134 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Ai'RiL 27, 1912. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write 33 follows, under date April i^, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



About 200 bales of West Indian Sea Island cotton have 

 been seLl since our last report, chieflj- St. Kitts, Antigua and 

 Aaguilla at I9d. to 20rf.; al.so St. Vincent at 24d. A few 

 fancy Barbados have also been sold at 22c?. to 2'2ld. The 

 market remains firm. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending JIarch 30, is as follows: — 



There has been a limited demand for some of the 

 Planters' Crops of E.\tra Fine, which resulted in the sale of 

 two small crops on private terras, the buying being for the 

 Continent. Otherwise the market is very quiet. The 

 Factors still show more disposition to make some conces- 

 sions in price in order to sell the crop lots held in stock. 

 The Olid bags continue to be firmly held on a basis of our 

 quotations. 



We quote viz : — 

 Extra Fine 32c. = 18d., c.i.f., A -5 per cent. 



Fine to Fully"; ,^q^ ^^ osc_ = 15^; to 16cl, c.i.f. &■ 5 per cent. 



Fine J '■ 



Fine to Extra rine,K ^^ ^^ 25^ ^ ^^i^^ ^^ ^^,^ 

 oflF in preparation J .. 4 " 



A forecast of the area sown in this season in cotton, in 

 Eastern Bengal and Assam, states this to be about 101,300 

 acres — practically the same area as that of last year. For 

 various reasons, the total outturn is expected to be much 

 smaller than that of the seaf on 1910-11, namely 19,700 bales 

 instead of 31,100 bales. 



Xdtjiv)', for March 7, 1912, presents a note of obser- 

 vations on the stomata of the cotton plant, that have been 

 carried out in Egypt by W. L. Balls, as follows: 'A five- 

 days' record of the opening and closing of the stomata of the 

 cotton plant in Egypt is given, .showing the stomata wide 

 open during bright sunshine. The author has elsewhere shown 

 that during this part of the day no growth occurs, and there 

 is evidence that the apparent waste of water then occuriing 

 is of importance, as keeping the leaves cool, since, when trans- 

 piration is artificially checked, the leaves are rapidly injured, 

 or even killed, by the high temperature.' 



THE WORLD'S COTTON INDUSTRY. 



A yearly volume, dealing with the cotton industry of 

 the world, is published in Germany, under the title Bas 

 Illusti ierte Jahrhuch mif Kalender fiir die Gcsamte Baumwoll- 

 Iiidustrie. The thirty-third issue of this, made in the 

 present year, is reviewed in Ln Chronique Coloniale et 

 Financih-c for February 18, 1912; and advantage has been 

 taken of this to present the following account of the contents 

 of this work. 



Professor M. Lehmann, of Krefeld, who supervises the 

 publication of this annual work, has collected in it a notable- 

 amount of information on the historj' of the cotton industry, 

 and on the culture and exploitation of the cotton plant, not 

 only in a general way, but in relation to the principal countries 

 of production — and that in a detailed fashion. 



As an ordinary fact, little consideration is made of the 

 growing development of the cotton industry that is taking 

 place, not only in Eurojie, but even in those countries which 

 have only entered into the movement in recent years. 



Without giving attention to all the details that are 

 contained in this interesting annual, it may be said that it 

 shows that, in 1910, more than 633,384,794 spindles were 

 at work. The largest number of these was in England, 

 namely .53,397,466; the United States of America possessed 

 28 iniilion, and Germany 10,200,000; while in British IndiEk 

 there were more than 5 millions. It may be considered that 

 there were more than 2, -500,000 automatic looms working, to 

 which must be added a number of hand looms. 



One of the countries in which the cotton industry has 

 developed most vigorously is China, where the number of 

 spindles increased from 27.5,000 in 1896 to 1,.500.000 \n 

 1904; the number of automatic looms in this country is 

 7,500. 



The work contains a very interesting article by Moritz 

 Schanz, on cotton in the United States of America; the 

 authority as regards matters connected with cotton, of this 

 writer, is well recognized. 



As regards the special study of machinery, which com- 

 pletes this volume, the latter goes beyond its character as 

 a work of merely annual import, for it includes several 

 pages devoted to this subject which go to form a veritable 

 treatise on cotton. The book itself will be of the greatest 

 service to all those who in any way whatever are interested 

 in a textile that is attaining from day to day a greater 

 importance in the world. 



