172 COTTON 



the planters found that they could obtain greater profits from 

 the cultivation of sugar, and, in consequence, cotton-growing 

 was abandoned. When sugar failed them they turned again 

 to cotton, and now they are able to export considerable 

 amounts. In St. Vincent the Sea Island cotton industry has 

 become the principal industry of the colony, and in Barbados, 

 Grenada, and several other islands, cotton is an important 

 crop. 



West Africa. Kano, in Northern Nigeria, has for centuries 

 been renowned for the manufacture of blue cotton cloth, which 

 has been exported from there to many other parts of Northern 

 Africa. 1 Both the soil and climate of this central belt of the 

 Sudan are suitable for the cultivation of cotton and indigo, 

 and in recent years long-stapled cotton has been introduced 

 with excellent results. Large quantities are also grown in 

 Southern Nigeria in the Lagos district. 



In the highlands of Nyasaland they grow a special kind of 

 cotton, having a long silky staple, but down in the lowlands 

 by the Shire River Egyptian cotton is grown. Both here and 

 in Uganda cotton is the most important of all the crops 

 cultivated. 



In Kenya Colony cotton is being grown in rapidly 

 increasing quantities, especially in the basin of the Tana 

 River, and in Rhodesia it is considered a promising crop. 



The cotton grown in Cyprus at present is harsh and short- 

 stapled and only suitable for coarse yarns, but, with improved 

 varieties of seed and better methods of cultivation, it is 

 considered probable that cotton may become the chief export 

 of the island. 



Two other possible sources of supply in the future are 

 South Africa and Queensland. 



In the Transvaal, near Rustenburg, and in Cape Colony, 

 in the neighbourhood of East London, in favourable seasons 



1 ' They go in a long cotton garment close about them like a woman's 

 smocke, full of blue stripes, like feather bed tikes.' ' A Description of 

 Guinea, A.D. 1600.' 



