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mistake to suppose that this record of 6,000,000 bales is to be 

 looked upon as anything like an average, and we must expect 

 some time to elapse before the average yield will be anything 

 like so great. As regards the encouragement of cotton 

 cultivation in India, I know that the Government of India and 

 the local governments have paid a great deal of attention to 

 this matter, and I quite agree with what Mr. Schmidt has said 

 about the native cultivator having improved his methods, his 

 baling, >etc. But it must be remembered that the Government 

 of India has to consider not only the problem of the improve- 

 ment of cotton cultivation in India, but a great many other 

 problems, too. For instance, the Government is pressed by 

 the cotton spinners to improve the cotton of India, it is 

 pressed by the millers to improve the wheat of India, and it 

 has to consider the improvement of sugar cultivation, silk 

 cultivation, and the cultivation of a great many other products, 

 so that it cannot be expected to devote more than a proper 

 proportion of the available income to cotton. The Govern- 

 ment has increased very much within the last few years the 

 amount of time and money which it has devoted to cotton, 

 and no doubt it will continue to do as much as possible in that 

 direction, with due regard to the interest of the other products 

 of India, and of the people generally. I quite agree that it 

 would be a great advantage to the people generally if the 

 Government of India would still further increase its interest 

 in regard to the cultivation of cotton, and I hope that it will 

 be able to do so. 



There are one or two other points in Mr. Schmidt's paper 

 about which I should like to say a word or two. He is anxious 

 that the Government should make better arrangements forgiving 

 a higher price for good quality cotton when it is grown. That 

 is one of the difficulties which lie before the Indian cultivator 

 who is a small man with a small area that if he does take the 

 trouble to gr3w cotton of good quality he finds it very difficult 

 to get a better price. Arrangements have been made by the 

 Government with considerable success in this direction, and 

 I am glad the question has been taken up by the Bombay 

 spinners. I venture to think that this is a question in which 

 the International Federation of Cotton Spinners might fairly 

 take a hand, and do more than has yet been done to afford a 

 good market to the small man for his good quality cotton. 

 Mr. Schmidt has also urged, as is very commonly urged, that 

 watering bales of cotton before pressing should be made a 

 penal offence. Now in India we are very reluctant to impose 

 compulsion upon the people. It is far better to do things 

 by way of encouragement than by way of compulsion, and I 

 do not see myself why the spinners should not follow the 



