Vol. IX. No. 218. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



281 



'Earwigs' Attacking Cotton. 



Specimens of 'earwigs' (Forficulidae) have been 

 received recently at the Head Office of the Department, 

 from Mr. W. X. Sands, Agricultural Superintendent of 

 St. Vincent, wiih the statement that these insects were 

 causing a certain amount of damage to young cotton in 

 that island. The harm was brought about by their 

 eating the young sprouts, under the ground, as soon 

 as the seed had germinated. 



Information has been received subsequently from 

 Mr. W. H. Patterson, Acting Agricultural Superintend- 

 ent, St. Vincent, to the effect that the pest appears to 

 have been controlled, as it was extremely difficult, 

 recently, to find a single specimen. 



The methods employed in this control were to 

 light fires at night in the fields where the insects were 

 present to a dangerous degree, and to poison them by 

 means of cotton seed dressed with Paris green. In the 

 latter case, the poisoned cotton seed was sown in holes 

 on one side of the bank, while the ordinary seed put 

 in for the crop was planted higher on the same bank. 



Cloth from Banana Fibre. 



An account is contained in the Board of Trade 

 Journal for July 28, 1910, of an exhibit of banana 

 cloth that was made at a recent fair in China. It 

 appears from this that the fibre is manufactured from 

 banana stalks by the following process. The stalks at 

 the age of about one year are unrolled and steamed 

 over water, until they become soft; after this has been 

 done, the outer skin is removed by means of a scraper, 

 in which the strips are passed between two blunt 

 blades. The parts left after the outer skin has been, 

 removed is enclosed in a cloth and partly dried by being 

 pounded. After this, the fibre is shredded and twisted 

 into thread which is then weaved 



The process is only in the experimental stage at 

 present, so that the price of the cloth is high, £1 Ss. Qd. 

 being asked for a roll 5 yards long and 1 yard wide. 

 The claim is made that the cloth shows very good 

 lasting qualities, and there is a possibility that its 

 manufacture on a larger scale will lower the price, so 

 that the product may be enabled to compete with others 

 fur summer wear. 



The Distribution of Cotton Grown in the United 



States. 



The United States Census Bureau has recently 

 issued a special bulletin on the supply and distribution 

 of cotton grown in that country. An abstract of this, 

 contained in the Journal of the Rdi/al Sorici// of Arts 

 for July 8, 1910, states that the information included 

 in the bulletin shows that only about one-third of the 

 cotton grown in the United States is manufactured in 

 that country; the value of this cotton in 1905, when 

 made into cotton goods, was £9,000,000. The part of the 

 raw material used by the European manufacturers is 

 employed in the production of goods that are, for the 

 greater part, of a finer quality than those manufactured 

 in the United States: the value of the goods made from 

 the average American crop is estimated at £400, 000, 000. 



The report states that, whereas during the year 

 ended June 80, 1909, manufactured cotton goods to the 

 value only of £6,300,000 were shipped from the United 

 States, the imports of such goods reached approximate- 

 ly £12, .500,000 in value. It is pointed out, however, in 

 the journal to which reference is made above, that the 

 annual exports of manufactured <otton goods from the 

 United States vary greatly from year to year, and that 

 the falling off in them between 1906 and 1909 is due to 

 a lessening in the shipments to China, which were of 

 the value of £6,000,000 in 1906, and £1,600,000 in 

 1909. 



The abstract goes on to show that the prospects 

 of the American cotton crop are reported to be not 

 as favourable as those in the last few years, as the 

 United States Department of Agriculture has announ- 

 ced that there has been a small deterioration of the 

 plant during the month of June, but that there is no 

 need for much anxiety at present. 



Tephrosia Purpurea for Keeping down Weeds. 



A translation of part of an article which appeared 

 in L'Agrnnumifi Troplcale for September, 1909, deal- 

 ing with the suitability o^ Ti'plmjsla purpurea, for the 

 purpose of keeping down weeds in rubber and coffee 

 cultivations, was given in the Agricultural News, Vol. 

 VIII, p. 405. In relation to the use of the plant for 

 this purpose, an extract from an article which appeared 

 recently in the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits 

 and Federated Malay Statc'^, is given in the Planters' 

 Chronicle for June 18, 1910. 



The article states that experiments have been con- 

 ducted for some time for the purpose of finding a plant 

 which would keep weeds out of rubber plantations, and 

 at the same time do no harm to the trees. The inves- 

 tigations showed that Tephrosia purpurea was admir- 

 ably adapted for the purpose. The seed which had been 

 presented by Dr. Treub, of Buitenzorg, was planted in 

 two plots. In the first, one or two seeds were sown to 

 every square foot; in the second, two seeds were put in, 

 every few feet, along ridges on either side of the 

 rubber trees. 



In both cases, the Tephrosia has completely 

 kept down all weeds and, in the second instance, now 

 forms two solid hedges through which nothing passes. 

 The method of growing the plant in hedges appears to 

 have advantages in that a better air circulation is pro- 

 duced around the roots, and inspection of the plantations 

 is conducted more easily. Circling the trees with 

 Tephrosia also has its advantages, especially in the 

 matter of sowing the plant. 



Accounts were kept in order to afford a means of 

 effecting a comparison between the cost of clean weed- 

 ing and of the establishment of Tephrosia. These 

 showed that, over a period of five years, the latter was 

 about one third of the former. 



