166 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 25. 1912. 



k'¥'^'^''':-i^' A^^l^ 'M^uMi 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date May (i, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



Since our last report, about 350 bales of West Indian 

 Sea Islands have been sold chiefly composed of cotton 19d. 

 to 20d., from the Islands of St. Kitts, Barbados, Antigua, 

 Nevis, Anguilla and St. Martin. A few superfine bales from 

 St. Kitts, Barbados and St. Vincent have been sold at prices 

 ranging from 2ld. to 24d., and also a few Stains at 2d. 



The market remains firm, but there is very little demand 

 for anything over 20d. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending May 4, is as follows: — 



There has been some demand during the week, resulting 

 in sales of about 100 bales of Fully Fine and Extra Fine, 

 included in which were several crop lots, which the Factors 

 sold at some concession from previous asking prices. The 

 buying was on account of the Northern mills. 



This demand having been satisfied, the market is quiet 

 again, with little inquiry, but Factors are still holding the 

 unsold stock on a basis of our last quotations. 



The Cotton Industry in Japan. — In spite of the 



high prices of raw material, the cotton-manufacturing 

 industry of Japan is in a very flourishing condition. At the 

 present time the number of spindles there is 2,180,000, as 

 compared with 1,274,000 in 1900, while the quantity of 

 cotton consumed increased from 700,000 bales in that year 

 to 1,060,000 bales in 1911. The corresponding figures for 

 the United Kingdom for 1911 were 54,523,000 spindles 

 and 3,782,000, bales. It will be noticed that there is 

 a striking difference in the consumption of cotton per 

 spindle in the two countries; while in the United King- 

 dom each spindle only consumes 07 of a bale approxim- 

 ately, each Japanese spindle consumes nearly '05 of a bale. 

 The reason of this difference is to bo found in the 

 fact that as a rule the Japanese spindles are operated 

 day and night, and are for the most part equipped 

 with ring spindles, which consume considerably more 

 cotton than mule spindles. According to the Bulletin 

 on the Supply and Distribution of Cotton recently issued 

 by the United States Department of Commerce and 

 Labour, .Japan has at present thirty-eight factories engaged in 

 cotton manufacture, containing 17,000 looms and employing 

 about 93,000 men, women, and children, while it is estimated 

 that there are still about 1,000,000 hand-looms in the country, 

 which produce about one-third of the cotton cloth used by the 

 inhabitants. The principal source of the cotton-supply is 

 British India, although the import of Chinese cotton is 

 steadily increasing The imports from the United States of 

 America have averaged about 200,000 bales annuallj-. 

 Efforts are being made to increase the supply by promoting 

 growth in Korea and .Siani. (The Jmniial of the Roynl 

 Sorv'ty of Arts, April 19, 1912.) 



A USE FOR PARTIAL SOIL 



STERILIZATION. 



The following abstract of a paper by E. J. Russell 

 and J. Golding on this subject, which appeared origin- 

 ally in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Indus- 

 try, is given in the Annual Report of the Rothamsted 

 Experimental Station for I9I1, p. 13: — 



This paper deals with an investigation of the state into 

 which the soil of i-^ewage farms arrives after the continued 

 application of sewage, whereby it is so far injured, both in 

 its physical and biological conditions, that it will no longer 

 either let the sewage percolate, or purify what passes through. 

 Sewage-sick soil was found to possess a very limited bacterial 

 activity, and to be exceptionally rich in those protozoan 

 organisms which llussell and Hutchinson have regarded as 

 the limiting factor in the development of bacteria in soils. 

 [See Agricultural News, Vols. IX, pp. 33 and 107; XI, p. 131.1 

 Partial sterilization of the soil, either by treatment with anti- 

 septics or by heating, was followed by a very large increase 

 in the number of bacteria; in one case they rose from about 40 

 million to over 400 million, per gram of the soil. Accomp- 

 anying this increase in bacterial activity, there was a renewal 

 of the purifying effect of the soil upon the sewage, and it was 

 found possible to restore the sewage-sick soil, and make it 

 become an even more effective filter than before, either by 

 heating the soil sufficiently to char it slightly, or by treating 

 it with the vapour of toluene 



THE MECHANICAL EXTRACTION OF 

 RUBBER. 



The last number but one of the Agricultural Ktivs con- 

 tained a note on a machine for. extracting rubber from 

 bark, based on an article that appeared in the Journal 

 d' Agriculture Tropicale, in which it was suggested that the 

 process described might be used for obtaining rubber from 

 Funtumia elastica. A subsequent article in the issue of the 

 latter journal for January 1912 describes the mechanical 

 extraction of rubber from this plant, as it is practised by 

 a tribe known as the Bayanzi, in the Belgian Congo. 



According to this method, the tree is felled at the base 

 when it has attained a diameter of 6 to 8 inches. The 

 branches are cut off and rejected, while the trunk is passed 

 to and fro over a fire, when the bark becomes detached from 

 the wood and is more easily removed on that account. 



After a preliminary maceration, the bark is beaten in 

 a manner similar 1o that employed for such plants as Lati- 

 doipliia Thollonnii. The first mass obtained is generally 

 treated by immersion in boiling water. Ordinarily, no 

 further trouble is taken than the carrying out of this first 

 immersion; by its means, a very impure rubbpr is obtained 

 which can be easily improved in quality by li> ing beaten 

 and boiled in water again. 



The most harmful stage in this crude process, as regards 

 the final product, is the passing of the bark over the fire. 

 It seems, however, that this phase of the operation is 

 necessary, for if coagulation of the latex is not brought 

 about before beating, no rubber is obtained. On the other 

 hand, if the bark is heated too strongly, it is likely to be 

 burned, with the resvilt that the rubber coming from those 

 parts where the heat has been too great rapidly becomes 

 sticky and, if it is mixed with the general product, it lowers 

 its value. It is not, however, the proces.s of heating, itself, 

 that is the cause of reduction in value, but the faults that 

 arise in carrying it out. 



