Vol. V. No. 114. 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



279 



According to the Barbados experts, the best time of 

 sowing is from May to August, so that we shall shortly be at 

 the end of the most advantageous period ; but a planter told 

 us recently that he had found a piece planted in October last 

 year give very good results. A good deal depends, of course, 

 on the weather. Last year the rains were Ifite, and consequently 

 were well timed for the late planting, we cannot count on the 

 same this year ; at all events it seems that those who have 

 cotton e.xperiments in hand should push on the work now as 

 fast as possible. 



A profit of over §40 an acre, such as was recorded Isy 

 Mr. Stakemann last year, is a strong argument for a trial ; 

 though, on the other hand, cane planters may prefer not to 

 take any risk, but to stand by their old friend in the hope of 

 an improvement in the future. 



COTTON GROWING IN PORTO RICO. 



The Consular Report on the trade of Porto Rico 

 has the following note on the cotton industry : — 



The favourable reception accorded the 1904 crop of 

 cotton was responsible for an increased acreage of planting in 

 1905, but the results have been discouraging. 



The crop proved inferior in quality and weak in fibre, 

 owing, it is said, to the use of unsuitable new lands, want of 

 fertilizer in the old holdings, and withal general inexpert 

 handling. 



Haw cotton to the value of £34,425, and X4,928 of seed, 

 are reported to have been exported during the year to the 

 United States, the greater part of which was in transit to 

 Liverpool. 



There are about 6,000 acres devoted to cotton planting 

 in the island at the present date, but this area is not likely 

 to increase, for although experiment has shown that suitable 

 land can be had for about £8 per acre capable of producing 

 from 1,200 lb. to 1,700 lb. per acre of Sea Island cotton, 

 spare land of any real worth finds more remunerative employ- 

 ment in raising cane for the various new sugar centrals 

 springing up all round. 



COTTON EXPERIMENTS IN ANTIGUA. 



The following experiiTient.s with cotton will be 

 undertaken in Antigua during the present crop : — 



1. Plots to be planted with Rivers' seed, Gilbert's seed, 

 and Centreville seed; these plots to be used for seed selection, 

 comparison of yields, and distance of planting. 



2. Plots to be laid out with ' graded ' .seed, which has 

 given lint of known length, the crop from each grade being 

 kept separate so as to permit of the selection of the best grade 

 from each plot for successive experiments. 



3. A small plot to be artificially infected with leaf- 

 blister mite and controlled by (a) hand [Sicking and (b) sulphur 

 and lime. 



4. Experiments will be made to test the relative merits 

 of Paris green, London purple, green arsenoid, and Scheele 

 green in destroying caterpillars. 



5. Experiments will be made with the cross fertilized seed 

 obtained in last year's experiments. 



6. A series of experiments is planned on the disinfection 

 of cotton seed, under various conditions, and with various 

 disinfectants, germination tests being made on the disinfected 

 seed. 



PRODUCTION AND PRICES OF COTTON. 



The following tables show the variation in the 

 supply and prices of cotton during the past twenty years. 

 They have been kindly prepared by Messrs. Wolsten- 

 holme & Holland, of Liverpool: — 



SUPPLY OF COTTON. 



