322 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Annual 

 cottons. 



Ratooned 

 cottons. 



Triumph 

 of agri- 

 culture. 



Asia 

 Minor. 



collecting from wild arboreous forms the supplies of the staple which 

 he required (see pp. 10-12). In Southern Asia and Arabia the plant 

 first so used was mostly G. arboreum (see pp. 83, 85, 87, 135-6). 

 When we make acquaintance with America (more especially Brazil 

 and Peru) an expert knowledge in cotton is found to have been quite 

 as ancient as that in Asia, Africa and Arabia, and the cotton first 

 brought to us from the New World was again a tree cotton, but a 

 totally different species, viz. G. brasiliense (see pp. 18, 20). 



In both hemispheres it would seem to have been early realised 

 that to meet the demands for cotton, regular agricultural stocks were 

 essential, and annual plants were then preferred to perennial. But 

 there appears to have been a transitional stage, between tree and 

 herbaceous cottons: namely, that of periodically cutting down or 

 ratooning perennial stocks (see pp. 94, 259, &c). The attainment of 

 purely annual plants was a direct consequence of cultivation to 

 climate. No species of Gossypium is known, in its original habitat, 

 to be an annual. When carried to regions where the climate (for 

 part of the year) was unfavourable to cotton, perennial stocks could 

 obviously not be grown, and annual forms became imperative. 

 Selection for early maturity would doubtless soon lead to the 

 production of plants which, from sowing to reaping, would not 

 require more than six or seven months, so that they could be off the 

 fields before the advent of the unfavourable months. Moreover, they 

 could be alternated conveniently with other crops, and thus not inter- 

 fere with the necessary rotation required to secure the natural balance 

 and fertility of the soil. Early harvesting would be, at the same 

 time, an important safeguard against pests and blights known to 

 recur at certain seasons of the year. 



The first great cultural triumph, therefore, was the production of 

 annual crops or plants that would yield their fleeces within a 

 limited period determined by climatic conditions. This discovery 

 allowed cotton cultivation to be carried beyond what might be called 

 the natural geographical area of the genus, and accordingly vastly 

 increased the possibility of its production. As the annual crops 

 crept gradually into prominence, the cultivation of the perennials 

 dwindled into insignificance and the craft passed at the same time 

 from the hands of ignorant into those of skilled cultivators. (See 

 pp. 15, 80, 136, 159, &c.) 



Centres of Specific Influences, In Asia Minor (and possibly also 

 Abyssinia) one of the greatest of the annual stocks was thus produced, 



