374 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



December 9, 1905. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON IN ENGLAND. 



The Cuttu'ii Trade Journal, of Savannah, Georgia, 

 for November 11, 1905, has the following note from its 

 Manchester correspondent on the position of Sea Island 

 cotton on that market :— 



Sea Island j'ani shows no change and no improvement 

 can be noted. English spinners are .still indifferent to the 

 Savannah market and are waiting for the accumulation of 

 stock. The weathered condition of the crop, especiallj' in 

 Florida, is very marked. The very small section spinning 

 Carolinas is fairly busy, but as we have said in previous 

 notes, "West Indian cotton is a formidable competitor, and 

 unless planters and factors moderate their pretentions respect- 

 ing prices, a moderate demand only is likely to occur. The 

 action of the Charleston people in deciding that lid. is to 

 be the minimum price for Fully Fine Carolinas is not 

 regarded seriousl)-, for this is just the cotton which suffers in 

 competition with AVest Indian. 



ST. VINCENT COTTON INDUSTRY. 



The Agricultural Superintendent at St. Vincent 

 has forwarded to the IniiDerial Commissioner of 

 Agriculture the following report, dated November 

 11, on the cotton industry in the island: — 



As mentioned in my last report, picking is now in full 

 swing on most of the estates, and cotton of good C|uality is 

 being stored. So far, the lint appears to be quite up to last 

 year's standard, but, on this point, conclusive information 

 should shortly be obtained, as several samples were sent 

 on by growers last mail to Mr. E. Lomas Oliver. 



During the last few days, I have visited with 

 Mr. Eraser the cultivations at Diamond, Brighton, Villa, etc., 

 for the purpose of ascertaining if there were any ' rogues ' ; 

 a few plants of the !Marie Galante were seen and pulled up. 

 If this type is pulled up now, tliere is no danger, as the 

 plants are only just commencing to flower, whereas the 

 Sea Island plants have already set most of the bolls of the 

 first crop and are ripening up rapidly. 



I have also visited JIustique and was much interested 

 in what I saw. This island, as you are aware, is owned by 

 Messrs. J. H. Hazell, Sons, & Co., and for a good number of 

 years has been devoted entirely to the raising of stock ; last 

 year, however, about 10 acres of Sea Island cotton were 

 put in, and the results obtained were very encouraging, the 

 j'ield being much higher than on the other estates owned by 

 the same firm at St. Vincent ; besides this, the cotton was 

 con.sidered to be one of the best lots sent on and realized top 

 prices. 



This year about 20 acres have been planted, and, on the 

 ■whole, the outlook is good. At the time of my visit picking 



wus in full swing and there was every promise of a heavier 

 return than last year. I found a few ' rogues ' in the 

 cultivations and had them pulled up and destroyed. Next 

 year it is proposed to put in a much larger area still and 

 I inspected the areas to be pilanted and gave advice on their 

 selection. No serious diseases were seen. Some damage 

 had been done to the leaves of the plants by a small 

 beetle, specimens of which I forwarded to you some time 

 ago. This beetle can be readily controlled by the usual 

 methods. There was a little antliracnose, but not enough to 

 cause nuich damage to the crop. 



As mentioned before in other reports, there is no reason 

 why paying crops of Sea Island cotton should not be grown 

 in the St. Vincent Grenadines, the conditions as to rainfall 

 being nuich better tban at St. Vincent. 



It should also be possible, with careful selection, to grow 

 there seed for planting at St. Vincent and other places, as the 

 cotton can be completely isolated. Then, again, the tj'pe of 

 plant would tend in time to be much hardier when grown 

 under the conditions obtaining in these small islands than 

 that grown here. 



The chief drawback is the labour question, it being 

 difficult to get labour except at a price often far in excess of 

 its value. At Mustique, of course, there is not this difhculty, 

 as ilessrs. Hazell can control the labour, but in Bequia there 

 is this drawback to cotton cultivation. 



So far, both at St. A'incent and the Grenadines, the leaf- 

 blister mite has done little damage, scarcely any being found. 

 I put this down to the complete destruction of the old cotton 

 plants at the beginning of the year and the disinfection of 

 the new seed with carbon bisulphide aud corrosive sublimate. 

 Two cases which tend to prove this have come under my 

 notice : one where an old cotton plant had grown up in a field 

 of newly planted cotton, the other being outside the cotton 

 factory. In the first case the old cotton plant had badly 

 infected .several young plants around it in the field, and in 

 the second, all the seedlings of self-sown non-disinfected seed 

 that came up near the cotton factory were badly affected. 

 This tends to show that the leaf-blister mite is carried with 

 the cotton seed. 



Weather conditions have retarded the work of picking 

 during the last week, but if the weather now holds fine there 

 should not be much injury done to the crop. 



Soil Inoculation for Alfalfa. It is de.sired to 

 correct an error which occurred in the publication of the 

 report on an expeiiment carried out at the Agricultural 

 School at Dominica in inoculating the soil for alfalfa. (See 

 AgricuUnnd Nev's, Vol. IV, p. 341.) The heights of the 

 alfalfa plants were given in feet : these should be read as 

 inches. 



