478 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



superior quality at current prices if a duty is 

 imposed upon coconut oil. 



" Where hard water is used the use of coconut 

 oil is essential to obtain a good lathering or 

 cleansing soap. This is also true where salt 

 water must be used. So that, in large sections 

 oi the country and on seagoing vessels, coconut 

 oil soaps are indispensable. The imposition of 

 a duty on coconut oil will result in increasing 

 the price, or diminishing the quality at a given 

 price, of soaps of the character described. It 



WILL, IN NO WISE BENEFIT THE INSIGNIFICANT 

 COPBA-CKUSH1NG INDUSTRY 



in this country, because it should be expressed 

 within a short time after the gathering of the 

 copra. For this reason the oil produced in the 

 East Indies and other foreign countries is of 

 superior gradeior soap-making purposes, where- 

 as the oil expressed here is interior in quality, 

 because the oil-expressing industry is so dis- 

 tantly situated from the copra-gathering 

 sections. 



"it is proposed to impose a duty of i-cent. per 

 pound upon coconut oil. The public has be- 

 come accustomed to the sale to them of a certain 

 sized cake of soap at a fixed price. The trade 

 conditions which have thus been established, 

 through custom and long usage, would not per- 

 mit an increase of this price, the necessary 

 result, therefore, would be that the size ot the 

 cake of soap would have to be reduced and the 

 burden would fall on the consuming public." 

 — New York Oil Reporter, April 8. 



PERNAMBUCO COTTON SN BURMA, 



A Rangoon correspondent writes : — " The 

 cultivation of Fernambuco Tree Cotton was 

 first attempted some years ago, by Miss Haswell 

 of the American Baptist Mission of Moulmeio, 

 and in consequence ot her success 



SEVERAL SMALL PLANTATIONS HAVE BEEN 

 STAKTED BY BUKMANS 



during the past two years, apart from the large 

 ones included in grants to Europeans. Peruam- 

 buco is mainly cultivated, though there are also 

 one or two (Jaravomca plantations. Cultivation 

 by the small cultivators is casual in the extreme. 

 Holes are dug in taungyas at intervals of 6 feet 

 by 7 feet into which seeds are dibbled in the 

 first rains of May. Usually three or four seeds 

 are put into one hole and ail seeds germinating 

 are allowed to survive. Frequently the cotton 

 is sown mixed with taunqya paddy. The most 

 suitable soils seems to be a sandy loam, though 

 the plants do fairly well on something approach- 

 ing iaterite: Jungle is as a rule kept down, but 

 there is no clean weeding, manuring and no 

 attempt to deal with insect-pests. 



"The cost of cultivation is very low — hardly 

 exceeding Rs.15 per acre. The number ot bolls 

 recently obtained from a tree in a first-year 

 plantation was 25, while from a second-year 

 plantation as many as 40 bolls were obtained. 

 The yield of a second-year tree averaged 7 oz. of 

 uucleaned cotton, yielding 25 per cent, of lint ; 

 and assuming that trees are planted 6 feet by 

 7 feet, the yield of an acre would be about 8,000 

 oz, or 500 ib, uncleaned cotton, equivalent to 



125 lb. of lint and 3751b of seed. The Karens, 

 who have now taken to Tree Cotton cultivation, 

 say that 1,000 trees give 100 vise of cotton in the 

 first year, and that this yield is largely increased 

 iu the second and subsequent years. The qua- 

 lity of the cotton produced is good and the 

 staple is tairly long. Owing to the demand for 

 seed, the local price has so far been unduly 

 high, uamely, 12 annas per viss of uncleaned 

 cotton, and last year the price was even higher, 

 being Re.l. A large sample of ginned cotton 

 recently sent to Liverpool realised 8 pence per 

 pound. On this basis the value ot the produce 

 of an acre of cotton after ginning works out to 

 about Rs.62-8, giving a very appreciable profit. 



"There is a distinct future for Pernambuco 

 Cotton in the Amherst district, but the people 

 do not at present seem to realise that it is a crop 

 that repays intensive cultivation and that it 

 requires manuring and careful weeding for the 

 hist year at least. Even under present condi- 

 tions an outturn of over 100 lb. of lint to the 

 acre is not despicable ; and proper cultivation 

 should double the number of bolls over a given 

 area. The future of cotton in this district is of 

 all the greater importance owing to the gradual 

 decline in the fertility of the orange groves and 

 the necessity of finding a suitable substitute. 

 When the new service of district agriculturists 

 is started, it would be worth while for the Agri- 

 cultural Department to experiment with a small 

 area properly cultivated in this district. Advice 

 could then be given with regard to the best and 

 cheapest manure ; and if a chemical manure is 

 necessary it might be possible to retail it. 

 Another question which might be considered is 

 whether it would not be more profitable to cul- 

 vate it as an annual, the plants being sown 3 feet 

 by 3 feet instead of 6 feet by 7 feet as in the case 

 ot a standard crop,'' — Capital, May 2. 



NEW STRAW-YARN PROCESS. 



An invention that has caused no little excite- 

 ment in the textile world, says the United States 

 Consul at Reichenberg, Austria, consists of a 

 process of treatment of common straw, where- 

 by it is now possible to secure therefrom a fibre 

 suitable for spinning. The discoverers them- 

 selves assert that their success far exceeds 

 their original expectations. Theiufluence of this 

 new material upon the textile industry will be 

 far-reaching. While the entire method is not 

 revealed, it appears that the straw is reduced 

 to a jelly-like substance by boiling, causing the 

 separation of the fibre from the outer shell, and 

 the fibre is then treated in hot-air machines. 

 To this product ifs added another fibrous mate- 

 rial, but never more than 20 per cent., so that 

 fully 80 percent, is straw. The resulting "stuff" 

 has many of the characteristics of the "fore" 

 yarn used in jute spinning. The principal ad 

 vantages claimed by the inventors are that the 

 new fibre has all the merits of the yarns now 

 produced; that the cost is only one-half that of 

 similar products ; that the weight is 40 per 

 cent, less ; and that the goods ate in every way 

 desirable. Experts who have examined this 

 material are agreed as to the truth of these 

 claims.— London Chamber of Commerce Journal) 

 for April, 



