COTTON 225 



available for consumption from June i. All the calcu- 

 lations, therefore, with regard to imports and exports 

 in the table are made to apply to the same period instead 

 of that of the usual financial year. 



I have previously pointed out that 32 per cent, of the 

 cultivable area is given up to the production of cotton, 

 but it will be seen from the table that 95 per cent. 

 of the grain used by the population for food is grown 

 in the country. 



It will also be seen that the consumption approximates 

 three and three-quarter million tons each year, but is 

 slightly decreasing, in spite of the population being 

 estimated to increase at the rate of 1*51 per cent, 

 annually. The decrease in production may be accounted 

 for to some extent by the increase in the area under 

 cotton, but the decrease in consumption is more difficult 

 to explain. It has been stated that in each year there is 

 increased consumption of meat, but this is not borne 

 out by the figures obtained for the numbers of animals 

 slaughtered for food; there is, in fact, a slight decrease 

 in the latter from 1910, in which year the maximum 

 number were slaughtered. 



It would be inadvisable to further diminish the area 

 under food grain in order to plant cotton. Although it 

 is improbable that the gradual increase of the cotton area 

 at the expense of that of grain has caused any general 

 depreciation in the weight of the cotton yield per feddan, 

 the limit of safety has probably now been reached in 

 many places. 



The system of rotation of crops has undergone a con- 

 siderable change in the country since the price of cotton 

 has increased. Formerly it was a common practice to 

 plant cotton once in a period of three years; but more 

 recently a two-yearly rotation has been adopted, and is 

 now very generally employed. In some instances this 

 increased frequency of cotton upon the same piece of 

 land has resulted in a diminution of yield, but in others 

 there has been no such an effect. Again, in a few 

 instances it has been found possible even to plant cotton 

 for several years in succession without the employment 

 of extraordinary methods of resuscitating the soil and 



