230 



THE AGEIUULTUEAL NEWS. 



July Is, lyu. 



COTTON. 



Barbados 17 Id. to 

 to IKd. and a few 



Froh^t &r C'l)., on 

 for the wet- k 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholnie and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write this fortnight as follows, with reference to the sales 

 C)t West Inilian Sea Island cotton: — 



Since oiii' last report about 140 l>ide.s of A\'est Indian Sea 

 l.sland cotton have been .sold at prices langing from 17rf. to 

 \9d., and values are without change. 



The bn.sine.ss include Anguilla ISt/., 

 ISt?., St. Vincent 19(/., St. Martin I'd. 

 St. Kitts at \f>i. 



The report of Messrs. Henry ^^'. 

 Sea Island cotton in the Sotithern States, 

 ending Jane 27, is as follows: — 



The sales since the 6th instant here were limited to 6 

 bales, being a small lot oft" in preparation, which was bought 

 on private terms on account of a Northern Jlill. The unsold 

 stock here is redu.ced to two planters' crop lots, viz.: 40 bales 

 Reliance, held at 30c., and -50 liales Little Bobs, held at 28c. 

 There is some demand for these cro|is, but at jiriees lielow the 

 ■liews of the planters. 



This report shows that the total export of Sea 

 Island cotton from the United States to Liverpool, 

 Manchester and Havre, up to Jtine 27, 1914, wen' 

 4,3!)1 bales, (i,S08 hales, and 4,0!M hales, respectively. 



LITTLE-KNOWN COTTON-GROWING 

 AREAS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



The notes on which this article i.> liased have lieen 

 derived from information distril>uted tluough a considerable 

 numlier of the mure recent Dijj/omatic a)id Consular Bcports 

 issued liy the Foreign Office of Great Britain. The facts 

 presented are likely to Ije of some interest since they deal with 

 areas that have not up to the present received much atten- 

 tion in the Ai/ricultaral Kews or in journals of a similar kind. 



GREECE. In the Piraeus district of this country the Gov- 

 ernment has been encouraging for the pa.st three years the 

 cultivation of Egyptian cotton, as this kind grows in Greece 

 for the most part without irrigation. Ex])eriments that have 

 lieen carried out show that as a rule the season is too 

 shc)rt for cotton growing but with proper manuring and sowing 

 at the earliest i)ossil)le date, satisfactory results have been 

 obtained. The e.\tension of the irrigation scheme is likely to 

 stimulate the production of cotton in this district. 



In his report for tlie ,year 1912 on the trade and agri- 

 culture of Thessaly, His Majesty's Consul states that during 

 that year 5,590 cwt. of cotton was produced. 



TUNIS. The attempts to grow cotton in this North 

 African regency have not been very .successful. Constant 

 droughts, the absence of re.serves of water under the surface 

 of the soil, as also of irrigation works, .seem to indicate that, 

 in present conditions, the cotton plant cannot find the .suste- 

 jiance necessary to its good and plentiful development. 



CHlN.'i. One of the most important cotton-producing 

 provinces in China is Chekiang. The sowing of cotton 

 liegins at the end of the spring. The ground is loosely dug 

 and divided into long beds .some 14 inclies wide and the 

 .seed is sown in parallel lines 4 inches apart. Away from 

 the sea-coast the .seed is previously soaked in salt water 

 bnt along the border this is unnecessary. The croji 

 is ])icketl at the beginning of the autumn and is 



said to average from SO to 20U cattels per mow accord- 

 ing to the season. The extraction of the .seed is generally 

 jierformed with .Jajjanese gins but the jiacking process is very 

 jiiimitive, the lint being stam[)ed into liags under the feet of 

 men. The chief market for locally produced lint is in 

 Shanghai and Japan. 



Cotton is sometimes watered or shijjjjed in wet weather 

 to increase the weight, but the Cotton Guild is vigorou.sly 

 enforcing regulations forbidding such mal-practices. 



Some twenty years ago, in the vicinity of Yuyao, an 

 experiment was made with American cotton seed, lait proved 

 a failure, the pods of the variety used turning up and rotting 

 with the rain, whereas the Chinese variety turns down, thus 

 shedding the water. It is suggested that it might be worth 

 while to repeat the experiment with dift'erent varieties of 

 American and Indiaji seed, utilizing modern methods of 

 jilanting and cultivation. 



In the report for the year 1912 for the trade of 

 Shanghai it is stated that the cotton crop was a very large 

 one, )>ut luisiness with foreign markets is very difficult owing 

 to the high rates of exchange and especially l)ecauseof the mal- 

 practice of watering the cotton which as ^^■e have seen is 

 typical of the cott'in business in Ningpo. The Cotton Anti- 

 adulteration Association is making vigorous ett'orts to put 

 a sto]) to the mal-practice. 



NEW CALEDONIA. It is Only a few years ago that cotton 

 growing was started in New Caledonia, but it is already 

 a tloiu'ishing industry and promises to assume inij)ortant 

 dimensions. The progress has been rapid as is shown by 

 these figures representing the value of the exports since 1908: 

 £44, J275, £858, £,3,6.33, £1.5,536. The quality of this 

 cfitton is stated to l;)e good anil in 1912 it was quoted on the 

 Ha\re market at from Is. Id. to 2s. per kilo. A small con- 

 signment was recently sent to Liverpool, and is reported to 

 have l)een sold at a higher price than the maximum paid at 

 Ha^•re. The jjrice paid to local planters is 50c. per kilo, 

 unginned. The present area under cotton is estimated at 

 just under 2,500 acres. It is suggested that the outbreak of 

 a disease of coffee has provided a great stimulus to the pro- 

 duction of cotton and it is predicted in the report that in 

 a few years cotton %\ill liecome the staple agricultural product 

 of the colony. 



BRAZIL. Sao Paulo is the most favourable zone for cotton 

 growing in the South American Kepulilic. The best areas seem 

 to lie in the vast region crossed by the Sorocabana railway. 

 The l'|iland cotton known also by the name of Paulo is stated 

 to be the best and most suitable for local cultivation. 



Cotton at the International Congress.— The 



Maiirhester Courier for June 24, 1914, gives a short review of 

 .Mr. Hutton's paper read before the International Congress of 

 Tropical Agriculture, on the work of the British Cotton 

 Cirowing Association. Mr. Hutton, who is Chairman of the 

 Association, pointed out that India, Uganda and Nya.saland, 

 West Africa, the Anglo-Egyi)tian Soudan, and the West Indies, 

 are the best fitted areas for j)ractical developments. The 

 prf)l)lem differs in dift'erent countries. In India a better 

 quality of long staple nuist be procured such as the West 

 Indies can produce. On the West Coast of Africa transport 

 and connnunication in general are a handicap, and the .same 

 thing, to some extent, holds good for Nyasaland. Great 

 prospects lie before an aiiprcciable increase in the amount and 

 quality of cotton grown on the Gezira Plain in tlie Soudan. 

 .Mr. Hutton was of opinion that there is enough suitable land 

 in the British Empire to supply the quantity and quality of 

 cotton required by the textile trade of Lancashire. 



