198 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Egyptian 

 cottons 

 experi- 

 mented 

 with. 



Trans- 

 vaal. 



Saw- 



ginned 



Dharwar. 



their endeavours, the site selected being at Cherinda in the coast 

 district of Chiloame. From these beginnings cultivation extended 

 into the hands of private farmers or colonists, the cotton chiefly 

 experimented with being Egyptian mit afifi (which see under G. 

 peruvianum). The pamphlet issued by the Mo9ambique Company 

 will richly repay perusal, and it may be added that the prospects 

 of cotton-growing in this portion of East Africa are very encouraging. 



Mr. John C. Atkins, in a paper read before the Third International 

 Cotton Congress in June 1906, gives brief particulars of other parts 

 of East Africa. The cotton mostly grown is Egyptian, and will be 

 dealt with under that species, but of South Africa the Cape Colony, 

 Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Biver Colonies he says very 

 satisfactory results have been obtained with American cottons, by 

 which it may be inferred is meant Uplands, and accordingly a fair 

 proportion can be assumed to be races or hybrids of the present 

 species (G. hirsutum). In a recent despatch Lord Selborne ob- 

 serves : 



' Experiments have been conducted by the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment (Transvaal) at several stations. Some excellent samples of 

 American cotton have been secured, which have attracted much 

 favourable comment in Manchester, and at the Cotton Exhibit in 

 London. These samples have been valued at Id. to ]\d. per pound 

 more than samples of the American-grown cottons of the same class. 

 There is an extensive area in the Low Veld, particularly on the lower 

 eastern slopes of the Drakensberg, in which it seems probable that 

 cotton can be grown profitably, providing the same quality of lint 

 can be maintained, and if transport, freight, and other charges com- 

 bined are not too high to leave a margin of profit. Fifty acres are 

 under cotton on our farm this year, from which seven to ten tons 

 of lint may be expected, sufficient, I think, to give us data to the 

 economic possibilities of establishing the industry.' 



INDIA. As already explained this is in commerce designated Saw- 

 ginned Dharwar, a name indicative of the locality where the greatest 

 success has been attained in its acclimatisation Dharwar. Eox- 

 burgh had grown it in Calcutta, perhaps thirty years prior to its 

 having been conveyed by the Indian Cotton Commissioner to the 

 Uplands of the Southern Mahratta country. 



It would occupy too much space to review even briefly the 

 historic facts connected with this cotton in India. It is by far the 

 most successfully acclimatised of all the so-called American species. 



