/. to 4id. At the second 

 auction on the 1 0th, 47 packages of West Indian were sold at 

 similar rates. ( )n the 1 7th, 509 packages of West Indian were 

 brought forward, most of which found buyers at 8}.d. for 60*3 

 to 62's, oM. to 6|d. for 70s to SO's, Ahl to 5W."for 82's to 

 •92'8, ihd. to 4ld. for 94s to 104's, and 4](1 to 'i^d. for 140's 

 to 142's. A few packages of Eastern were also offered at 

 this auction, part of which sold at •">]«/. for 124's to 170's. 

 Of mace, at the first spice auction on December 3, 133 

 packages of West Indian were offered and sold at Is. 4(f. to 

 2s. Id. per. lb. A week \a.t^T, namely, on the 10th, the 

 offerings amounted to 23 packages of West Indian, all of 

 which were disposed of at from Is. Id. to 2s. per R)., broken 

 fetching from Is. 3d. to Is. id. Again on the 17th, mace was 

 in steady demand, being represented by 105 packages of 

 West Indian, most of which found buyers, fair pale fetching 

 2s. to 2s' \d., jiale and reddish Is. 9-/. to Is. 10c?.. and fair 

 red Is Sd. to Is. 9d.; Is. to Is. 2d per lb. was paid for broken. 

 Pimento has not occupied on important position during the 

 month, being represented at auction, on the'lOth, by 123 bags 

 only, part of which was disposed of at 2d. per B). for fair. 



.SARS.\I'ARILI,.\. 



As there was only one drug auction held during the 

 month in consequence of the intervension of the Christmas 

 holidays, the offerings of sarsapariila were confined to the sale 



on December 11, when they consisted of 26 bales of grey 

 Jamaica, 17 of native Jamaica, and 6 of Lima-Jamaica. 

 The first two were all disposed of, the grey Jamaica at 

 about '2d. per B). advance on previous prices; Is. 8(/. to 

 1.5-. lOd. being paid for fair, part rough to good fibrous; 

 Is. 6d. for inferior, and Is. 7i. to Is. 9d. for very rough. 

 The native Jamaica fetched lOd. per fl). for good red press 

 packed, and Od. to 9hd. for dullish to fair; good red, but 

 sea-damaged was disposed of at 9(/. and dull red at Sd. 

 per tti. The Lima- Jamaica was bought in at Is. 8d. per lb- 



TA.MARINDS, CITRIC ACID, ANNATTO, CANELLA ALBA, KOLA, 

 LIME .lUIOE AND LIME OIL. 



At the beginning of December West Indian tamarinds 

 were reported to be in small supply. The prices asked for 

 ]!arbados, in bond, was 17.5. Qd. per cwt, and for other 

 kinds of West Indian, 16s. to 16s. 6d. The quotation 

 for citric about the middle of the month was 2s. Of:l. 

 to 2s. Id. per K). — a falling in price, said to be due to 

 a decreased demand. Prices, however, were expected to 

 advance with the opening of the New Year. Four 

 bags of dullish annatto seeds were brought forward 

 at auction on the 11th, and sold at 3]rf. per lb , and at 

 the .same auction a single bale of pale thickish quill Canella 

 alba bark was sold at 60s. Kola has been cheaper during 

 the month, consequent on increased supplies, 113 packages 

 having arrived. Thirteen bags of West Indian, some slightly 

 wormy, were sold in the middle of the month at 2|rf. per lb. 

 others slightly mouldy at Id per lb., a consignment of 

 59 bags of fair bright Ceylon were held at 3\d. Raw West 

 Indian lime juice was quoted in the middle of the month 

 at from Is. id. to Is. Cid. per gallon, while West Indian 

 distilled lime oil has been held at Is. Sd., hand-pressed 

 fetching 10s. 



Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 5111, Annual 

 Series, shows that briarwood is an important product of the 

 island of Corsica. The Corsican root.s are said to be excellent 

 in quality and very little behind the Sicilian briarwood. 

 During 1912, the United Kingdom took 250 tons of this 

 produce. It would be interesting to know whether the roots 

 of any forest trees growing in the West Indian islands might 

 not provide suitable material for the profitable industry of 

 pipe-making. 



Major Holmes of the Indian Civil Veterinary Department 

 has just reported experiments that have been carried out to test 

 the value of serum from bulls, immunized by injection of blood 

 obtained from hill bulls, during the progress of a modified 

 attack of Rinderpest produced by simulcaneous injections of 

 serum and virus. The volume of virus used for injections in 

 the process of hyper immunization has been further reduced 

 to 25 c.c. per S). body weight in the case of plain cattle. For 

 hill bulls and buffaloes a volume at the rate of 3 c.c. per R) 

 body weight is now used. Further, it has been found 

 unnecessary to increase the volume of virus in each successive 

 injection, as was generally practised. Animals reinjected 

 several times with the same volume continue to produce 

 a serum of value to that obtained after the first injection. 

 Further information on the subject will be found in the 

 Memoirs <if tlie DeparlMent of Agricnltiire in /iirfia (Veteri- 

 nary Series;, Vol. II, No. 2. 



