326 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



OCTOBEK 7, 1916. 



of the Northern and Southern iSrills It would take a very 

 large movement to cause any material reaction from present 

 prices. 



COTTON. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON MARKET. 



Messrs. Wolstenhoiiue and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date September 5, 1916, with 

 reference to the sales of West Indian Sea Island 

 cotton: — 



Since our last report a fair business has been done in 

 West Indian Sea Island cotton, and quotations are raised Id. 

 per B). The sales comprise Anguilla \6hd. to 20(i , St. Martin 

 161*/., St. Kitts 19W. to 2ld., Nevi's \6d. to 'ilrf. and 

 Barbados at '20d., with a few stains at 12rf. to lid. 



The Report of Messrs. Henry W. Frost & Co., 

 on Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for 

 the week ending September 9, I9I6, is as follows: — 



This is the first report of the market we have issued 

 since the closing of last year's report on August 1 . 



You will note the receipts in Savannah to date are 1,007 

 bales, exports 1,08.5 bales. The e.xports from .Iack.sonville 

 are 1,583 bales, principally old crop cotton. The market 

 opened for the first receipts on a basis of 28c, but almost 

 immediately a very active demand sprang up and the market 

 Ix^ing very sensitive advanced to .')2c, probably caused by a rush 

 to cover short sales. The market then receded to 30c, and at 

 this writing Fancy Georgias are selling at 31c in Savannah, 

 Factors holding at 32c and even higher prices asked in the 

 inteoior. We do not see immediate prospect of lower prices 

 until the receipts are freer and the immediate demand is 

 satisfied. 



CHOI" UWOItTS. 



isL.XNDS. The reports from the Islands of the growing 

 crop are not at all promising and the injury from the storm 

 of July 13 seems to have been greater than we estimated at 

 the time. The injury is estimated generally to be 40 per 

 cent, and some estimates are even greater than that. We 

 ourselves think we will make GO per cent, of a crop but 

 cannot sec how the crop can be more than that. Of course as 

 the saason advances and a late frost is assured, we may 

 have to revise our estimate, but at this writing we would say 

 the Island crop will be (iO per cent. 



GEOEteiAs AXD KLouiDAs. The Georgia and Florida crop 

 on the whole is promising. There have been some reports of 

 boll weevil, but we do not attach much importance to them. 

 Estimates of the crop range from 90,000 to 100,000 bales. 

 As regards future prices we think there will be a very active 

 demand for the entiic crop, and we do not look for any lower 

 prices. The demand seems to be very general on acoount 



COTTON IN FIJI. 



Cotton was the chief crop e.xperimented with at the 

 Lautoka Station, Fiji, during IS)!-"), and that year completed 

 the ninth one of cotton cultivation in the Colony. These 

 experiments consist of efforts to demonstrate the suitability 

 or otherwise of Fijian conditions for Sea Island cotton culti- 

 vation. 



The various operations connected with the cultivatioD 

 of the crop were carried out in the following order: 

 September 1914, ploughing and harrowing; October 1914 

 cro.ss ploughing and harrowing: November 1914, ridging 

 and drilling: December 29, 1914 and January 8, 191.5, plants 

 ing, ploughing, thinning, weeding and scarifying: May, 

 picking commenced: September 10, picking completed. The- 

 rainfall received during the year amounted to about 30 inches. 

 As regards the yields obtained the black soil gave 239 ft>. of 

 cotton per acre and the red soil 238 B). of cotton per acre. 

 The evenness of these results is rather remarkable, the 

 heavily manured red soil giving practically the same return 

 as the untreated black soil. 



table: 



The cost of growing the crop is shown in the following 



The kind of cotton cultivated was a strain obtained 

 from St. Kitts, which has now replaced the Barbados strain 

 originally cultivated. As regards cotton sUiiners, though 

 these were prevalent during tiie latter part of the picking 

 season, they were not plentiful. Some poils were lost as the 

 results of the attacks 



It is interesting to note that in Fiji, cotton selection by 

 means of the progeny-row method is being carried on in order 

 to ensure a satisfactory seed supply In 1 9 1 the selected 

 plant, out of si.\, had lint of an average length of 1-60 inches 

 of fair strength, with 27-1 per cent, of lint in the seed cotton'. 

 This plant gave r08 lb. of seed-cotton which at 27-1 repre- 

 .sents -29 Bb. of lint. The seed from this plant was sown by 

 itself in a special plot, the seed frotr, which is used for the 

 large plots the following season. 



An interesting experiment has been conducted in Fiji 

 which consists in growing cotton before bananas as organic 

 manure. Cotton .seed was sown at the rat* of 6,720 tt). per 

 acre and when the young plants had reached an average 

 height of 9 to 10 inches they were ploughed under. The 

 total weight of the bananas proiiuced in the plot manured in 

 this way was 454 H). compared with 282 tb. in the case of the 

 control. The cotton seed therefore seems to have had some 

 etiect. 



