2l8 COTTON 



Sindhi cotton cultivation is simple in the extreme. 

 After irrigation seed is broadcasted on the surface and 

 ploughed in. Thereafter the crop receives one or two 

 hoeings and nothing further except irrigation from time 

 to time till the crop is ready for picking. 



The improvement of Sindhi cotton could have been 

 attempted in several ways : 



(a) By producing a still coarser cotton with higher 

 ginning out-turn. It is along these lines that some export 

 firms wish to direct the work. 



(b) By producing a finer and longer-stapled cotton 

 suitable for spinning higher counts and weaving finer 

 materials. 



The problem was to find by experiment a cotton suitable 

 to the country, but of a much higher grade. To grade up 

 the indigenous cotton held out but little promise of success 

 in comparison with the adoption of a superior variety 

 from some other part of the world. Indian varieties of 

 superior quality, such as Broach, were soon discarded 

 as undesirable; Egyptian was then tried, and finally 

 American. 



When the Agricultural Department was first established 

 in Sind about ten years ago, it was thought by the then 

 Deputy Director of Agriculture, Mr. Fletcher, that 

 Egyptian cotton would thrive in Sind. It did well on all 

 the Government farms and it was decided to get a large 

 area cultivated in the district. Four thousand acres were 

 cultivated in one season by zemindars on the Jamrao 

 Canal, the out-turn probably averaging 5 to 8 maunds per 

 acre. Some difficulty was experienced in disposing of 

 the crop, as Egyptian cotton is not used by any of the 

 mills in Bombay, and the amount produced was not 

 sufficient to put the article on a commercial footing. The 

 Mitafifi variety was of good quality and was favourably 

 reported on by brokers in Egypt. Auction sales were 

 established by Government at Mirpurkhas to dispose of 

 the produce, but the price obtained was very uneven. 

 Up to Rs. 14 per maund of 81 Ib. of seed-cotton was 

 obtained on some occasions when the presence of buyers 

 anxious to obtain a sample caused some competition. At 

 other sales there was little or no demand. The ginning 



