Vol. IX. No. 220. 



THE AGKiUULTUKAL NEWS. 



.319 



WEST INDIAN PRODUCTS 



DRUGS AND SPICES ON THE LONDON 



MARKET. 



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

 following report on the London drug and spice market, 

 for the month of August : — 



August in Mincing Lane, as well as in other business 

 centres, is always a dull month, on account of the holiday 

 season. In the absence of buyers there is naturally, but 

 little inclination to bring forward any large consignments of 

 new or old products, which by keeping back to a more suit- 

 able season might result in a much more advantageous 

 return. Our report, therefore, for the month just passed, will 

 necessarily be of a meagre description. 



GINGER. 



At the sale on the 1 0th there wa.s a steady demand for 

 Jamaica: 108 packages were disposed of at the following 

 rates — good bold dullish 6.5s., fair 60s. to 61s., and good 

 ordinary 53s. nnly small sales were made in (Jochin and Cali- 

 cut though about 600 packages were offered, 62s. being paid 

 for small cut and scraped Cochin. Bold cut was bought in 

 at 90s., medium at 75s., and small at 60s., while rough brown 

 Calicut was held at 5.5s., and washed rough Cochin at 50s. 

 per cwt. On the 17th the offerings amounted to 155 pack- 

 ages of Jamaica and 261 of good washed rough Cochin, 

 none of which found buyers. 



NUTMEGS, MACE, AND PIMENTO. 



Little or nothing has been done in any of the above 

 articles; the price of the latter has been from 2\d. to 2|d. 

 per D)., with very little demand. 



ARROWROOT. 



At auction on the 17th, 1U3 barrels of St. Vincent were 

 offered, the whole of which were bought in at 2d. per Jb. for 

 fair manufacturing; on the other hand, some 21 cases of 

 Natal were offered, and the whole of it sold at 9jrf. per lb. 

 A week later, 30 half-barrels of Bermuda were offered, but 

 none sold, 2*. per Iti. being the reserved price. 



SARSAPAEILLA. 



At the drug sale on the 11th, sarsaparilla was repre- 

 sented by 24 bales of Lima-.Jaraaica, all of which were bought 

 in at Is. to Is. 3d. per Bb., and 13 bales of native Jamaica. 

 It was reported that this kind was so plentiful that there was 

 but little demand for it, 1 bale only being sold at 9c?. per 

 lb. for dull red. At the auction on the 2.5th, 14 bales of grey 

 Jamaica were ottered and all disposed of at from Is. 3d. to 

 Is. id. per lb. for fair to good. Two bales fair red native 

 Jamaica sold at from lOd. to lid., and 6 bales of Lima- 

 Jamaica, out of 21 offered, realized 10c?. per lb. for roughish 

 quality. A few bales of Guatemala and Mexican mixed were 

 offered, and bought in at 8d. per R. 



LIME JUICE, KOLA, ETC. 



At the beginning of the month there was but little busi- 

 ness done in concentrated West Indian limo juice, the quota- 

 tion for which was £18 10s.; quite at the end of the month, 

 however, the price had fallen to £18 2s. Qd. Kola nuts were 

 represented at auction on the 24th by 7 bags of fair West 

 Indian, which were disposed of at 3c?. per Bj. The scarcity 

 of the round Buchu leaves still continues. At the last sale 

 at the end of the month 6 bales only were offered, the reserved 

 price of 7s. being obtained lor 1 bale only; an offer of 6s. 8d. 



for the rest being refused. Later it was stated that these had 

 been disposed of at full rates, and for a few other bales 

 that were anticipated 7s. 6-^/. would be the price fixed. There 

 has been a decided decline in rubber. At the time of writing, 

 hard fine Para is quoted at 7s. 1 1 .it?, to 8s. Vanilla continues 

 to command firm prices, with good supplies, Madagascar 

 7i inches fetching 14s. 6'/., and 7 inches 13s. to 13s. 6c?. 

 Seychelles 6| t<j 7 inches, 13s., and Mauritius somewhat split 

 and foxy lis. 6c?. 



THE PRODUCTION OF VANILLA, 1909-10. 



The following particulars concerning the proiiuc- 

 tion of vanilla dui-ing 1909-10 ap))fared in the Chemist 

 and Druggist for April -SO, 1910. It is of interest in 

 connexion with the note that apjieared on the subject 

 in the last number of the Agricultural News and with 

 the article on ])age 52 of the present volume, entitled 

 The Prospects of Vanilla Growing: — 



Mr. Hermann Mayer, senior, sends these statistics of the 

 1909-10 vanilla-production: — 



Tons. 

 Seychelles 10 



Bourbon 35 



Mexican 70 



Comoros, Mayotte, etc. 40 



Madagascar and Mossi-Be 25 



Mauritius 2 



Ceylon, Java, Fiji, Zanzibar, etc. 10 



Guadeloupe and Martinique 15 



Tahiti 180 



Total (.say about) 390 



This quantity falls 110 tons short of the 1908-9 crop, 

 and, as Tahiti shows an increase of 40 tons, the actual 

 deficiency in the finer qualities totals 150 tons, or 40 per 

 cent, on the previous year's yield, which was of full average 

 extent. Prices during the past twelve months have moved in 

 accord with the statistical position, showing an improvement 

 of 30 to 40 per cent, for all varieties except Tahiti; these 

 have profited by the shortage of all other sorts and maintained 

 their value, notwithstanding the larger returns. Only 

 unimportant balances remain in the colonies, and, as new 

 crops are unlikely to be landed in quantity before November 

 next, statistically tlie position appears exceptionally sound. 



ST. LUCIA AND THE CANADIAN 



EXHIBITIONS. 



A letter, in a recent number of the Voice of St. Lucia, 

 shows that the following classes of exhibits were sent to the 

 Toronto Exhibition, as well as a duplicate .set to the Dominion 

 Exhibition, held at St. Ji^hn: jellies and jam.s, crystal- 

 lized sugar, muscovado sugar, Demerara crystals, centrifugal 

 molasses, fancy molasses, condiments, Liberian coffee, fruits 

 in spirits, fruits in formalin, cassava meal and starch, unfer- 

 mented and prepared cacao, arrowroot, native made brooms, 

 ropes, swizzle sticks and other useful articles, rum, beeswax, 

 samples of native furniture woods, cocoa-nuts, decorative 

 material, including cocoa-nut branche.s, bamboos and sugar- 

 cane-s, together with 10 crates of green limes and 4 crates of 

 bananas. 



