333 



crop may be expected. This last year no rain fell during this 

 period, and the crop obtained was most disappointing. 



[DISCUSSION.] 



Mr. J. S. J. McCALL (Director of Agriculture, Nyasaland) : 

 With reference to the shedding of cotton bolls, we have the 

 same trouble in Nyasaland which Mr. Thornton is at present 

 experiencing in Nigeria. On our lower elevations the custom 

 was to plant our cotton at the beginning of the rains, as 

 Mr. Thornton does at present. One year when the rains 

 slacked off towards the end we got a good crop; in another 

 year when there was more rain we got a bad crop largely 

 through boll shedding. After observing the habit of the 

 crop and its behaviour, I induced' several of the estates in 

 this part of the country to postpone planting until the end 

 of the rains; and now in Nyasaland, instead of planting our 

 cotton on the lower levels in the month of November, we 

 never plant before the last week of January or the second week 

 in February, and the results have been most satisfactory. We 

 now get regular crops every year. Mr. Thornton pointed out 

 that the soil in his part of Nigeria is light and the cotton dies 

 out. I might say in this connection that I have grown Nyasa- 

 land cotton for the last four years in very light soil. I would 

 recommend Mr. Thornton to try to select a plant which is 

 able to survive, possessing drought-resisting properties, and 

 he will find that he will be able to evolve from that a type of 

 cotton suitable for planting towards the end of the rains. In 

 my case that system has been most successful. The disease 

 he has mentioned no doubt accounts for a certain amount of 

 shedding. For instance, I have seen considerable boll shed- 

 ding in Texas, and also in Egypt and Ceylon, due to anthrac- 

 nose. The plants get tall, and you therefore get a lot of 

 shedding of the lower limbs because the sun does not penetrate 

 there. I think myself that in evolving a suitable type of cotton 

 I would lay special emphasis on trying as much as possible 

 to reduce vegetative characteristics, as undoubtedly cotton in 

 Africa as a whole is subjected to much heavier precipitation 

 than cotton in its natural habitat, America. 



Mr. W. H. HIMBURY (British Cotton Growing Associa- 

 tion) : I have been greatly interested in listening to 

 Mr. Thornton's paper. Naturally, the British Cotton Growing 

 Association look to Northern Nigeria for great things 

 owing to its enormous area and large population. I would 

 therefore like to ask Mr. Thornton if last season was 

 not somewhat exceptional as regards climatic conditions ? I 

 believe they had a very severe drought throughout Northern 

 Nigeria. I should also like to ask him over what period his 

 planting experiments were carried out, as I am rather inclined 



