V..L. XIII. No 



321. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



809 



■plants or tlif inferior lint fornu-rly met with as tho ])ri«lm-t 

 ■I' sMiootli black seed. 



It will lie of intere.st if nbservt-rs will reford tin- points 

 cc.niini; under their notice that have a bearing on the' .piestiou. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 

 Messrs. Wolstenhohno and Holland, of Liv.-rpool, 

 write as tbllows. under dato September S. 1914. with 

 reference to the sales ot West Indian Sea Island 



cotton: — 



Since our last report the sales of West Inilian Sea Island 

 luive only amounted to 8 bale.s, good cpiality St. Kitts at 16rf. 



While the present unsettled state of affairs continues, 

 we see no prospect of making proiriess unless at throw away 

 prices. 



.Messrs. Henry W. Frost \' Co., report that in 

 ill.- Southern .States no new crop h.i-s been received, 

 .uid with no stock on hand the market has not opene<l. 



BRITISH COTTON GROWING 

 ASSOCIATION. 



The one hundred and tuciit\ seventh meeting of the 

 Council of the Briti.sh Cotton Growing Association was held 

 it the Ottice.s, 15, Cro.ss Street, Manchester, on Tuesday the 

 1st instant. In the ab.sence of the President (The Rt. Hon. 

 the Earl of Derliy, O.C.V.O.), Mr. .1. Arthur Hutton occuiiied 

 the Chair. 



Reference was made to tlu' loss sustained by the Associ- 

 ati.in through the death of .Mr. A. H. Gill, M.P., who has 

 lieeu a most valuable member of the Council since the A.s.so- 

 liation was formed, and it was mentioned that a letter of 

 <ondoleuce had been sent to Mr. Gill's family. It was 

 jleciiled that any ^lember of Association's staff' who joined 

 the liattalion which is being raised in Manchester, should be 

 -■guaranteed re-engagement on discharge from Army ser\-ice, 

 Aw\ he given all the other benefits agreed n|)<.n by the leading 

 Manchester Firms. 



WEST AKKKA. 



It was reporteil that a meeting had been held at the 

 i'olonial Ottice on the 19th of August, when mendiers of the 

 London, Liverpool and Manchester Chamliers of Commerce, 

 Chandlers of Mines, Shipping, Banking and Cotton Growing 

 Interests were all represented. The (juestion of how West 

 African trade could be carrietl on during the present crisis 

 had been discussed, and Mr. Hutton-" had laid stress on the 

 importance of the Government taking over the M'ar Risk 

 Insmance at a nominal premium, that Shipping Companies 

 shiiuld not charge excessive freights, and that there should 

 be better facilities for financing. The purchases of cotton 

 in Lagos to date amount to 1.3,316 bales, as compared with 

 13,3fiH for the same period of last year, and 8,853 bales for 

 1912. The purcha.ses in Northern Nigeria to the end of 

 June were +83 bale.s, as compared with I,3()(j bales for the 

 same perioil of 1913. 



XVASALANli. 



It was decided to make advances to planters against 

 •cotton which cannot be shipped at the present time owing 

 to the war. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^_^_^^ 



A communication recently received from Mr. C. S. Pickford 

 •if Halifa.x, Nova Scotia, states that with reference to the 

 Toronto Exhiliition, the West India Court was again one of 

 the chief attractions, though this was diminished through 

 the unfortunate failure of Trinidad. Dominica ami St. Lucia 

 ■10 send exhibits at the last moment. 



THE LOCKING UP OF PHOSPHATE 



FERTILIZERS. 



The Kxptrlmc'iH Station lti:cord. Vol. XXX, 

 Xo. .S, gives the foUowinjj; ab.stract of results obtained 

 on this subject, appearing in a Java publication: — 



Ex|)eriments with soluble and insoluble phosphates on 

 \arioris .lava soils are reported, the results in general tending 

 to contirm Hilgards conclusions that if highly ferruginous 

 soils ai-e fertilizetl with soluble phosphates 'the phosphoric 

 acid is likely to be i|uickly withdrawn from useful action, so 

 that any excess not promptly taken up by the crop is likely 

 to become inei^t and useless: . . . that the phosphoric acid 

 tends to comliine with the oxids and hydroxids of the 

 trivalent metals, especially with tho.se of iron, the equivalent 

 ahuniiuc compounds showing the .same tendency but to 

 a smaller degree, and that this ferric phosphate is for all 

 practical purposes insolulile and inaccessible to the crop.' 



The results, however, did not confirm Hilganl's conclu- 

 sion 'that on ferruginous soils rather difficultly soluble phos- 

 phates should be used, such as bone meal and Thomas' slag, 

 which are said to be more slowly if at all acted upon by ferric 

 and aluminic hydrates.' and tend to discredit Van Bylert's 

 conclusion 'that the degree of usefulness of the fertilizer and 

 the relative amount tied up in the soil is materially affected 

 liy the phos|ihate being either in a soluble or in an insoluble 

 state,' since the difference in the results obtained with .soluble 

 and in.soluble phosphates were insignificant. 



Notwithstanding the rapid and exten.sive fixation of 

 soluljle phosphates which tfiok place in certain lateritic soils, 

 i, is not, in the authors opiiuon, to lie inferred that moderate 

 application of such phosphates 'cannot produce a beneficent 

 effect on the crop and good econoinic results.' 



The general conclusion is that the fi.xation of phosphate 

 fertilizers in soils is chietly due to certain colloidal compounds 

 of the soil. 



Manurial Experiments with Cotton in North 



Carolina. In the liulletin of the North Carolina Departs 

 meiit of Agriculture. Xo. 195, is contained a report of the 

 results obtained from cotton experiments on the .sandy loam 

 soils of the coastal plain of North Carolina during the period 

 1903-9 inclusive, .\ltliongh it need not be inferred that 

 the results obtained a|iply to West Indian Sea Island con- 

 ditions, it seems wortli while to place on record in the A;/ri- 

 cu/tural Keii'S the s;dient points lirought out in these 

 experiments. 



When oidv two manurial constituents were ii.sed, 

 nitrogen combined with potash afforded the largest net return 

 per acre, while a mixture of nitrogen and phosphoric acid 

 cave the .smallest profit. It was shown that, on the whole, 

 nitroi'en is the pred'uninant or controlling constituent for 

 addini' the I'reatest profit per acre. Lime alone has been 

 u.secl, on an average, with little profit, but lime used in con- 

 nexion with a complete fertilizer seems to prove quite profit- 

 able, and it is suggested that lime should be supplied under 

 these conditions at the rate of 1,000 lb. of slaketl lime 

 broadcasted every two or three years. 



In conclusion it may be noted that the value of soil 

 analyses was brought out in these experiments, for by the 

 consideration of the composition of the various soils of the 

 State, it was inferred that the results obtained would apply 

 to the sandy and fine sandy loams of the upper coastal plain 

 se<-tion of tlie State. The varieties of cotton plants experi- 

 ment'd with were of the .\merican Upland typa. 



