162 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 23, 1914. 



signs of exhaustion. It has therefore been urgently 

 necessary to consider what can oe done to re-establish in 

 cotton soils the standard of fertility. Strangely enough, 

 the experiments which have been conducted with arti- 

 ficial manures in some places have shown that the appli- 

 cation of nutrients not only does not improve but actu- 

 ally decreases the yield. On the other hand, experience 

 in other places does not confirm this as a general result, 

 and the question has been raised as to whether there is 

 not something in the way the manure is applied, varying 

 of course with the kind of soil and the system of cultiva- 

 tion. But even the trials which have produced results 

 T^hich decry the value of artificial manures are now 

 showing a tendency towards indicating their employ- 

 ment, and taking experience all over the West Indies 

 into account, the view may be .expressed that cotton 

 grown on the same land year after year must be 

 manured. It is also probable that artificials would 

 scientifically answer the crop's requirements, but 

 whether their use would prove as economical as some 

 other methods of fertilizing is open to considerable 

 doubt. 



One way out of the difiiculty which has just 

 received much support in St, Vincent and St. Kitts- 

 !Nevis is the utilization as manure of cotton-seed meal 

 (the residue left after the expression of the oil)_ 

 Chemically the method is sound in every way. Cotton- 

 seed meal is a general organic manure; it contains most 

 of the essential elements for plant nutrition and, as well, 

 organic matter the importance of which is very great 

 in tropical soils. Economically its use has several 

 unique advantages, the principal one being that its 

 employment as manure, if successful, would make the 

 expression of oil pay, which has not been the case in 

 many places up to now. In discussing the matter 

 with several prominent growers of Sea Island cotton, 

 it appeared that it would be undesirable to return the 

 whole of the meal obtained per acre. We may take it 

 that meal applied at the rate of 300 lb. per acre would 

 be amply sufficient, and this leaves a balance of about 

 160 lb. (taking the yield of meal per acre as 460 lb.) to 

 l)e disposed of As a matter of fact, the information 

 available concerning the use of meal as manure for 

 cotton is at present very sparce, but experiments are 

 now in progress and it may be found that larger 

 •dressings will prove remunerative. 



It is almost needless to point out that what is 

 probably the best manure for cotton lands is pen 

 manure. On cotton estates there are not enough 

 cattle to produce a quantity sufficient to meet require- 

 ments; but there seems to be no reason why the 



insufficient quantity that is produced could not be 

 made adequate, or nearly so, by feeding the animals 

 on the balance of meal, not to increase their weight but 

 to maintain them for work and to enrich their fieces. 

 It would seem that this double process of putting the 

 meal direct in the soil in small doses, and feeding the 

 remainder to cattle whereby part of it goes back 

 to the land as energy during the cultivation of the 

 soil and part as manure of the most valuable kind, is 

 the best solution to the problem under discussion. 



It may be found, of course, that the judicious use 

 of artificial fertilizers in conjunction with the organic 

 manure will be profitable, and there is also the employ- 

 ment of green dressings to be borne in mind. Experi- 

 ments in the future will no doubt delineate the ideal 

 method of procedure. The fact remains that yield as 

 well as quality must be aimed at with West Indian 

 cotton. In certain islands the yields are dropping; it 

 may be due to seasons or to organic environment — or it 

 may be due, in large measure, to insufficient food 

 supjjly in the soil. 



OPENING OF THE CORN-DRYING FAC- 

 TORY IN ANTIGUA. 



On Friday May 8, 1914, His Excellency the Governor 

 of the Leeward Islands, Sir Hesketh Bell, K.C.M.G., presided 

 at a small opening ceremoDy and formally inaugurated the 

 undertaking known as the kiln-drying factory by means of 

 which it is expected that the area under cultivation of Indian 

 corn in Antigua will be considerably increased. It may be 

 within the recollection of the readers of this journal that the 

 possibilities ahead of the introduction of some system of drying 

 locally produced Indian corn v.ere first brought out in an 

 editorial in the Agricultural Jfews during July 1913. This 

 article appeared as the outcome of important information 

 concerning the drying process obtained by the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture from various firms in the United 

 States through the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture. This information 

 will be found in an article on page 213 in Volume XII of this 

 journal. Early in October 1913, the Government of Antigua 

 took the matter up definitely, and their proposals were out- 

 lined in a further editorial in the Agricultural News for 

 October 2.5, 1913. It was suggested that the Government 

 should institute an experiment with a central kiln-drier on 

 commercial lines, the necessary funds to be obtained by 

 cooperative donations and, if necessary, with the assistance 

 of the Government. As a matter of fact the Government 

 have now decided to undertake the entire expense of the 

 experiment. The chief questions which the experiments 

 were proposed to settle were first, whether locally 

 grown corn could be properly kiln-dried in these islands; 

 secondly, whether the grain so treated is equal in quality to 

 the grain now imported; thirdly, whether it will keep as well- 

 and lastly, whether it will sell as well. In the course of his 

 address at the ceremony now under report, His Excellency 

 said that what the meeting now saw in operation before them 

 conclusively answered the first two questions, and it was 



