THE PRODUCTION OP FINE SEA ISLAND COTTON IN 

 THE WEST INDIES, WITH PARTICULAR REFER- 

 ENCE TO THE ST. VINCENT INDUSTRY. 



By W. N. SANDS, F.L.S. 

 Agricultural Superintendent, St. Vincent. 



AT least 130 years ago a fine cotton, presumably Sea 

 Island, was grown in the West Indies, but according to 

 Sir George Watt, in his book, " The Wild and Cultivated 

 Cotton Plants of the World," p. 270, ''There is little or 

 no evidence in support of the belief that Sea Island cotton 

 is indigenous to Barbados, nor in fact to any of the West 

 Indian Islands," and he further states " that it is highly 

 probable that the modern stock is a hybrid," Again on 

 p. 272 he writes: "Although it is known that much 

 intimacy existed between the early West Indian and 

 American colonists, still the first direct mention of the 

 conveyance of cotton seed from these islands to the main- 

 land occurs in the year 1785. I have been told (though I 

 have not been able to confirm the statement) that there 

 is an older record regarding Charleston, in which mention 

 is made of cotton being sent from the West Indies to 

 America in 1714. It is recorded of 1785, however, that 

 what appears to have been Sea Island cotton was first 

 produced in Georgia from seed obtained from the 

 Bahamas. In 1789 we next read of cotton seed, possibly 

 Sea Island, having been sent from Jamaica to Georgia, 

 but there seems to be some confusion, since it is at the 

 same time spoken of as ' Pernambuco cotton.' This 

 much, however, appears fairly certain namely, that the 

 cotton first exported from the United States went from 

 Virginia and North Carolina, and was accordingly not 

 likely to be anything but ' Levant ' cotton it certainly 

 could not have been Sea Island so that it is perhaps safe 

 to infer that the United States of America obtained their 

 stock of the Sea Island plant very possibly through th* 



