166 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



June 



1905. 



St. Vincent. 



Mr. W. N. Sands writes as follows, under date 

 May 19, 190.5, with regard to the operations at the 

 St. Vincent cotton factor}' : — 



At the factor}' the total number of bales made .so far 

 is 229, and contained 76,732 It), of lint. So far the price 

 of Is. oJ. per lb. has been maintained for cotton shipped to 

 the British Cotton-growing Association. By to-daj''s mail 

 about 70 bales are being forwarded. 



The work of disinfection and selection of locally grown 

 seed has been continued, and the quantity dealt with (or 

 local use and e.xport since the work was commenced totals 

 15,389 lb. Of this amount 8,123 lb. of selected and 

 disinfected seed have been delivered. 



Cotton Seed Disintegrators. 



The Christy and Norris disintegrators, contributed 

 by the British Cotton-growing Association, in use for 

 crushing cotton seed at the central cotton factories at 

 Barbados and Antigua, are in regular working and they 

 give every satisfaction. The seed is crushed for the 

 use of planters, as required, at a moderate charge, and 

 is largely used for feeding cattle. 



There are similar disintegrators inst;dleti at the 

 central cotton factories at St. Vincent, St. Kitt's, and 

 Nevis. The fii-st of these disintegrators was introduced 

 by Messrs. Sendall & Wade at Spooner estate, St. Kitt's. 

 in 1904. 



Sea Islands Market Report. 



The market report of ]\Iessrs. Henry W. Frost & Co., 

 dated Charleston, S.C, May 0, 190.5, has the follow- 

 ing: — 



Tlie sales consisted of about 1,000 bags of planters' croii 

 lots, classing fully fine to e.xtra tine on private terms, wliich 

 "were reported in our last. 



This leaves an unsold stock of about 'JOO V'ags, of which 

 400 bags class fine and fully fino, and 500 are tinged and 

 stained. Factors are disposed to sell on a basis of quotations. 

 AVe quote: stained and tinged, 12c. to 17c.; fine, 20c.: 

 fully line, 23c. ; extra fine, 24c. 



AVith the exception of .some complaints of too much rain, 

 the advices generally are fairly favourable as regards the 

 condition and offsetting of the croji. 



St. Vincent. 



The great agricultural feature of the year has been the 

 inauguration of the Sea Island cotton industry under the 

 auspices and l.iy tlie very active effort of the Imperial Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, under 8ir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., 

 with whom I have had the pleasure of being associated in 

 this excellent woi-k. The results are certainly encouraging. 

 One hundred and thirty-six bales of excellent cotton, 

 realizing from 4»/. (this figure is for the Upland quality) to 

 Is 3h(/. per ft), have been shipped from the colony since 

 April last, and the present area in cultivation, from which 

 the crop is being taken off at the time of writing [January 

 1905], is approximately 1,471 acres. With these prices, which, 

 moreover, leave a fair margin for a fall, the industry should 

 certainly pay and go some way in assisting to restore the 

 colony's sorely shattered prosperity. 



During the year a cotton factorj- iif the most modern 

 approved pattern, planned by the Imperial Commissioner of 

 Agriculture after a personal inspection of many cotton 

 estates in the Southern States of America, which he visited 

 specially in connexion with the desired revival of this 

 industry in the West Indies, was erected and equipped with 

 six .single-action Macarthy gins supplied by three ditt'erent 

 firms, with which the first experimental crop of Sea Island 

 cotton was effectively handled. 



4 



The following lef'erence to the establishment of 

 the cotton indu.'^try in St. Vincent is extracted from 

 the Annual Report on the island for 1903-4: — 



Cotton Industry in the West Indies. 



The fuUouing note on the prospects of the cotton 

 industry in the West Indies appeared in the Barbados 

 Agricidtaral Reporter of May 20: — 



The disappointment which the |)resent state of the sugar 

 market has caused to so many shows again the necessity 

 there is of our devoting attention to the other industries that 

 have recently been started in this island. The cotton fields 

 have been a considerable helii to many of the black .soil 

 estates during this season. Several planters have expressed 

 themselves as quite satisfied with the return they have 

 obtained, and are resolved to increase the acreage of their 

 cotton in the fall of this year. The Duke of Marlborough, 

 in a recent address to the Cotton Siiinners" Association of 

 Bolton, stated that there is every jirobability that within the 

 next ten years the demand for cotton will be greater than 

 the supply. He spoke in high terms of the work which 

 Sir Daniel Morris has accomiilished in the West Indies, and 

 said that the Colonial Office now proposes to send out 

 a cotton otticcr to West Africa to do there what Sir ]!)aniel 

 has done in these islands. We need not fear competition 

 from Nigeria. We have been repeatedly told that no part 

 of the world can produce Sea Island cotton superior to that, 

 which is being produced m the West Indies, and that 

 however great the supply of other kinds of cotton may be, 

 there is always a special market for this variety of long- 

 staple cotton. 



