1902-1903.] Cotton andits Cultivation. 49 



trifling amount reaching our islands. India has 4,100,000 

 spindles. The last reason I give for the decreasing European 

 consumption of Indian cotton is its low quality. Its staple 

 is short and unsuitable for fine spinning, and it cannot com- 

 pete with the higher qualities of Egyptian and American 

 cotton. In our market Indian cotton is called " Surat." 



Egyptian cotton is, next to a specially fine American variety 

 called Sea Island, the best grown. In colour it is brownish. 

 The staple is long and strong, while very fine. At present it 

 is almost all grown, under irrigation of course, in the Delta of 

 the Nile. While the new dam at Assiout will enable it to 

 be grown in upper Egypt, the quality is almost certain to be 

 lower than that of the Delta cotton. There are now about 

 1,750,000 acres under cotton in Egypt, and the crop is over 

 1,000,000 bales of 5001b. each. 



At present the Liverpool cotton merchants are trying to get 

 the staple systematically cultivated in Nigeria and the Gold 

 Coast country, but meantime it is experimental. 



In South America cotton is grown to a small extent in 

 Brazil and Peru. Peruvian cotton is of a tree variety, and it 

 is not used in cotton mills at all. It has a peculiar, strong, 

 woody, crinkly staple, which, when mixed and spun with wool, 

 can hardly be distinguished from wool. The whole Peruvian 

 produce (40,000 bales of 200 lb. each) is used in woollen 

 mills. 



Brazilian cotton is partly of the tree and partly of the 

 herbaceous variety. The tree lives four or five years, and 

 attains a height of about 20 feet, but neither in quantity nor 

 quality is the staple of much account. 



Cotton was cultivated in the West Indies before the 

 American colonies took it up. It might well be grown 

 profitably in the West Indies now, but something seems 

 to stand in the way of almost everything there. 



The most important cotton region of the world is in the 

 United States of America. The leading planters there are 

 energetic and intelligent; some of them are men of great 

 ability and high education. The majority are wise enough to 

 follow the lead of the most progressive. A minority are lazy 

 and shiftless, just drifting along on the edge of bankruptcy, 

 blaming their want of success generally on the nigger. 



VOL. V. D 



