Vol. X. No. 252. 



THE AGRICULTDEAL NEWS. 



405 



the special prizes to be awarded by the Agricultural Depart-- 

 ment, and the booklet concludes with appendixes containing 

 catalogues of the crops recommended for exhibition b)' the 

 Bengal Department of Agriculture, as wellw^ of manures, 

 implements, entomological and mycological' exhibits and 

 other matters intended for the same purposes suggestions 

 concerning financial arrangements for exhibitions; and lastly, 

 a series of useful plates illustrating various rdSjitters connected 

 with the work of the Department at agricultteal^ shows. 



^hea,give.s the tbllowing sunmuuy of. the behaviour of 

 such lint in weaving trials : — .' ■ 



The treated yarn was made into a ball warp, and during 

 the processes it behaved indilTerently; it was subsequently 

 ball-sized and beamed. At the loom it gave considerable 

 trouble by reason of the frequent breaking of the threads. 

 The normal yarn gave no trouble either in the preparatory 

 processes or during weaving. 



THE WAX OF COTTON LINT. 



The following is taken ti-uui a paptl- dealing with 

 some of the constituents" of raw cotton, which appears 

 in the Textile Institute Journal, Vol. II, No. 1: — 



By extracting raw cotton with benzole, the whole of the 

 wa.xy and fatty matters are removed, and the solution yields 

 on evappration a residue which, in colour and consistency, 

 resembles beeswax. Kneaded between the finger and thumb, 

 it softens like beeswax, and when heated itTOelts to a clear 

 liquid. On cooling, the latter solidifies, and subsequently 

 contracts considerably, giving rise to characteristic fissures. 

 It is proposed to call this substance, which cc^titains the whole 

 of the wax and fat-like constituents which raw cotton yields 

 'to such volatile solvents as benzole, carbon tetrachloride, 

 etc.. Crude Cotton Wax. The amount present was found 

 to vary from 038 per cent, in a sample of Bengal raw cotton, 

 to 47 per cent, in Egyptian, and 0-5.5 per cent, in American 

 raw cotton. I do not wish this statement to be taken too 

 literally, however, because the number of samples which we 

 have, so far, been able to procure for examination is quite 

 inadequate. These figures are the averages of numbers of 

 determinations on the same bulk samples, and serve to show 

 that the abnormally low figures obtained by Schunck (O'OOi 

 per cent.) and the figure usually stated in text-books (2 per 

 cent.) are both wide of the mark. 



By extracting crude cotton wax with petroleum spirit 

 it is possible to separate it into two portiiins, one soluble, 

 which I will call Cotton Wax A, and the other insoluble, which 

 I will call Cotton Wax B. The separation may also be 

 effected on the fibre by extracting first with petroleum spirit 

 and then with lienzole. 



Cotton wax A, which constitutes, in the case of Egyptian 

 cotton, about 70 per cent, of the crude wax, is considerably 

 lighter in colour than the latter, and closely resembles bees- 

 wax in texture and fracture. It melts at 66° to 67° C, and 

 consists for the most part of a true wax, but contains besides 

 free fatly acids (palmitic and stearic equivalbnt in amount to 

 22 per cent, of oleic acid) a small amount of combined 

 glycerine, and both saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. 



Cotton wax B, obtained from I'^gyptian cotton, consti- 

 tuted about 30 per cent, of the crude wax, «,nd was a dark- 

 green, almost black, granular, though plastic, substance. It 

 melts at 68' C, and contains very little free fatty acid. The 

 dark colour and the comparatively small amount available 

 rendered its examination much more difficult than that of 

 cotton wax A, but it seems to contain substances similar to 

 those obtained when drying oils are exposed to air for some 

 time (oxy-aoids, etc.) It seems to owe its colour, in part at 

 any rate, to the .same substance which isj found in crude 

 cotton seed oil, , . .> _. 



The accijunt goes on to deal with various extracts 

 of the lint from which the wax had been removed, and 



RUBBER PRODUCTION AND 



CONSUMPTION. 



According to the customary statistics prepared by the 

 firm of Hecht for the year ended with .June 30, the total pro- 

 duction of rubber throughout the world amounted to 79,30-5 

 tons in 1910-11, as compared with 76,5-53 tons in the twelve 

 months which closed with June 30, 1910, being an increase 

 of 2,752 tons. On the other hand, the world's consumption 

 is returned at 74,082 tons in 1910-11, as against 76,026 tons 

 in the preceding year, being a reduction of 1,944 tons. The 

 harve.st of Para qualities comprised 33,480 tons of the world's 

 total production in 1910-11, as contrasted with 38,996 tons 

 in 1909-10, and the constimption with 33,291 tons and 

 39,363 tons in the two years respectively. 



The arrivals of rubber in Europe amounted to 45,085 

 tons in 1910-11, as against 44,336 tons in the previous year, 

 or an advance of 749 tons, but the arrivals in the United 

 States experienced a diminution of 2,433 tons. The stocks 

 throughout the world are stated to have reached 12,563 tons 

 on June 30, 1911, as compared with 6,998 tons in the pre- 

 ceding year, being an augmentation of 5,565 tons. In the 

 case of Europe alone the stocks are returned at 6,554 tons, 

 or 1,447 tons in excess of thequantity in"1909-10, and those 

 in the United States also advanced from 228 tons in the 

 latter year to 589 tons on June 30, 1911. The statistics 

 further show that the price of fine Para, which amounted to 

 \0s. per lb. at the beginning of -July 1910, had fallen to 

 4.-I. IQd. by the middle of -January, and to 3s. \\d. by the 

 end of May, recovering to 4.s. \d. at the close of June. Since 

 then the price has been fairly stable, and has experienced 

 an increase to is. Id. (The Financier, August 19, 1911.) 



Lemon Grass Oils. — In one of our earlier reports, 

 we described several lemon grass oils produced in the 

 Jalpaiguri District of Northern India. Mr. J. H. Burkill of 

 Calcutta, who sent us the samples of the oils in question at 

 the time, has now briefly informed us in writing that this 

 particular species of grass has been identified since then as 

 CyiahdpogoH pendtdus, Stapf. The information is of particu- 

 lar interest because up to the present only two grasses have 

 been known to produce lemon grass oil, namely C. flexuosus, 

 Stapf, which yields the Malabar oil, and C. citratus, Stap'f, 

 the parent plant of the sparingly soluble, so-called West Indian 

 lemon grass oil. The oil from C. coUmitus, Stapf, which i.s 

 al.so one of the lemon gras.ses, has only lately become known, 

 and is said to possess characteristics resembling those of 

 a mixture of lemon grass and Java citronella oils. (Semi- 

 Aniiuiil Itepui-t of Messrs. Schimmel & Co., October 1911,) 



