70 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



March 2, 1912. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date February 12, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



Since our last report, about 100 bales of West Indian Sea 

 Island cotton have been sold, from variou.? Islands at 18(?. 

 to 20d. and prices are very firm. A few choice St. Vincent 

 have realized from 22ii. to 2id. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending February 10, is as follows: — 



The sales for the week were 128 bales, consisting of some 

 crop lots classing Fine to Extra Fine, which were ordereil 

 sold on a basis of quotations, also some odd bags of Fine and 

 Fully Fine oft' in preparation. 



The planters' crop lots continue to be held beyond the 

 views of buyers, also about 400 bales of old crop cotton 

 brought over from last year. 



There is a limited demand for all the offerings which the 

 Factors are willing to sell at our quotations, the buying being 

 for England, France and the Northern mills. 



We quote viz: — 

 Extra Fine 32c. = \8d., c.i.f., & 5 per cent. 



Fine to Fully ^, ^g 28c. = 1.5(Z. to 16rf. c.i.f. & 5 per cent. 

 Fine j ' 



Fine to Extra Fine.l ,Q . .-^. mi^ *„i(i-7 



~. ,. 'yi8c. to 2oc. = lOia. to 14i«. ,, ,, „ 



off in preparation I - * >i ,> ,i 



A Cotton-Picking Machine. — l>r. Fischer has 

 just given the Technical Commission of the German Colonial 

 Agricultural Committee reasons for the conclusion that the 

 Campbell cotton- picking machine has great commercial value. 

 He states that one machine can easily pick .5,000 lb. of cot- 

 ton per day, and under favourable conditions as much as 

 10,000 H)., whilst the machine only requires a man and 

 a youth to work it. After estimating all working costs, and 

 allowing for depreciation, Dr Fischer estimates that the pick- 

 ing cost is about Is. od. per cwt. as against 4s. 2d. per cwt. 

 for hand labour. Dr. Fischer suggests making large scale 

 experiments with the machine in the German African colon- 

 ial cotton fields, but he admits that it may not prove so suit- 

 able for the class of cotton grown there as in America. The 

 price of the machine, f.o.b. New York, is put at £1,000, whilst 

 the weight is about 4i tons. The makers are the Price- 

 Campbell Cotton Pickers' Corporntion, and they expect to pro- 

 duce 12,000 machines during the next four years. If the 

 machine can really do what is claimed for it, its importance 

 to the cotton industry is demonstrable. (Journal of the lioyd 

 Society of Arts, December 29, 1911, p. 182.) 



LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS 

 VALUING COTTON. 



FOR 



As is pointed out in an article in U Agrkulture Pratique 

 des Pays Chands, for November 1911, the chief commercial 

 qualities of a sample of cotton are four, namely, length, fine- 

 ness, strength and uniformity; of these the last naturally 

 depends on the others. Further, all these qualities vary in 

 different crops, in different individuals from the same crop, 

 in different bolls from the same plant, in different seeds from 

 the same boll, and in different parts of the same seed. It is, 

 therefore, necessary that the method of sampling must be 

 very definite, and must take account of all the variations 

 that may occur in a normal fashion on one seed, on different 

 seeds on the stme boll, and in different bolls on the same 

 plant. In employing such methods, it is of no use to make 

 the ob.servations on commercial samples; it is recognized at 

 the same time that it is possible, after long practice, to carry 

 out a quick examination of such samples, from a commercial 

 point of view, without using measures of any kind. The 

 article mentioned proceeds to give details of the ways in 

 which the various measurements in connexion with cotton 

 fibre ma} be made, and from these the following information 

 is taken. 



MEASLI-.EMKNT OF .WERAGE LFSGTH OF FIBRE. On 



a given seed, the fibres at the apex are always longer than 

 those at the base: the length may also vary from one end of 

 the seed to the other. Another matter is that, in a given 

 boll, it is generally the third seed, reckoning from the apex, 

 that possesses the longest fibres, although there are excep- 

 tions to this. 



In making the measurements, the fibres on the seed 

 selected are combed by means of a mounted needle, in order 

 to extend them radially from the seed. If the cotton on 

 this is regular, two samples are taken by means of forceps, 

 from the apex of the seed and from the side, and one from 

 the ba.se: each sample should consist of about thirty fibres, 

 and all these are measured, and the average length found. If 

 the cotton is irregular in length, samples representing 

 the areas in which it is longest and shortest are taken, 

 and a similar procedure is followed. This entails about 

 1-50 measurements of each seed, and as at least three 

 seeds are examined from each boll, and at least three bolls 

 at three different levels on the plant, the total number of 

 measurements in the case of any one plant is a minimum of 

 4,0-50. These should be made quickly, and in the interests of 

 accuracy, it is found better to make a large number of meas- 

 urements to half a millimetre rather than to take the trouble 

 of measuring to a tenth of a millimetre. 



In the method of 1 )eschamps, for measuring the length 

 of individual fibres, small pieces of black gummed paper cut 

 into squares of about "l-inch are employed; a fibre is detached 



