SECTION II: VAR. BANI 133 



by the structural peculiarities recognised as diagnostic of G. Nanking, 

 indeed some of the bani cottons are most probably G. Nanking 

 hybridised with G. obtusifolium. Within recent years the bam 

 cottons of Berar and the Central Provinces have fallen into 

 comparative neglect, through the demand for cheap short staples. 

 Cottons that apparently had been originated on still less productive 

 soils than those of the 6am-growing tracts have been carried to the 

 bani country, and, their substitution proving remunerative, the 

 superior crops have become unpopular if they have not been entirely 

 ejected. The demand for cheap short staples, it is now recognised, 

 has thus caused a destructive substitution of inferior for superior 

 cottons which it may take years to remedy. 



Professor Middleton (I.e. p. 24) very truly observes : ' What we Bani the 

 want in India at present is a cotton that suits clay soils, ripens ing. s tock 

 within six months, and produces a good staple and a fair yield. The 

 bani of the Central Provinces at one time supplied most of these 

 requirements, but it is not hardy and the outturn is small, so that it 

 is dying out and very inferior plants are taking its place. Every 

 effort should be made to preserve this stock, for if it can be got to 

 cross with the deshi of Broach or even the wagria of Kathiawar, I 

 think there would be every chance of securing a cotton that, with 

 judicious breeding and. selection, might be of the greatest value to 

 the country.' 



It is an instructive circumstance that Major Trevor Clarke seems Origin 

 to have held the very same opinion, for he uniformly urged that the y ar adi. 

 bani was one of the best of Indian stocks to be used in breeding 

 experiments. He seems to have aimed at improving the quality of 

 the copious yielding Garo hill cotton by crossing it with bani, and 

 most unfortunately to these experiments is due apparently the 

 appearance of the varadi cottons of India, the triumph of high yield High yield 

 in low grade. It does not, however, follow that that result need 

 be the invariable consequence of all future endeavours with bani 

 cotton. (See p. 336.) 



Speaking of the cotton area of India, Professor Middleton observes 

 there is a ' third class of cotton soil which is too sandy or has too 

 small a rainfall to ripen any of the finer races; on this land the 

 perennial cottons of Gujarat and Madras and the bulk of the 

 " Bengals " of commerce are raised. From the commercial point of 

 view nothing could be worse than the fibre produced by this third- 

 class soil, and there is a very large field for improvement.' 'For 



