A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE FACTORS CON- 

 TROLLING THE GINNING PERCENT OF INDIAN 



COTTONS. 



By H. M. LEAKE, M.A., 



Economic Botanist to Government, United Provinces, India. 



The cotton crop, as it is harvested, consists of the lint in which the 

 seed is embedded. This seed-cotton is then ginned, by whicli process 

 the seed and lint are separated. The ginning percent of a cotton, as 

 the term is here used, may be defined as the nmnber of pounds of lint 

 obtained ft-om 100 lbs. of seed-cotton. 



Now the area under a given crop is largely controlled by the price 

 the actual cultivator receives for his produce. In the case of cotton, the 

 cultivator parts with the seed-cotton for which the price paid by the 

 purchaser is almost directly proportional to the ginning percent as 

 determined by sampling'. The character, which forms the subject of 

 the present note, is, consequently, one of great economic importance, 

 and for this reason has formed the basis of a considerable series of 

 experiments. From the scientific aspect the problem is an attempt to 

 resolve a complex character into its simpler component iactors. 



The range of variation fovuid in the ginning percent of the different 

 types of cotton at present cultivated may be usefully indicated. In the 

 crop at present in general cultivation in the United Provinces — consisting 

 of a mixture of various types of G. iieglectum Tod. — the ginning percent 

 is 30 — 33. Improved forms, isolated by selection, are now being intro- 

 duced for which this figure approaches 41. Races of G. cernuum Tod. 

 have been cultivated in which the ginning percent is as high as 44 or 

 4.5. At the other extreme lie G. indicum Lamk. and G. arhoreum Linn. 

 sp. PI. with a ginning percent of 25 — 26, the former giving the Bani 

 cotton of Central India, perhaps the best indigenous cotton of India, and 



' See Leake and Parr, Agri. Jouiii. of IiidUi, Vol. viii. 1. 



