294 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



September 17, 1910. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date August 29, with reference to 

 the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



Xo business has been reported in West Indian Sea 

 Island cotton since our last report. 



Though no business is reported, the tendency of prices is 

 distinctly easier. 



The latest accounts from America of the Sea Island 

 crop are rather more .satisfactory. 



The report of Messrs. Henry W. Frost & Co., on 

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending August 6, is as follows: — 



Since our last report, of .July 2, the market has contin- 

 ued dull, with no demand for the .5.3 bales stock, consisting 

 of planters' crops, held at .50c. to 55c. The 100 bales on 

 plantations around Beaufort are still on hand. 



COTTON EXPORTS FROM THE WEST 



INDIES. 



In the last number of the Agricultural Netvs, a table 

 ■was given of the cotton exports from the West Indies for the 

 quarter ending June 30, 1910, compiled from the statistics 

 that were then available. Since then, information has been 

 received from Jamaica to the effect that the amount of cotton 

 exported from that colony, during the same period, was 

 26 bales, weighing 10,868 ft>., and having a value of £692 14s. 

 All this was Sea Island cotton, and went to the United 

 Kingdom. 



This makes the total airount of cotton exported from the 

 West Indies, during the present season, 2,150,40.3 K)., having 

 an estimated value of £130,368. 



COTTON-GROWING IN MALTA. 



The local production of cotton shows a sliglit improvement, 

 181,191 B). having been obtained during the year, as compared 

 with 175,883 lb. in 1908-9. The acreage under cotton was 793 

 acres (as against 823 acres in 1908-9); the average yield was 

 228 II). of lint per acre, and the average price obtained was 

 6irf. per 5). or \d. per tt>. more than the price obtained in 

 1908-9. The quantity of cotton exported from the colony 

 was 303,861 fl)., as against 13,906 ft. in 1908-9, showing an 

 extraordinary increase of 289,955 ft., which the Inspector of 

 Agriculture attributes to the fact that a considerable portion 

 of the stock of previous years was held back in anticipation 

 of an improvement in the foreign market. The cotton ex- 

 ported in 1909-10 was all sent to Italy or Germany. (Colonial 

 Meports — Annwil, No. 642.) 



GUAYULE RUBBER. 



The following information regarding Guayule 

 rubber is taken from the Keiv Bidletin, No. (i, 1910, 

 p. 211:— 



An account of this Mexican source of rubber, derived from 

 Parthenium anjentatum, A. Gray, was published in the Kew 

 Bulletin, 1907, pp. 285-94, with a further note in that for 

 1908, p. 255. In 1907, some seeds of Parthenium argentatum, 

 and also of P. incan urn — a species sometimes confused with the 

 rubber-yielding plant {Keiv Bulletin, 1907, p. 294) — were 

 received from the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 The plants of Guayule raised from these seeds are now about 

 18 inches high and in flower; the stem is woody below, and 

 the silvery leaves, 2 inches long, are lanceolate, entire or in 

 a few cases irregularly lobed or toothed. The plants of 

 P. incanum have glaucus or silvery hawthorn-like leaves, 

 and in their crenate lobation differ markedly from the leaves 

 of P. argentatum, where the lobes are sharply angular. 



Through the kind offices of Mr. Reginald Tower, H. M. 

 Minister, ^lexico, two consignments of the seeds of Parthen- 

 ium argentatum were received at Kew in March and April 

 of this year, 'fhe first consignment was sent to Mr. Tower 

 by Mr. J. E. Kirkwood of the University of Montana, Mis- 

 soula, the author of a paper on the ' Propagation of Guayule 

 by Seeds' in the American Review of Tropical Agriculture, 

 Vol. I, No. 2, February 1910, pp. 34-43. The second con- 

 signment of seeds was sent by Mr. Tower from Mr. G.Fleming 

 of the Hacienda de Cedros, Mazapil, Zacatecas. 



The bulk of the seeds so received has been distributed 

 to Mysore, Baroda, Poona. Lahore, Ceylon ( Efakgala), Sudan, 

 Pretoria, Nairobi, Queensland, Port Darwin, Adelaide, Sydney 

 and the Antilles. 



The germination of the seeds retained at Kew has been 

 good; the plants raised from the latter sending in April are 

 now 6 inches high, and bear somewhat silvery, oblanceolate, 

 slightly lobed leaves, 3 to 4 inches long. The older .seedlings 

 are a foot high, the whole plant being covered with a fine 

 silver-grey tomentum; the leaves are 2 to 5 inches long, nar- 

 rowly lanceolate, and irregularly lobed with angular acute 

 or subacute lobes. Some of the plants, which are already 

 showing flower heads, have been placed in the Succulent 

 House. 



In the Kew Bulletin, 1908, p. 255, a despatch from 

 H. M. Minister, Mexico, was published, in which the Guayule 

 rubber industry did not appear to have a very bright future; 

 a further despatch received from Mr. Tower, early last year, 

 indicates that the industry is still in a flourishing condition. 

 The Mexican liubber Exploitation Company now has a large 

 Guayule factory established in the State of Coahuila, and with 

 a new process for the extraction of the rubber they have con- 

 fidence in the successful development of the industry. 

 According to the statements made by the head of the com- 

 pany: ' Experiments had now satisfied them conclusively that 

 the Guayule plant reproduces itself naturally and abundantly. 

 The roots of the shrub extend to a considerable distance in all 

 directions, and new shoots spring from the roots, growing 

 satisfactorily even after the parent shrub has been cut down. 

 Opinions differ about the life of the plant and as to the suit- 

 able time for cutting, but the generally accepted view is that 

 between ten and twenty years must elapse before maturity is 

 reached and the plant contains sufficient rubber for commer- 

 cial purposes.' 



