Vol. IX. No. 203. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



47 



WEST INDIAN PRODUCTS. 



DRUGS AND SPICES ON THE LONDON 



MARKET. 



Mr. J. L. Jackson, A.L.S., has forwarded the 

 followincr report on the London drug and spice market 

 for the month of December : — 



Throughout the mor.th of December, as is generally the 

 case, the markets have shown the usual dullness, buyers 

 being interested only in purchases to meet their immediate 

 ■wants, and this dullness has been accentuated by the approach 

 of the Christmas holidays, and the un.settled condition of the 

 country consequent upon the advent of the general election, 

 which in the present instance, at the time of writing, is having 

 a more than ordinary disorganizing effect. In the drug market 

 the two articles that have attracted the most attention of 

 late, have been glycerine and Cascara Sagrada. The enormous 

 rise in the price of the first is said to be due to the great 

 demand at present existing for it in the manufacture of 

 dynamite, which is now so generally used for blasting pur- 

 poses, in the place of gunpowder. Cascara, however, is 

 beginning to show an easier tone. The following are the 

 details relating to West Indian produce : — 



<;IX<iKE. 



At the spice sale on the first of the month, 1-54 barrels 

 of Jamaica were offered, but none sold, the whole consign- 

 ment being bought in: 309 packages of Cochin and Calicut 

 •were also offered without reserve, and 100 sold at 81.«. for 

 rather small cut, an intermediate quality fetching 67s., and 

 small native .52s.; 36s. to 37.s-. was paid for part. lean, brown 

 rough Calicut. In the following week there was no Jamaica 

 offered, but there was a good supply of Cochin, amounting to 

 23.5 bags of washed rough, all of which was bought in at42s. 6c?. 

 per cwt. Japan was represented by 374 bags, the wholeof which 

 was disposed of without reserve at 32s. (id. to 33s. per cwt for 

 wormy limed. About 30 cases of good brown Colicut were 

 sold privately. At the auction on the 1.5th, the only offerings 

 were 304 bags of limed Japan, the whole being sold without 

 reserve, one lot of fair to good fetching 36s. M. to 37.s. 6:1., 

 and another lot 3S.S. per cwt. There were no further quota- 

 tions during the month. 



MACE AND riMKNTO. 



At the spice sale on the 1st of the month, 72 packages 

 of West Indian mace were sold at the following rates: fair°to 

 good pale Is. 9d to 2s. 3(/., pale and reddish Is. 7d. to 

 Is. 8d., fair red Is. 6rf, to Is. Id., and pickings Is. 3d. Xo 

 change in this article has been made during the rest of the 

 month. Pimento has received but little attention. At the 

 first spice sale none was offered, but it was stated that 2^1. 

 per B). was the price paid privately. A week later 51 bags 

 were brought forward, and the whole bought in at the price 

 already quoted. 



SAES.^PARILLA. 



At the first drug auction on the 2nd of the month, the 

 supplies were limited, with no demand. There was no Grey 

 Jamaica offered; the offerings being as follows: native .Jamaica 

 26 bales, Lima-Jamaica 6 bales, Guatemala 32 bales, 

 Honduras 10 bales. For the 26 bales of native 

 Jamaica lOd to Is. per ft), were the pricas at which they were 

 held; for the 6 bales of Lima-Jamaica 1.?., Guatemala 9'/., 



and Honduras Is. 4(/. per Itj. A week later it was reported 

 that 13 bales of grey Jamaica had arrived, but no 

 further business was done in this article. 



KOLA, TAMAEIND.s, LLMIC JUHK, ETC. 



At the first sale 1 1 packages of kola were offered, and 

 .5 sold; for 2 bags of small ^Vest Indian 2^rf. |jer h. was 

 paid, and 1 bag of good washed realized 3d. per lb. At the 

 same sale Tamarinds were brought forward in considerable 

 quantity, 16.«. per cwt., in bond, being asked for Barbados, and 

 it was stated that higher prices were to be expected. This 

 same price, however, ^\as again quoted at the auction on the 

 15th, while the price of Antigua was 12.«. to 14s. per cwt., in 

 bond, and lis. 6/. for East Indian. On December 8, con- 

 centrated West Indian Lime juice was reported ' firm, with 

 buyers at £17 '. At the end of the month 236 packages of 

 lime juice was reported to have arrived from DominiciC but 

 there was very little demand for it, the quoted prices being 

 from lid. to Is. per gallon. The same steamer brought 28 

 packages of oil of lime, the market price of which at the time 

 is 1.5. Qd. per lb. 



THE TICK AND DISEASE. 



The November issue of the Annals of Tropical, 

 Medicine and Para^itolo(jy contains the reports of 

 the twenty-first expedition of the Liverpool School of 

 Tropica! ^ledicine. This expedition was made to 

 Jamaica, by Professor R. Newstead and Dr. W. T. 

 Prout, and the reports deal fully with the blood- 

 sucking arthropoda generally. The conclusions arrived 

 at concerning the relation of ticks to disease are as 

 follows: — 



1 . That the tick responsible for the transmission of Texas 

 fever is the so-called Texas fever tick (Jfn,yoropiis annulxfag, 

 var. auMrafis), though experimental proof is needed to 

 confirm this in the island of Jamaica. 2. That ticks are 

 most abundant during the dry season. 3. That ticks are 

 dispersed from place to place chiefly by the host to which 

 they are peculiar. 4. That rain, or temporary flooding with 

 water does not destroy ticks or their eggs. 5. That 

 a relatively large number of young ticks will hatch, and 

 possibly survive, for longer periods in dirty pastures than in 

 pastures which are free from weeds and scrub. 6. That 

 ticks cannot survive indefinitely and reproduce their species 

 without access to a host. 7. That all natural enemies of 

 ticks should be encouraged in e%'ery possible way, and that 

 fowls should be kept in all cattle pens. 8. That in all cases 

 where it is practicable, the burning of pastures should not be 

 carried out until the eighth week after the removal of all stock. 

 9. That tick-infested animals should be thoroughly .sprayed 

 or dipped regularly at intervals of five to eight weeks, or at 

 less intervals if found necessary: local applications being of 

 little use in the destruction of cattle ticks, though useful in 

 destroj-ing those species which infest the natural cavities of 

 the hor.se and mule. 10. That the eSbrt to destroy the ticks 

 must be a united one; no half measures will serve: all must 

 participate in the work. 1 1. That the evidence of those pen- 

 keepers who have constantly waged war against this pest is 

 that ticks, on their respective estates, are not nearly as 

 troublesome as formerly. 12. That the island Government 

 remove the duty from all materials used in spra}-ing and 

 dipping cattle. 



