262 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



AiiiUsT 26, 1905. 



NEVIS. 



Dr. Francis Watts has rejiorted as follows on the 

 satisfactory ].)osition already attained by the cotton 

 industry at Nevis : — 



It is most interesting and important to note liow well 

 established the cotton industry now is in Nevis. Accurate 

 statistical information is not yet available, but it is pretty 

 certain that some 700 bales of lint (of 200 It), each) have been 

 produced in Nevis. (A small portion of this has been 

 shipped through St. Kitt's.) This involves the simultaneous 

 production of nearly 200 tons of cotton seed. The 

 production of Nevis is therefore very much larger than that 

 of any other West India Island, with the possible excejition 

 of Barbados. This is a very creditable and satisfactory 

 position for what is practically onl}' the second year of the 

 industry on a commercial footing. 



The price obtained for tlie lint grown from Rivers' seed 

 has been satisfactory, ranging from Is. '2J. to l.s. .3|</. per R). 

 Lint from other seed has in many cases brought good prices, 

 Is. to l.s. 2c/. per lb., while only a limited (juantity has .sold 

 below Is. 



The iiroductioii of this cotton has involved the circulatiim 

 of several thousands of pounds amongst the labouring 

 population, and has found employment for hundreds who 

 found little occupation in the .sugar industry. The industry 

 has already conferred immense benefit on this little island. 



The introduction of cotton has not led to any diminution 

 in the cultivation of sugar, though, I regret to say, sugar 

 cultivation is being curtailed in one or two place.?, not on 

 account of cotton, but because it has been found unremunera- 

 tive. 



Cotton growing having proved distinctly remunerative, 

 evidences of renewed activity and i)reparations for extending 

 the cultivation are evident on all hands, so that, with 

 reasonably good weather and freedom from destructive pest.s, 

 I look forward to a substantial increase in the production of 

 cotton during the coming season, particularly as cultivators 

 are now more ex|ierienced and are likely to attain to greater 

 uniformity and a higher level of excellence. 



RATOONING COTTON. 



The following is an article by Mr. Henr}' A. Ballon, 



B.Sc, Entomologist on the staff of the Imperial 



Department of Agriculture, dealing with the reasons 



for avoiding the ratooning of Sea Islanfl cotton in the 



. West Indies on account of its effect on insect pests : — 



The practice of ratooning in the cultivation of 8ea 

 Island cotton in the West Indies would ajipear not to be 

 desirable on general principles, and the experience of the past 

 few years tends to confirm this opi)iion. 



Although originally indigenous to these islands, Sea 

 Island cotton in its present condition is an exotic. The 

 native type is to be .seen, hardj-, perennial, coarse of leaf, 

 thick of bark, resistant to disease, "unattractive to insect pests 

 or resistant to their eftect.s, and thoroughly acclimatized. The 

 cultivated Sea Island cotton plant is a highly specialized 

 organism, developed with great care, and comes back to these 

 islands as a tender annual, with thin bark, thin, delicate 

 leaves, susceptible to di.sease, attractive to insects, and 

 apparently unable successfully to combat the long drought 

 and hot sun of the trojiics. 



The principal insect jiests that are of importance in the 

 matter of ratooning are the scale insects, the red maggot, 

 the leaf-blister mite, and certain leaf-mining in.sects. 



During the growing (or wet) season the cotton plant 

 makei its maximum growth and comes to its period of 

 fruiting. During the dry .season very little growth is 

 made, and it is at this time that the .scale insects increase 

 greatly in number. If there are no considerable sources of 

 infection near the cotton fields, the scale insects will rarely 

 become so numerous in any field during the time from the 

 jilanting of the seed to the end of a first or even a second 

 picking as seriously to atfect the crop. But if, at the 

 beginning of the growing season, very young shoots spring 

 from a stump infested with scale insects, the case becomes 

 .serious. In addition, every plant in this condition is 

 a menace to any young cotton that may be growing near. 



Careful examination of a number of fields of old cotton 

 at Barbados at the end of the last dry season showed that 

 very few jilants were free from scale insects, while many were 

 so seriously infested as to be dead or dying. 



The first serious outbreak of the leaf-blister nn'te 

 occurred on ratoon cotton in Montserrat, and the infestation 

 spread to young plant cotton growing near. 



The first serious ca.so of attack of the red maggot 

 occuncd on old ratoon cotton and spread to young plant 

 cotton near. 



During the past two years a few cotton leaves have 

 >h(i\\n the tunnels of a leaf-miner which works under the 

 upper eiiidermis of the leaf. The tunnel of this ir.sect 

 ap|)ears as a fine tracery except where there are many, then 

 the epidermis peels oft' and the leaf has a characteristic coarse 

 and wrinkled appearance. The ratoon cotti>n in Barbados 

 at present shows this ajipearance of the leaves, and indicates 

 that this insect is more numerous than formerly. 



Clean cultivation is one of the fundamentals in dealing 

 with insect pe.sts, and clean cultivation in cotton growing 

 at the present means the complete removal of cotton plants at 

 the end of the year, and a fresh start from seed for the next 

 growing season. 



