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supply. In other countries, especially East and West Africa, 

 the cost of transport is almost the most important item. In 

 these as in many other areas, however, the labour supply is 

 the easiest factor in the problem. In the Sudan, again, the 

 labour problem is one of considerable difficulty, as the labour 

 supply was depleted by war, etc., and will take a long time to 

 recover. 



In the United States, on the other hand, the cost of labour, 

 and the sheer impossibility of obtaining sufficient labour, is 

 hampering the development of the possible area in an extra- 

 ordinary way, especially in certain parts of the Cotton Belt, 

 such as Texas. The result is that the cost of production of the 

 crop has increased so greatly in recent years that it is doubtful 

 whether even the high range of prices which has become 

 almost normal now is sufficient to make the crop really 

 profitable, or at least sufficiently so to tempt a great increase 

 of area. To take only one point, the actual cost of merely 

 picking the crop from the plants is now about 2 cents per lb., 

 while the price of the crop is only about 12 cents. In the new 

 irrigated tracts in Arizona and California where Egyptian 

 cotton has been successfully grown, the cost of picking is still 

 higher, even in proportion to the high price obtained for these 

 superior cottons. It seems, therefore, that labour cost bids 

 fair to become the limiting factor in the development of the 

 American cotton area. 



Cotton has always been regarded as essentially a cheap- 

 labour crop. This was one of the chief arguments of the 

 South against the abolition of slavery. Now labour in the 

 South is no longer cheap, and it is doubtful whether the culti- 

 vation of the ordinary grades of cotton can withstand the 

 increased labour cost. 



There seems little hope of the immediate invention of any 

 mechanical appliances, such as pickers, which would help to 

 solve the problem. The only other alternative is an improve- 

 ment of the type of cotton grown, so that the value of the crop 

 may bear a more reasonable proportion to its labour cost. 



In this problem America seems to be approaching the 

 position of many other possible areas for cotton growing 

 throughout the world, where the impossibility of obtaining 

 a sufficient and cheap labour supply absolutely rules cotton 

 growing out. This is, for example, the case in Argentina, 

 where cotton could quite well be grown if labour were 

 available. 



The problem is one of great importance to those other 

 tropical countries where the labour supply is abundant and 

 cheap and the conditions are otherwise suitable for cotton 

 growing, especially India, East and West Africa, and China. 



