5i 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Feekuaey U, 1914. 



COTTON. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 

 Meesrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under dafce January 2(i, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton: — 



Since our last report about 70 bales of West Indian 

 Sea Island cotton have been sold; these include St. Kitts 

 IShd. to 19fZ, Barbados \Ud. to 19d and a few St. Vincent 

 20ld. The stock at present is very limited :\nd buyers are 

 only paying attention to the finer sorts. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending; January 24, is as follows: — 



We have only to confirm our last report of the market. 

 The demand continues for Extra Fine at 2()c., Extra Fine oft' 

 in colour at 23c., of which the offerings are very limited 

 and fail to supply the wants of buyers. The lower grades 

 have been sought after on the basis of our quotations, 

 resulting in large sales, taking all the offerings which the 

 Factors were willing to .sell at the prices now current. 

 There is still left in stock unsold about 200 bales odd bags 

 and .500 bales crop lots classing Fine and Fully Fine off in 

 class,]; which are held at 2c. to 3c. higher. This cotton the 

 Factors may decide to sell in time at some concession. 



We quote, viz; — 



Extra Fine 26c. 



Extra Fine off) .^.,, 

 in preparation J 



Fully Fine 23c. 



Fine 20c. 



Fine.t Fully Fine ■> 20c 

 off in preparation / " 

 Stains 17c. 



^;§ This report shows that the total exports of Sea 

 Island cotton from the United States to Liverpool, 

 Manchester and Havre, up to January 24, 1914, were 

 3,100 bales, .5,744 bales, and 3,6-51 bales, respectively. 



= li^d. 



= 13i(f. 



= I3id. 



= llfrf. 



= 11 H 



= lOd. 



c.i.f., it 5 per cent. 



THE WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF COTTON: 



THREATENED SOURCES OF SEA 



ISLAND VARIETY. 



Professor John A Todd, who visited the cotton-growing 

 areas of the United States last summer, gave the members 

 of the lloyal Phaosophical Society of Glasgow, on Jan- 

 nary 13, some impressions of his visit. Over 60 per cent, of 

 the cotton production of the world was, he said, drawn from 

 the United State?, and to that percentage Texas alone con- 

 tributed one- third. In ] 831 the production by the LTnited 

 States amounted to 1,000,000 bales, and in 1911 it had 

 increased to 16,000,000 bales. There was a cotton area of 

 4.50,000,000 acres, but the acreage under cultivation was 

 only 3.5,000,000 acres. Statistics .showed that the tendency 

 had been for the price of cotton to rise, and there were two 

 principal reasons why the area of production in the United 

 States was not largely increased. One was that the amount 

 of labour required was very heavy and that the cost of negro 

 Jabour was going up enormously. Cotton was selling at 12c. 



per ft., and the cost of picking alone was 2c , or a sixth of 

 the selling price. Mechanical pickers had been introduced, 

 but so far these cost about as much as hand labour. 



The other cause limiting the area of production was the 

 ravages of the boll weevil, a plague which had been allowed 

 to spread probably largely owing to the inetticiency of negro 

 labour The weevil was now threatening the area in which 

 Sea Island cotton, the highest quality of cotton, was grown 

 in the United States, and the chances were that this crop 

 might al.-^o disappear. In that case there were only two 

 parts of the world which could supply the defect, the AVest 

 Indies and Egypt. Professor Todd, in conclusion, hazarded 

 the view that there were only two things that the United 

 States could do — ^ther improve the quality and value of its 

 crop, or give it up and let other countries which had cheap 

 labour take up the burden of growing cotton. As it was at 

 present, the cost of labour was so great as to make cotton- 

 growing approach the non-protitable, and if things did not 

 change, the chances were that the great supply of cotton for 

 the world in the future might come from other countries 

 and these countries mostly British possessions. A large 

 number of lantern views were thrown on the screen, these 

 illustrating among other things the great wastage of cotton 

 by the American method of handling. (West India Com- 

 mittee Circular, January 27, 1914.) 



COTTON PRODUCTION IN INDIA. 



In connexion with the above article on the limitations 

 of cotton production in the United States of America, it 

 may prove interesting to review briefly the present position, 

 or rather the present possibilities of cotton-growing in India. 

 The subject receives attention in a rather interesting manner 

 in the Wealth of India (December 1913). Here it is 

 admitted, that although India produces a large quantity of 

 cotton, it is of a comparatively inferior type. Mention is 

 made of the exhortation of the Secretary of the International 

 Federation of Master Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' 

 Association, who has expressed the opinion that the subject 

 of cotton improvement in India has not received that 

 attention by the Government which it ought to have 

 received. On the other hand, the writer in the Wealth of 

 India points out that however profitable cotton cultivation 

 may be in India, and however important economically it may 

 be to the Mother Country, the industry must not be pursued, 

 nor receive undue attention to the detriment of the food 

 crops. 'In these days of high prices we, in an agricultural 

 country like India, must ensure an adequate supply of 

 food and cannot afford to prosecute the cultivation of 

 commercial crops at the cost of food grains.' It would seem, 

 in conclusion, that there is a good deal to support this view 

 in rega' 1 to a large expansion of the area, but not in con- 

 nexion with activity to improve the quality and yield per 

 acre of the land already under cotton cultivation. 



In Uganda, according to the Report of the Department 

 of Agriculture for 1913, the handling of cotton after it leaves 

 the hands of the growers admits of much imporvement. The 

 growers are trained to separate the clean cotton from the 

 .stained at the time of picking, and to encourage this, buyers 

 must disi^riminate in price at the time of purchase, and also 

 gin and bale the different qualities distinct from each other. 

 Unfortunately some of the natives still use fibre for bundling 

 their cotton and tying the mouths of sacks. This fibre 

 must not be permitted on any account to get into ginned 

 cotton as it ruins the carding machinery of the spinner. 



