214 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July 14, 1906 



EXPORTS OF COTTON FROM THE 

 WEST INDIES. 



The following i.s a statement (furnished by the 

 Customs Department in each case) showing the 

 amount and estimated value of Sea Island cotton 

 exported from the various West India Islands during 

 the quarter ended March 31, 1900: — 



* No returns to liand. 



The returns for the previous quarter will be found 

 on p. 6G of this volume of the Agriculianil Xi:ivs. 



PLANTING COTTON IN FIELDS 

 PREPARED FOR CANES. 



On a number of estates in Barbados cotton is 

 being planted in fields from which cane plants are 

 being taken up on account of their backward state. 



In planting cotton in fields that have been prepared for 

 canes, planters are recommended to be very careful about the 

 distances at which the cotton is planted ; if the cotton plants 

 are placed too close, it is most probable that a large part of 

 the crop will be lost. 



Cotton planted in land which has been well prepared, 

 and to W'hich very heavy dressings of pen manure have been 

 applied, will grow very lu.xuriantly ; plenty of space must 

 therefore be given to the individual plants in order to admit 

 light and air. 



The plants should in no case be less than 2 feet apart in 

 the row.s, which are themselves 5 or 6 feet apart. In sheltered 



positions it may be advisable to have the plants even 3 feet 

 apart in the rows. 



When the plantlets are from two to four weeks old they 

 should be thinned out until only the best plant remains in 

 each hole. More than one plant should not be left to the hole. 



DISINFECTION OF COTTON SEED. 



It has repeatedly been pointed out that, in order 

 to produce cotton of the highest quality, only the best 

 and healthiest seed should be selected for planting 

 purposes. 



In the Aiirindtvral News (Vol. V, p. 119) planters were 

 strongly recommended to have all their cotton seed carefully 

 disinfected before planting, in order to prevent the germina- 

 tion of any anthracnose spores which remain attached to the 

 .seed itself. 



Recently specimens of diseased cotton seedlings have 

 been received at the office of the Imiierial Department of 

 Agriculture. These had been attacked just above the surface 

 of the ground, the young stems being reduced to a rotten 

 mass, nuich as if they were ' damping ott'.' A microscopic 

 examination showed tliat the diseased tissue was full of 

 hyphae and spores of Colletdlrk-lmni (/ossi/pii, the fungus 

 that causes anthracnose. 



On inquiry it was found that no cotton had been planted 

 on the field from which these specimens were taken for 

 practically three years, neither had any cotton been growing 

 just recently in its immediate neighbourhood. These facts 

 would seem to indicate that it was improbable that infection 

 of the seedlings took place either through mycelium in the 

 soil or from spores blown by the wind. 



It was learnt that the seed had not been disinfected, 

 and, as it was taken from a field in which anthracnose 

 was observed last season, it is extremely likely that the loss 

 of the seedlings was due to spores attached to the seed at 

 the time of planting. This lo.ss could have been entirely 

 prevented by disinfection of the seed. 



Under unfavourable weather conditions a total crop 

 might have been destroyed and, at tlie least, another field 

 has been infected with the chief fungoid disease of cotton in 

 the West Indies. In this way the spread of the disease has 

 been helped on, for probablj' no disease would have been 

 found in this field, if only the seed had been disinfected 

 before planting. This disinfection process takes very little 

 time, and it is estimated that 1 gallon of the solution of 

 (1 in 1,000) corrosive sublimate .should be sufficient to 

 disinfect 12 lb. of seed at a cost of a trifle over Ic. 



All planters of cotton are therefore strongly advised to 

 adopt precautionary methods by having all their cotton seed 

 carefully disinfected before planting, in order to prevent 

 the further spread of fungoid diseases. 



