230 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July 23, 1910. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date July 1, with reference to 

 the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



About 200 bags of West Indian Sea Islands have been 

 been sold since our last report, chiefly St. Vincent cotton, at 

 22d. to 26rf. : the remainder being composed of Barbados and 

 Antigua at 21rf. to 2U-f/. 



Owing to the fall in other growths of cotton, spin- 

 ners of Sea Islands are rather inclined to hold off from the 

 market, e.xpecting lower prices. Stained West Indian is dis- 

 tinctly more unsaleable owing to the Egyptian decline, and 

 considerably lower prices would have to be taken to effect 

 .sales, unless Egyptian cotton improves. Cotton which we 

 were selling at H^d. to, ]od., we are now only getting lOrf. 

 per lb. offered for. 



The report of Messrs. Henry \V. Frosc & Co., on 

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending July 2, is as follows: — 



Since our last report on .June 11, the market has 

 remained dull, with no demand. The stock in Factors' hands 

 is now reduced to -53 bales, con.sisting principally of Planters' 

 crop lots held at .50c. to .55c. There is also still left on plan- 

 tation around Beaufort about 100 bales classing Fully Fine. 



Although the season has practically closed, yet it is 

 possible that some demand may spring up for the limited 

 supply left unsold, which may be rei|uired by the trade before 

 the ne.xt crop comes to market. 



THE PROSPECTS OF EGYPTIAN 

 COTTON-GROWING. 



An abstract of a jiaper read at the Brussels International 

 Cotton Congress, by ilr. A. H. Di.xon, of Manchester, is 

 given in the Te.rtile Mercuri/ for June 18, 1910. In this, it 

 is stated that the tendency of the Lancashire cotton trade is 

 always toward the consumption of finer grades of raw 

 material: and that it is therefore important that every endea 

 vour should be made to maintain an ample supply of cotton 

 possessing high qualities. It is pointed out that there has 

 been recently a comparatively large increase of mills dealing 

 with Egyptian cotton, but that the cotton crop has not been 

 increased proportionately. 



The account goes on to show that the extension of the 

 cotton-growing areas in Egypt has been from 977,735 

 feddans (feddan = 105 acre) in 1S95-6 to 1,640,415 feddans 

 in 1908-9, but that the yield is much less at the present 

 time than it was from 1895 to 1898. In the last-mentioned 

 years, the production was from 538 to 5'8 kantars (kantar = 

 lOrSl ill.) per feddan, whereas that since 1902 has never 

 been higher than 4'88, while in the years previous to 1909-10 



it was as low as 3'80 kantars. The yield last year was even 

 less, only about 3'3 kantars per feddan, so that the total crop 

 reached less than 5,000,000 kantars, which, as is pointed out 

 by Mr. Dixon, is a figure so startling that a retrospect of 

 nearly twenty years must be taken in order to find such 

 a small output. 



The chief reasons adduced for this decreased yield were 

 climatic conditions; deterioration of seed; water-logging of 

 the .soil; the over-supply of surface water; cotton worm; 

 boll worm; deterioration of soil from over cropping; and the 

 use of artificial manures. A serious accompaniment of the 

 decrea.sed output is the deterioration in quality that has taken 

 place. Mr. Dixon adduces evidence to show that the true 

 cause of this is deterioration in the quality of the seed, for 

 the introduction of new seed has always given an increased 

 production. From general considerations, it appears that the 

 time during which a new kind of seed can be used is limited 

 to twenty j-ears. 



One cf the most important matters dealt with in the 

 paper was the recommendation that steps should be taken to 

 impress upon the Egyptian Government the necessity of the 

 provision of a Government Department, whose efforts should 

 be devoted entirely to the service of agriculture. 



CROSSING SEA ISLAND AND NATIVE 

 WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



A comniLinication has been received from Dr. C. E. 

 Gooding, of Stirling, Barbados, describing experiments which 

 have been undertaken by him in the direction of procuring 

 hybrids between Sea Island cotton and the ordinary native 

 cotton of the perenni..! type. In these, in July 1908, a seed 

 from a large and hardy native cotton tree was planted, and the 

 following January, when the plant was well grown, some of 

 its flowers were pollinated with pollen from a good strain of 

 Sea Island cotton, the procedure being to emasculate and bag 

 the flowers of the native cotton on the evening preceding 

 their opening; then to pollinate them from Sea Island flowers, 

 and finally to bag them for twenty-four hours. All the flowers 

 thus treated produced healthy bolls, which duly came to 

 maturity. 



When ripe, the seeds from these bolls were divided into 

 two lots, one of which was planted by itself in April 1909, 

 and the other, with other cotton seed, under ordinary field 

 conditions, in the following July. The plants, especially 

 those sown in April, attained a large size, but this extra 

 growth had been anticipated, and allowed for, by setting them 

 much farther apart than Sea Island cotton is usually planted. 



The following table gives the particulars and results of 

 the experiment: — 



