244 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



United States supplied about three-fourths. The importations of 

 raw cotton into the United Kingdom in 1884 amounted to 15^ million 

 cwt., its value being 44,000,000 ; about two-thirds of this came 

 from the United States. In 1886 the import was 15,312,900 cwt., 

 at a then value of 38,128,110; in 1889 it was 17,298,000 cwt. 

 valued at 45,642,000 ; cotton-seeds imported that year into Britain 

 came to 277,394 tons, valued 1,906,000. The greater part of the 

 cotton produced in the world is worked up in the United Kingdom, 

 where the annual consumption has increased from about 1,014,000 

 bales (of 400 Ibs. each) in the period 1836-1840 to an average of 

 3,117,000 bales for the period 1876-1880, and to 3,700,000 bales 

 since. After the United Kingdom, says the "Bulletin du Musee 

 commercial," comes the European Continent ; taken as whole the 

 consumption has there increased during the same period from 521,000 

 to 3,400,000 bales. The third place is held by the United States, 

 which surpasses all other countries in the rate of increase, as the use 

 for manufacture there rose from 242,000 bales in 1840 to 2,137,000 

 bales in 1884-85 (" Journ. of the Soc. of Arts," 1890). The primary 

 advantages of this important culture are : a return in a few months, 

 comparatively easy "field-operations, simple and not laborious process 

 of collecting the crop, and requirement of but little care in the use 

 of the gin-machine in finally preparing the raw material for the 

 market, the woolly covering of the seeds constituting the cotton of 

 commerce. The oil obtained by pressure from the seeds is useful for 

 various technic purposes, and the oil-cake can be utilised like most 

 substances of a similar kind as a very fattening stable-food. This oil 

 can even be used quite well in domestic cookery [Colonel 0. Nelson]. 

 Crushed cotton-seed cake without admixture is eaten by cattle and 

 sheep with avidity. Of cotton seeds 212,000 tons were introduced 

 into Great Britain in 1884, valued at 1,580,000, mostly from 

 Egypt. Sea-Island cotton was raised to great perfection in the 

 northern parts of Victoria fully twenty-five years ago from seeds 

 extensively distributed by the writer ; but the want of cheap labour 

 has hitherto militated against the extensive cultivation of this crop, 

 as well as that of tea and many other industrial plants. Cotton 

 having been reared far away from the influence of the sea-air, it 

 would be worthy of attempts, to naturalise various kinds of cotton 

 in the oases of our deserts, irrespective of regular culture. Our 

 native Gossypiums of the interior produce no fibre worth collect- 

 ing. Cotton-plants have a predilection for gently undulating or 

 sloping ground, with light soil and a moderate supply of moisture. 

 In the most favorable climes, such as that of Fiji, cotton produces 

 flowers and fruit throughout the year, but the principal ripening 

 falls in the dry season. From two hundred to three hundred plants 

 or more can be placed on an acre. As many as seven hundred bolls 

 have been gathered from a single plant at one time, twelve to 

 twenty capsules yielding an ounce of mercantile cotton. Weeding 

 is rendered less onerous by the vigorous growth of the plants. 

 Cotton comes in well for rotation with other crops. Major Clarke 



