A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW ~~ ^vo.'k 



OF THE i^OTANICAL 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. ^'■•^^'^^'^- 



Vol. V. No. 110. 



BAEBADOS, JUIA' 14, 1906. 



Prick Irf. 



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Salt Inclastrv in the West Indies. 



HE last issue of the Agricultural News 

 (p. 207) coDta'ned a report, by the 

 Director of the Imperial Institute, on 



a sample of salt from the Turks Islands. Dr. Dunstan 

 testified to the exceptional purity of the sample. 



The salt industry in the West Indies is now prac- 

 tically confined to the Turks Islands, where salt is the 

 staple commodity, its extraction finding employment 

 for three-fourths of the population of the dependency. 

 From these islands there is an annual export of some 

 1,800,000 bushels, of a value of about £22,000. Ten 

 years ago the exports of salt amounted to 2,236,000' 

 bushels, of the value of £33,630, but the industry 

 appears to have suffered very considerably from the 

 import duties imposed by the United States tariff An 

 increased production of domestic salt in the United 

 States (from 620,000 tons in 1881 to 2,056,600 in 1901) 

 also appears to have affected the industr}'. 



The effect of this factor is referred to by the 

 Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands in his 

 Aiiiiual Report for 1902 as follows: 'Domestic 

 production and competition have, within the twenty- 

 one years referred to, reduced the importation of salt 

 into the United States by nearly two-thirds, while the 

 annual consumption has increased more than two-fold. 

 Were it not for the excellent preserving properties of 

 the Turks Islands salt — a salt the use of which for 

 pickling purposes was at one time in years past made 

 compulsory by law in at least one of the States of 

 America — the staple industry of these islands would, 

 lono- ere this, have been in a far more disturbed state 

 than to-day. As long, however, as the quality of the 

 salt is maintained, and as long as the "packer" safe- 

 guards his interests by the use of Turks Islands salt, 

 so long will there be a demand for the staple product 

 of these islands.' 



