38 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



February 10, 1917. 



COTTON. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON MARKET. 



Messrs. Wolstenholiae and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date January JS, 1917, with 

 reference to the sales of West Indian Sea Island 

 cotton: — 



The earlier arrivals of New Crop West Indian have 

 commanded excellent prices, the best Nevis and Montserrat 

 selling at 34rf. to 3bd. and St. Kitts at 36rf. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending January (J, 1917, is as follows: — 



ISLANDS. In the absence of demand the market has 

 been at a stand throughout the week, no .sales reported, but 

 Factor.s are continuing to hold for their previous asking prices 

 and refusing as yet to make any concessions in order to eflFect 

 sales. We have, therefore, to repeat our last quotations, viz:— 



Fine, .50c. = 52c. landed. 



Fine, slightly off 4 8c. = 50c. 



Fully Fine 5;?c. = 55c. „ 



(.EORiiiAS AND FLOEiiiAs. The market continues dull, 

 with very limited demand. The stock is held nominally at 

 prices above the views of buyers: however, with orders in 

 hand, admitting of actual bids, small lots may be bought on 

 a basis of (juotations, viz: 



Extra Choice and Fancy 50c. = 51;lc. landed. 



Choice 48c. = 49ic. 



Some offers are being made by exporters who hold stocks of 

 their own at some concession from above prices. 



The exports from Savannah for the week were, 

 to Northern Mills, 46.S bales, Southern Mills, :^8t) 

 bales, and from Jacksonville to Northern Mills, 1,081 

 bales. ^^ 



Chinese Bean 'Milk'.— Bean 'milk has long been 

 known to the Chinese under the name of to fu chiang, or bean- 

 curd sauce. It is made from the small yellow beans from which 

 the Chinese bean curd and chiang yu or soy are made. The 

 beans are soaked and then crushed between two stones. The 

 crushed mass is allowed to run off into a tub, and is then 

 strained through cheese cloth and diluted with water and 

 boiled. After boiling it is again strained, and the white milk 

 run off into bottles. An anafy.f is of the bean-curd milk shows 

 that it has a specific gravity of r020 and a fat content of 

 •3-125. To the eye, according to the United States Consul at 

 Changsha, the product looks exactly like unskimmed cows" 

 milk. It has an odour of raw beans, and is said to be not 

 unpleasant to the taste. (Jo'-rnal of the Royal Society of 

 Arts.) 



The present state of agricultural credit in the British 

 We.st Indies is dealt with in an article prepared by the Impe- 

 rial Department of Agriculture in the November issue of the 

 International Rei'ievi of Afpifultural Eco7ionncs. The subject 

 is dealt with under the following headings: introduction: co- 

 operative credit in Jamaica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and 

 Trinidad: agricultural credit societies' ordinances: points in 

 which the Trinidad, St. Vincent and St. Lucia ordinances 

 differ; and lastly, credit in other parts of the West Indies, 

 namely British Guiana anil Barbados. An article dealing 

 with agricultural credit in greater detail will be found in the 

 West Indian Bulletin, \o\. .\IV, No. 1. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PEAS AND BEANS 



AT MONTSERRAT. 



Brief reference was made to these experiments in 

 the last issue oi the Agricultural News. The result3 

 are deemed of sufficient interest to reproduce from the 

 Report on the Agricultural Department ot Montserrat 

 for l!U.i-l(), a full account, which is as follows: — 



COWPEAS. 



A considerable amount of interest has been shown in 

 the cultivation of the cowpea, the form known locally as 

 black-eye in particular. Wbile it is a very desirable plant 

 to cultivate under any circumstances, but especially as a food 

 plant, by the small cultivator, it should appeal more particu- 

 larly to the cultivator of cotton or sugarcane, where the 

 early preparation of the land for the former crop is done, 

 and a quick-growing crop can be reaped from the land before 

 the time for planting the cotton comes round; or a crop 

 could be reaped from cane land, and planted at the same time 

 as the cane cuttings. 



On the average of four experiments conducted at 

 Harris's Station during the year, the yield of dry peas was at 

 the rate of 707 tt). per acre, and of one reliable experiment 

 on the light land at Grove Station 540 ft), per acre. The 

 largest yield obtained at Harris's was 1,272 9>. per acre, in 

 very favourable weather. 



Judging from the observations made in various parts of 

 the island, the cowpea is very susceptible to adverse conditions, 

 particularly high winds, and its cultivation as a field crop is 

 not to be recommended except under favourable circumstances. 

 To obtain maximum crops close planting should be adopted, 

 say, l\ feet apart eaw;h way. 



PIGEON PEAS. 



When considering the cultivation of pea and bean crops, 

 the vigour and hardihood of the pigeon pea will appeal to 

 the grower, though unfortunately, we can as yet supply no 

 data to show the yield of peas that can be expected. A very 

 satisfactory type of the pigeon pea already exists in the 

 island, and is locally known as the Anguilla type. It has 

 large light-coloured seeds, and plots are being grown both at 

 Harris's and Grove Stations in the present season. Plants of 

 the white-.seeded variety grown in the Station in 1915 were so 

 badly infested with the caterpillar of the moth Chloridea 

 virescens, which attacks the green pods, that practically the 

 whole crop was destroyed. 



THE FLE.SUY POD AND WHITE VELVET BEAN.S. 



The fleshy (wd bean (Stizolobiuvi pachylobium), and the 

 white velvet bean (Stizolohium Deeringianum), of which 

 mention was made in last year's report, were submitted to 

 further trial. The underlying idea in the cultivation of these 

 species, is the discnvery of a bean that can be grown as a green 

 dressing, and incidentally the seeds of which can be collected 

 either for export or use locally as stock food. 



The plots of these beans grown in 1915 were planted on 

 August 31, at a distance of 4 feet between the rows, and 2 feet 

 between plants, the area in each species being -^ -acre. 

 One-half the area of each variety was provided with rough 

 stakes to act aa supports: the stalks of the com plants which 

 had been grown on the plot and were intended to act as 

 supports were b:idly blown by the gale on August 10. 



