198 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



June 20, 1914. 



COTTON. 



THE SOIL AND PLANT GROWIH. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs, Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date May 29, with reference 

 lio the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton: — 



Since our last report about 100 bales of West Indian 

 Sea Island cotton have l)een sold, chiefly St. Croix \8d. to 12d. 

 with a few St Vincent at ild., also about 50 bales of Stains 

 at 6id. to 7|d 



Prices continue firm for the finest qualities, but there 

 is pressure to sell the lower grades. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending May 16, is as follows: — 



There is no change to report in the market. The few 

 Planters' crops which compose the stock remain unsold; but 

 ther- is an order for one of them, which the Factors are 

 unwilling to sell at the price offered. 



This report shows that the total exports of Sea 

 Island cotton from the United States to Liverpool, 

 Manchester and Havre, up to May 16, 1914, were 

 4,391 bales, 6,777 bales, and 4,066 bales, respectively. 



In Montserrat the weather being favourable during May, 

 all the experiment plots for cotton have been planted, and the 

 Curator states that arrangements have been made to supply 

 larger quantities of cotton seed of the best strain, to cotton 

 growers in the Presidency. It is estimated that the area 

 this year under cotton is larger than that of last year, which 

 was 2,200 acres, giving an average yield of 136 1b. of lint 

 per acre, the climatic conditions not being altogether 

 favourable. 



An Ordinance has been passed in Montserrat to regulate 

 the planting of cotton. No copy has yet been received at 

 this Office, but on its arrival the said Ordinance will be 

 reviewed. 



The interest in bay trees continues at the present time in 

 Montserrat, and numerous enquiries are being made for seed- 

 lings; but the Station's supply does not appear to be sufficien- 

 tly adequate to meet the demand. It is expected that at 

 least 20 acres will be planted from the seedlings now on hand. 



The specimen of oil distilled from a plant known locally 

 in Montserrat as geranium, which was sent to the Imperial 

 Institute for examination, has been reported on as being of 

 no commercial value. 



It is reported that a meeting of members of the 

 St. Vincent Agricultural and Commercial Society was held 

 on June 10, to discuss methods for dealing with bovine 

 tuberculosis in that colony, and the prospects of supplying 

 the Canadian market with dried ca.saava roots. 



THE BACTERIAL TREATMENT OF PEAT. 



The natural home of nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the 

 Azotobacter type is not in a liquid but in the soil. This 

 explains partly the failure of past attempts to cultivate this 

 useful organism in appreciable quantities in liquid media for 

 application to soils where it is lacking. Recently attention 

 has turned to the growing of nitrifying bacteria artificially in 

 solid substance', and Professor Bottomley, of King's College, 

 London, has just published in the Journal of tli,e Royal 

 Society of Arts for March 13, 1914, results on the bacterial 

 treatment of peat. At the beginning of the experiments 

 numerous substances containing humus were tried, but all 

 without success. Finally trials were made with peat, but 

 the nitrifying organisms refused to grow in such a medium, 

 even though pe it is rich in humic acid, which can be con- 

 verted chemically into soluble humates on which the 

 nitrifying organisms might be expected to thrive. By 

 a more or less happy chance, it was discovered that certain 

 bacteria possess the power of converting peat into a 

 'humated' neutral medium in which Azotobacter flourishes 

 well if the humating bacteria are killed oft' by sterilization 

 before the culture of Azotobacter is added. 



Having successfully prepared in this way the bacterized 

 peat, the investigator made several series of analyses to 

 show the extent to which the new substance is able to increase 

 the nitrogen content in the soil It was found that the 

 increase of nitrogen was so great in pot experiments, that 

 if tbe increase could have been obtained throughout an 

 acre of soil for a depth of 3 inches it would represent the 

 equivalent of a dressing of 28 cwt. of nitrate of soda 

 per acre, taking nitrate of soda to contain 156 per cent, 

 of nitrogen. 



The experiments at King's College were supplemented 

 by a series of important independent trials carried out by 

 the authorities at the Royal Gardens, Kew. A wide variety 

 of plants was selected for treatment in these experiments, 

 including Begonia, Asparagus, Primula, Carnation. Twelve 

 plants of each kind were selected by the Curator of the 

 Royal Gardens as being similar in size, age and health. 

 The plants were potted up on April 20, 1912, and 

 within ten days the effect of the peat was evident 

 in increased growth and stronger development of the 

 treated plants. This increase was maintained through- 

 out the extent of the experiments, and in six weeks' 

 time the treated plants were double to three times the size 

 of the untreated ones. One very important fact demonstra- 

 ted by the two experiments was that production, and 

 especially root development, are promoted equally with 

 increase of foliage. At Chelsea Physic Garden, a plot of 

 radishes watered once only with an extract of the bacterized 

 peat gave an increase by weight over 54 per cent, above the 

 untreated plot. Equally striking results were obtained on 

 some experimental plots at Eton School Garden. As well 

 as this, the beneficial eftects of bacterized peat as a top 

 dressing for grass have been noticed by several experimenters, 

 and remarkable results were obtained on the mid-Surrey golf 

 course in the matter of the improvement of the greens— as 

 described by the editor of the Garden, writing in Country 

 Life, for November 1, 1914. 



The question has been raised as to whether the results 

 obtained are due to nitrogen fixation directly, or to a more 

 general manurial effect. Probably both are important. 



