10 March, 1917.] Cotton Gromnr) in A nstraUa. 179 



similar treatment, and the cordite produet'd would rcHiuirc to be submitted 

 to exhaustive tests, both in respect to its stability and its ballistics. 

 Stability tests to be satisfactory would extend over a number of years. 



Arraiiifements are now being made for the experimental manufacture 

 of a fairly large sample of cordite from Australian cotton. This will 

 then be tested, and it is hoped that the results will be satisfactory. The 

 arrangements for testing have been made by the Commonwealth Advisory 

 Council of Science and Industry. 



As already mentioned, the absence of experienced cotton-pickers in 

 Australia has been one of the causes hindering the develo])ment of the 

 industry. The patriotic action of the ^lunitions Cotton League has had 

 the effect of familiarizing a considerable number of agriculturists in 

 Queensland with the cultivation an<l picking of cotton. 



The introduction of a mechanical cotton-picker is the most hopeful 

 method of overcoming the difficulty due to the high cost of labour. Many 

 machines for this purpose have been patented, but none has come into 

 use, in spite of the fact that the invention of a simple contrivance which 

 would enable the cotton to be picked twice as fast would make a fortune 

 for its inventor. It is stated that the United States Department of 

 Agriculture has spent £50,000 in experimenting with cotton-picking 

 machines, and one American firm s[)ent £5,000, and at last gave up 

 experimenting. Several machines have also been invented in Australia. 



The American inventors have mostly produced machines which pick 

 the cotton by means of a number of arms bearing spikes which pass 

 over the plant. These, however, damage the plant and spoil much of 

 the cotton which is not yet ripe, and unless a variety of cotton could be 

 produced which ripened all its seed at once, they are not likely to prove 

 satisfactory. 



The machines invented in Australia are on the suction principle, 

 familiar in the vacuum-cleaner, and to allow them to achieve their best 

 effect it would be necessary to grow a variety of cotton in which the 

 valves of the cotton-bolls open wide so as to expose the cotton fully. 



Australia is fortunate in that the only two cotton-pests at present 

 established in this country are rust and the boll-worm, a species of 

 cut-worm. The cotton-worm, cotton stainer, and dreaded boll-weevil of 

 the United States are unknown, and it is important that imported seed 

 and raw cotton should undergo rigid inspection to prevent the chance 

 introduction of these pests. 



In a recent issue of the Texas Cotton and Cotton Oil News it is 

 stated: "If the boll-weevils destroy as much of this year's cotton as 

 they did last year the remnant that escapes the weevil will not supply 

 adequately the world's demand, even if the war should continue, and 

 should the war cease this fall, the price of the staple would go sky- 

 rocketing." 



Though the latter result unfortunately does not now seem at all 

 probable, enough has been said to show that the establishment of an 

 Australian cotton industry is of great importance from the stand-point 

 of national defence, and is likely to be profitable to the cotton-growers 

 and also to be of considerable economic value to the Commonwealth, both 

 by increasing the value of our production and by attracting population 

 to the empty spaces of the north. 



