102 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 1, 1911. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date March 13, with reference 

 bo the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



Since our last report, West Indian Sea Island cotton has 

 been neglected. 



The Fine Spinning Trade is still unsatisfactory, and 

 buyers are holding off until they can gauge the basis at which 

 American Sea Island cotton will eventually be sold in bulk 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending March 11, is as follows: — 



The market has been at a stand throughout the week, and 

 in the absence of any demand we have only to confirm our 

 previous advices and to nominally renew our last quotation.s, 

 viz : — ■ 



Extra Fine Islands at 33c.= 18:Jrf. c.i.f. & 5 per cent. 



Fully Fine „ 32c. = 17^^. „ „ 



Fine „ 



30c. 



^ l^d. 



THE SUPPLY OF RAW COTTON. 



The expectation that the present high price of cotton 

 will lead to a great extension of the cotton acreage in the 

 southern states of America does not seem to rest on any solid 

 foundation. In fact, the production of cotton there is not 

 keeping pace with tlie increased demand for cotton goods. 

 On the contrary, the growth of maize is rather encroaching 

 on the growth of cotton in America. At current prices it 

 pays the farmer in the southern states better to grow maize 

 than to grow cotton. It becomes, therefore, increasingly 

 important to encourage the cultivation of cotion elsewhere. 

 Last week Sir Percy Girouard, the Governor of the British 

 East Africa Protectorate, addressed a special meeting of the 

 Council of the British Cotton Crowing A.ssociation at Man- 

 chester on the subject of cotton-growing in East Africa and 

 Uganda, but more especially in the i'rotectorate. We are 

 promised from Uganda in a .short number of years something 

 like 15,000 bales of upland American variety, whil.st in the 

 Protectorate tliere are large areas of land apparently eminent- 

 ly suitable for cotton-growing, but there are practically no 

 natives on the land. Sir Percy Girouard says that the 

 valleys of the .luba and Tana rivers are siiecially suitable tor 

 cotton-growing, and that on the I5rilish side of the .Tuba, 

 ■which is the frontier line between Briti.-~h and Italian terri- 

 tory, there are about half a million acres suitable for irriga- 

 tion. The (lovernor does not think that the labour question 



will be a very difficult one. At present, the plantations on 

 the coast have no difficulty in obtaining labour at very 

 reasonable rates from the highlands of East Africa, where 

 there are several million natives. But cotton-growing in the 

 Protectorate cannot be developed properly by small men, and 

 the f Jovernor suggests that it should be made the subject of 

 a scheme by means of irrigation on a large scale, such as has 

 been suggested for the Sudan. The British Cotton Growing 

 Association is ready to render all possible assistance, and they 

 have promised to join in experimental work. Assuming 

 such work supports the conclusion that cotton-growing in the 

 Protectorate can be made commercially successful, it will be 

 for the general investor to find the large capital that will be 

 required to utilize the whole of the cotton area. Obviously, 

 it would be unreasonable to expect Lancashire, with her 

 immense and expanding industries, to finance, unaided, great 

 schemes of cotton development in distant dependencies. 

 {Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, January 20, 1911.) 



NATURAL CROSSING IN COTTON. 



Investigations are being made by H. A. Allard, ot the 

 UalleJ Stales iJepaituieiit of Agiiculture, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the extent to which natural crossing takes place 

 among plants in cotton lieMs, whether these are being raised 

 in the ordinary way, or for the purpo.ses of selection and 

 breeding. An account of the work that has been done up 

 to the present is contained in an article, having for its title 

 Pieiiminary Observations Concerning Xatuial Crossing in 

 Cotton, which is published in \^ol. I, No 4, of the Amet-ican 

 BreiiL'.rs' Maya-.ine.. 



This investigator points out that ap])arently no serious 

 attempt has been made, so far, to ascertain the exact extent 

 to which cotton Howers may be cross-pollinated by natural 

 agencies, under field conditions. The possession of accurate 

 information on the subject is important, because in breeding 

 and selection experiments, particularly, the isolation of the 

 progeny rows, as regards cross-pollination, must dep<:nd upon 

 the readiness with which this may take place, througli insects, 

 the wind, or birds. Attention is drawn to the fact ihat most 

 breeders and growers of cotton have considered that such 

 crossing does not affect more than .5 to 10 per cent, of the 

 seeds; whereas O. F. Cook, in describing work conducted in 

 Arizona, considers that natural crossing takes place very 

 freiju^ntly, while W. L. Halls, in Kgypt, is of the oi)inion, in 

 consideration of his later work, that this amounts to 5 

 to ■J.') [)er cent. These conclusions are supported by the prs- 

 liminary work described by the writer, and he has arrived at 

 the conviction: 'that natural crossing must be considered 

 a most important factor, not only in all technical cotton- 



