214 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



^ULY 14, 1917. 



COTTON. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON MARKET. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date June 11, 1917, with 

 reference to the sales of West Indian Sea Island 

 cotton: — 



No business has been reporied in West Indian Sea 

 Island cotton since our last report, but (quotations are raised 

 a further Id. per lb. 



Area under Cotton in Montserrat, 1916-17- 



Mr. W. Robson, Curator, Botanic Station, Montserrat, has 

 informed the Imperial Department of Agriculture that the 

 total area under cotton in Montserrat during the season 1916- 

 17 was 1 ,997 acres compared with 1,9.53 acres in the previous 

 year. As there are .55 bales representing 21,020 S). of lint yet 

 to be shipped of last year's ciop, the total output is broujiht 

 up to .31 3, .322 Ih. of lint, or at the rate for the island of 156 tt). 

 of lint per acre. The season, therefore, was the fifth best, 

 both in total output and in the average yield of lint per acre, 

 in the last fourteen years. Mr. Robson adds that the area 

 planted in the present season will he considerably larger than 

 in recent years, chiefly through the activity of small growers; 

 the area planted by estates will probably be much about the 

 same, chiefly as the result of labour difficulties preventing 

 extensions in area. 



Importation of Cotton Seed into the Wind- 

 ward Islands Prohibited.— In pursuance of the 

 provisions of the Plant Protection Ordinance, the Governor- 

 in-Council of the Windward Islands at Grenada has prohib- 

 ited the importation directly or indirectly from any country, 

 other than the colonies of St. Lucia and St Vincent, of 

 cotton seed or seed-cotton. Provision is made that seed may 

 under special circumstances be imported under special license 

 given by the Governor or the Superintendent of Agriculture 

 on behalf of the Governor. 



Reference to the Agricultural News for April 21, 1917, 

 and May 19, 1917, will make it evident that grave danger 

 exists that the Pink Boll worm of cotton may become intro- 

 duced into these islands from North or South America if seed is 

 allowed unrestricted entrance iato the cotton-growing islands 

 of the West Indies; and it is for this reason that prompt 

 legislative action has been taken in the Windward Islands, as 

 noted above. 



It is understood that similar action will be taken in the 

 Leeward Islands. 



CHEMISTRY AND FOOD SUPPLIES. 



The present crisis has been to indicate and emphasize 

 the supreme importance of scientific knowledge and methods, 

 and to enhance the value of the manifold activities of the 

 trained chemist. The extraordinary conditions imposed by 

 the war have only laid stress on a problem which would 

 sooner or later have become insistent — that is, the problem 

 ot our food supply. Chemistry has already come to the aid 

 of the agriculturist by endeavouring to supply, artificially, 

 defects of the soil. Bacterial change of nitrogenous animal 

 refuse into nitrates available for the delicate assimilation of 

 the plant is a long and tedious process, and for this slow 

 natural fercilization of the soil a more rapid artificial one 

 may be substituted. Nitrates from Chile and sulphate of 

 ammonia from the gas and coke industries supply the 

 requisite nitrogen by tons. Phosphates, another necessity 

 to the plant, are supplied as basic slag, bone-meal and super- 

 phosphates. Chemistry has already done this much for oar 

 food supply; but, as is pertinently asked in the May number 

 of Chamber's Journal — what of the future! Nitrates from 

 South America are now approaching exhaustion; ammonia 

 will become scarcer and scarcer as our coal supplies give out. 

 And yet the cry will be all the time for more food! We have 

 around us in the air an inexhaustible stock of nitrogen, but 

 in an unavailable form. The problem of how to make it 

 available is being even now attacked, and, to some extent, 

 solved. Nitrolim, Kalkstickstoff, and other fertilizers are 

 being made from the air. By passing air through a whirling 

 electric arc, a portion, never exceeding however, a small 

 percentage, burns, forming nitric acid, which may be utilized 

 either for explosives or for agricultural purposes. The process 

 is coming into use wherever water-power is cheap and 

 electricity may be generated at low cost. Norway in particu- 

 lar, is developing this process, which, although wasteful, has 

 a very bright future. Once given a method by which all 

 the nitrogen of the air may be fixed in an economical 

 manner, the food supply of the world need cau.se us little 

 worry. Intensive modes of cultivation will become general. 

 One acre will yield the produce of 2 or 3 as things are 

 now. Completely synthetic plant foods are an industrial 

 possibility. Synthetic animal foods will not be far distant. 

 Calves' milk artificially made was exhibited at the last Royal 

 Agricultural Show and found favour. The future of chemistry 

 is bound up in synthesis. When we can reproduce in our 

 laboratories the infinite complexity of nature's products, 

 chemistry will have achieved its aim. 



Agricultural Credit Societies, St. Vincent. 

 — In a recent letter i he Agricultural Superintendent of 

 St. Vincent (Mr. W. N. Sands^ writes that the co-operative 

 movement among small owers and renters in that island 

 continues to develop. Under the Agricultural Credit 

 Societies Ordinance twenty societies with a total membership 

 of 753 have now been registered. Efiorts are being made 

 among the members to build two sailing vessels and to work 

 them intercolonially on co-operative lines. 



VITAMINES IN BREAD. 



Attention is called in the Experiment Station Record 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture to the out- 

 come of investigations into the cause of pellagra in South 

 Carolina which indicate the changes of corn and wheat flours 

 resulting from the introduction of the roller process, especially 

 the loss of vitamines. Vitamines as explained in the Agri- 

 cultural News, Vol. XV, p. 121, are complex substances of 

 indefinitely known composition which in minute quantities 

 regulate the processes of life. These investigations showed 

 that, while the corn meal and wheat flour made by the old- 

 fashioned process of grinding the whole grain contained 

 practically all the vitamines of the whole grain, the highly 

 milled products were deficient in these substances. It was 

 also found that fowls will live in perfect health for many 

 months on an exclusive diet of wheat, corn or so called water- 

 ground corn meal, whereas those fed on highly milled products 

 die within a short time of polyneuritis, a disease similar 

 to beri-beri. 



