THE INTRODUCTION OF AMERICAN COTTON INTO 

 SIND PROVINCE, INDIA. 



By G. S. HENDERSON. 

 Deputy Director of Agriculture, Sind. 



COTTON of a low class is cultivated in Sind, in Hydera- 

 bad, Thar and Parkar, and Nawabshah districts. The 

 area of Sind is about equal to that of Egypt, and although 

 the area under cotton has increased considerably in the 

 last few years, the total annual cultivation even now is 

 only about 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 acres. The present 

 out-turn is about 150,000 bales per year besides what is 

 used locally in the villages. Before the North Western 

 Railway was opened in Sind the amount of cotton 

 exported from that district was practically nil. Cotton 

 cultivation is generally spreading northwards along the 

 left bank of the Indus and eastwards on the Eastern 

 Nara. 



Cotton is a very profitable crop, and there is no reason 

 why it should not be cultivated to a large extent in Upper 

 Sind, on the non-rice lands. These latter are low-lying 

 and have a large supply of flow water; rice lands are 

 unsatisfactory as the excessive flooding necessary for the 

 rice is not suitable for cotton. 



The comparative costs and returns of cotton and other 

 staple crops from the Government farms at Mirpurkhas 

 and Sukkur are given in the statement opposite. 



Sindhi cotton is short-stapled, coarse and strong, with a 

 particularly good bright colour. In the market it ranks 

 about the same as " Bengals." In the last few years the 

 price has gone up considerably, and now runs to about 

 Rs. 8.9 per maund of 81 lb., say 5^d. per Ib. of lint, as 

 compared with 7'3od. per lb. for Middling American (the 

 price in Liverpool, May, 1914). Sindhi cotton gins up 

 to 33 per cent. The best cotton comes from Shah-jo- 

 bhit, near Hala. 



