H8 



THE AOUICULTURAL NEWST 



April 13, 1912. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date March 25, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



Since our last report, aliout 200 bales of West Indian 

 Sea Island cotton have been sold, chiefly Montserrat, Anti- 

 gua, Nevis and St. Kitts at prices varying flora 18rf. to 19rf., 

 and Barbados 20d., \\ith a few superior bags on private 

 terms. 



The maiket remains very firm, as owing to the poor char- 

 acter of the Carolina cotton this season and the smallness of 

 that crop, most users are purchasing West Indian in replace- 

 ment. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending March 23, is as follows: — 



The market remained very quiet throughout the week, 

 with Hmited inquiry for a few of the planters' crop lot.", 

 which resulted in sale of only 15 bales Jos. T. Dill on private 

 terms, and a few bags of rejections from crops of Extra Fine 

 at 28c. 



There is no change to report, e.xcept that the Factors 

 seem more disposed to sell and will make concessions to dis- 

 pose of some of the lots held in stock. 



We quote viz : — 

 Extra Fine 32c. = ISd., c.i.f., Jt b per cent. 



Fine to Fully^ggc to 28c. = \M. to \<od., c.i.f. &. 5 per cent. 

 Fine J > r 



Fine to Extra Fine,K g^ ^^ 25^ ^ Iqi^ ^^ ^^y^ 



off in preparation ] - 4 » n >. 



INJURY TO COTTON FIBRES IN SPINNING. 



This interesting subject led to much discu.ssion 

 during the session in which matters relating to cotton 

 were dealt with at the recent Agricultural Conference 

 in Trinidad. Useful information in connexion with it 

 is given in the following article, taken from the Textile 

 Mercury for March 2, 1912. It appears to deal with 

 upland cotton, for which the saw gin is used, rather 

 than with the Sea Island variety: — 



At a meeting of the Manchester Section of the Society 

 of Dyers and Colourists, a paper was read <in this subject by 

 Mr. W. S. Taggart, M.I.M.E. In the course of the paper the 

 author drew attention to the fact that there is a large per- 

 .centage of poor fibres in all cotton. The ginning operation, 

 being a severe one, has much to do with this, and the fibre, 

 •when received in the mill, is thus in a somewhat damaged 

 «ondition. 



The first actual processes capable of doinj; damage in 

 the spinning mill itself are opening and scutching Most 

 cotton-pinning machinery dates from an early period, ard 

 little has been done to improve matters from what took place 

 many years ago. The beater of the scutcher acts in a brutal 

 way tow.irds the cotton fibre. The damage done to the 

 cotton may be judged from the following figures: The 

 beater revolves 1,000 to 1,200 revolutions per minute. There 

 are two blades on it. Sometimes there are three blades, in 

 which case tliey are of a smaller diameter and run a little 

 i-Iower, but the general practice is to have two blades. The 

 beater fiives the cctton 2,400 blows per minute, at the rate 

 of 1,200 revolutions per minute. During the time that one 

 inch length of c'l.tton emerges there will be about 8,000 

 blows given to it. It will readily be realized what terrifie 

 action must take place. 



What happens very often (apart from the damage that 

 may be done to the cotton due to the terrific hammering 

 that the fibres receive) is that the ctton emerging just over 

 the pedal-nose is wedged by the downward moving blade. 

 This wedge action takes place frequently, and causes serious 

 damage. 



Another great sinner in respect of injuring cotton is the 

 card, which is also somewhat brutal. The operation acts so 

 that a large number of fibres must be broken or snapped, 

 and also a large number must go through damaged by being 

 cracked. If cracked fibres have any influence at all, they 

 will certainly reduce the strength of the yarn, and they must 

 of necessity reduce the strength of the cloth. What effect 

 they have on dyeing and printing the author could not say. 



During the discussion which followed, the opinion was 

 expressed that the hammer wedging action of the opening 

 machine would most likely influence the dyeing, as it had 

 been noticed that when cotton cloth was hammered on a steel 

 plate, the hammered places took up less dyestuff, and it was 

 very likely that the tearing action of the card would have the 

 result of producing darker shades in dyeing. 



At a meeting of the Dominica Planters' AssociatioD 

 held in January last, it was concluded after some discussion 

 that the .shortage of limes and cacao in the past year was 

 partly due to difficulties of transport and the growing 

 scarcity and inefficiency of local labour. The lime crop is also 

 stated to have suffered damage through the indiscriminate 

 picking of green limes during the flowering season. It is 

 further suggested that, for obtaining a proper means of 

 conbparison, the crop year for limes should be reckoned from 

 July 1 to June 30 follov/ing. 



