INDIAN AND ARABIAN WILD COTTON 



GOSSYPIUM 



HERBACEUM 



Levant Cotton 



attention 



A New 

 Phase. 



only result, and the subject was allowed to drop from pulilir 

 In 1MI rotton yarns wore in Manchester spun up t" No. 450's, and the United 

 States rapidly obtained a monopoly of the market in raw i ott.m. In 1850 the 

 imports into 1 1 n-at Hut am \\.ro 664 million pounds of raw cotton, and her export* 

 <>t manufactured cotton goods were valued at 28,000,000. About this time a 

 srlieme was formulated in England to raise a sum of 20,000,000 to be expended 

 m India during five years, in measures calculated to forward India as a cotton- 

 producing country. The outbreak of the Mutiny put an end, however, to theaa 

 nepit iat ions. Commenting on the effect of the American Civil War and the 

 Great Cotton Famine of 1862-6, Dabney (The Cotton Plant, U.S. Dept. Agri. 

 Hull., iS'.Ki, No. 33, 14) very truly observes, " Probably no equally great industry 

 . or more completely paralysed or had its future placed in greater jeopardy 



otton-growing in tho United States during the war of 1861-5." In 1K63 

 a Cotton Commissioner was appointed for Bombay, and the year following for IndU'sCotton 

 Mer.ir and the Central Provinces. Cotton farms were established under these C 10 " 

 Commissioners. The Bombay Cotton Frauds Act IX. of 1863 became law, but 

 it is generally believed it did more harm than good and was shortly after re- 

 pealed. For tho ten years ending 1859 Great Britain imported an average of 



>76 bales of cotton (each 400 lb.), and of that amount India supplied 

 in., ._",il bales. But the ten years ending 1869, which included the troublous 



t the American war, Great Britain imported an average of 2,736,661 bales, 

 of which India supplied 1,282,172 bales the record year being 1866, when India 

 furnished 1,847,759 bales. Thirty years later (1899) Great Britain took 4,065,617 

 bales, of which India furnished only 77,297 bales ; but in 1903 the Indian portion 



! slightly improved, Great Britain having taken 203,550 bales of Indian cotton. 

 The immediate response made by India during the cotton famine shows p. ulia .'? lltl 

 her capabilities, but as in the United States, so in India, the demands of her own ap 

 mills had become a controlling factor in the amount available for export. But 

 tho 19th century closed with India, instead of exporting cotton goods, having 

 become the largest single market for English manufactured cottons its demands 

 for British cotton goods having been just under 20,000,000. 



The 20th century may be spoken of as characterised by a new feature, namely, 

 the rise of Continental, American and Indian cotton-manufacturing enterprise 

 seriously threatening the supremacy of England in the cotton markets of the 

 world. The Tariff Commission's Report of June 6, 1905, may be said to have 

 been written with a view to establish this new phase. From that publication 

 the following may be abstracted : In 1876-80 the annual consumption of 

 cotton in the United Kingdom exceeded that of the Continent by 2,030,000 cwt., 

 and that of the United States by 5,070,000 cwt. ; in the period 1901-4 the 

 annual consumption in the United Kingdom was 8,020,000 cwt. less than on the 

 Continent, and 2,9oO,000 cwt. less than in the United States. 



For further particulars of historic interest the reader should consult the 

 chapter below on Indian Trade in Cotton. [Cf. Donnell, Hist. Cotton, 1872 ; 

 De Candolle, Orig. Cult. Plants (Engl. transl.). 402-11 ; Branner, Cotton in tin' 

 Empire of Brazil, in U.S. Dept. Agri. Misc. Bull., 1885, No. 8 ; Nasmith, In- 

 augural Address, delivered 1896 (reprinted), Ind. Text. Journ. ; Handy, Hist. 

 and Qen. Stat., in Dabney, Cotton Plant, 1896, 17-66 ; also Bibliography of Cotton, 

 I.e. 423-33 ; Eckardt, Der Tropenpflanzer (suppl.), Feb. 1906, vii.] 



//. THE CULTIVATED AND WILD COTTONS OF INDIA. 

 (At FUZZY-SEEDED COTTONS OF THE OLD WORLD. 



G. Stocksii, Mast., FL Br. Ind., 1874, i., 346 ; Watt, Wild and D.E.P., 

 CuU. Cotton PL of the World, 1907, 73-7, t. 6 ; hiraguni kdpas. This very j^ 1 '^ 6 ' 

 interesting wild species is found. near Karachi, India, and across the Arabfa 1 

 Persian Gulf, on the Dhofar Mountains of South-East Arabia. 



There would seem little doubt that the writers who have supposed this to 

 be the wild condition of *'. lu-i-hm-i-iun. Linn., are in error, but not more so than 

 those who have taken it for a naturalised and degenerate staie of some American 

 species. Moreover, no one would appear to have demonstrated by actual ex- 

 periment the forms, if any, that have resulted from using <'. *tor *" in 

 hybridisation with other species, hence its influence on the Indian cultivated 

 cottons must be accepted, for the present, as purely imaginary. D E P 



G. herbaceum, Linn., Sp. PL, 1753, ii., 693 (in part) ; Parlatore, iv., 26-30. 

 Sp. dei Cot., 1866, 31-6, t. ii. (in part) ; Todaro, Relaz. Cult, dei Cot., Levant 



575 



Cotton. 



