Vol. IV. No. 93. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



343 



EXPORTS OF WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



The following is a statement (furnished by the 

 Custom's Department in each case) showing the 

 amount and estimated value of Sea Island cotton 

 exported from the various West Indian Colonies during 

 the quarter ended September 30, 1905: — • 



The following is a statement showing the amount 

 of Sea Island cotton exported from the West Indian 

 Colonies (in order of output) for the period January 1, 

 to September 30, 1905 :— 



CLAYED V. UN-CLAYED CACAO. 



The following article entitled: ' Clayed v. Un-clayed 

 Cacao from the Spanish Main,' appeared in 2'ivpical 

 Life for September : — 



Wo find it strange that estate owners in Venezuela still 

 ship their cacao covered with dirt and heavily clayed, just as 

 they did in the old days when manufacturers and buyer.s of 

 produce from remote or semi-civilized centres used to insist 

 on certain native crudenesses (as, for instance, the bees that 

 ■were jioured into the moulds with the tallow dips to make 

 pure wax) in order to be assured that what they were buying 

 wa.s genuine. Every one knows the genuine Criollo beans 

 when he sees them, if he knows anything about cacao at all, 



* Retiu-ns for the September quarter have not yet been 

 received. 



t Estimated number of bales. 



and also every one accpjainted with Venezuela knows that the 

 red clay found in the small ai-oa associated with choice 

 Spanish main cacao is often carried to the other districts to 

 colour inferior cacao with the idea of giving it the appearance 

 of choice Caracas. For this reason alone it is time that the 

 choice grades gave up the clay lest it be confounded with 

 commoner sorts, but when one thinks of waste in freight on 

 the clay and the trouble it must give to the maker, the marvel 

 is that the practice of heavily-clayed choice Venezuelan has 

 been kept up so long. 



The other day we were shown some beans from General 

 Fon.seca's estates at Ocumare. These had not been clayed, 

 but instead had been dried in a cacao drier made by John 

 Gordon & Co., London. After the sweating process, without 

 being either 'danced' or polished by hand, its bright appear- 

 ance being obtained, we were told, in the drying machine, 

 the appearance of the beans was clean, palish-red, very bold 

 and plump, with the usually thin outer shell, and an almost 

 satiny appearance, like fine Ceylons or Samoa cacao (which 

 are probablj' its grand-children). 



If such cacao can be obtained without putting the beans 

 on to the dirty ground whilst still wet from the sweating 

 heap, it really does seem a mistake to hide so attractive an 

 exterior under a coating of dirt and clay, And if the 

 artificial drier can turn out such cacao, we would strongly 

 recommend our Venezuelan and other friends, especially in 

 districts where the rainfall is heavj-, to study the matter of 

 drying by artificial heat, and, above all, instead of heavily 

 claying the beans, to ship over a clean and polished exterior 

 like the samples we saw from the estate of General Fonseca. 



BRITISH GUIANA FISHERIES. 



The following information in regard to fisheries is 

 extracted from the British Guiana Blue Book for 

 1904-5 :— 



The fish most plentiful during a year's inspection of the 

 market was the bashaw, three or four species of which are 

 found. Next in order comes the cuirass, a so-called skin 

 fish, that is, one of the Siluridae. The querriman {Mugil 

 brazil iensis) ; the gilbacker (Silurus pac^-e)'i') ; flounders, 

 so-called {Solea gronovii) ; the snook (CentrojMimts undeci- 

 malis) ; mullets {Mwjil lira) ; porgies {Stenotoinus sp.) three 

 or four kinds ; hassars (CaUicldhy.t littoralis) ; jew fish 

 {PlevtrojKina Chlorurum) ; butter fish (not unlike whiting) ; 

 snappers [Naeomcenis) ; garfish (Belone); shad iClupea 

 maccawoccaX) ; cViSvaw {Taiyon a</a»?iC!is) ; pacuma {Batra- 

 chus surinamensis) ; four eyes {Anahle2'>s tetropihthalin-us) ; 

 houri {Macrodon intermedius), and many species of Siluridae; 

 crabs, three species, and prawns and shrimps, four species. 

 The amount of shrimps consumed in the colony is enormous 

 and must run to tons weekly. The coolies use them in their 

 curries and the black people in their foo-foo. 



The before-mentioned are mostly sea and estuarial fishes ; 

 but the rivers of the interior abound in many fine species. 

 The largest perhaps is the arapaim Gigas. There are various 

 species of perai {Serraudmo) ; leukanani (Cichla) ; the paca 

 (Mi/letes Facu) is a valuable food-fish to the Indians, as are 

 also the cartabac {Tetrarionopterus latus) ; the haimara 

 {MaovdoH trahira) ; moracot {Myhtes) ; biara {Cyonodon 

 Scomhroides) ; yarrow, dawalla {Hypothalus dawalla) ; 

 tubuguri [Prochilodus insignu) ; kurumai {Chalcens niacro- 

 lepidotus). The best sporting fishes of the colony are the 

 cuffum or tarpon (Tarpion, atlaniicus) ; leukanani {CicJila 

 ocellaris ; and biara (Cyonodon Scomhroides). All these will 

 take fly or spoon eagerly. 



