COTTON CULTIVATION IN UGANDA. 



By SAMUEL SIMPSON, B.Sc. 

 Director of Agriculture, Uganda. 



THE Uganda Protectorate produces more cotton than 

 any other country in Africa, with the exception of Egypt, 

 and the cotton industry is the most important one in 

 the Protectorate. The following statistics show that the 

 industry is making steady progress : 



LINT EXPORTED TO MARCH 31. 



Y Quantity. Value. 



Cwt. 



1904-05 ... 180 ... 236 



1905-06 . 860 ... 1,087 



1906 07 

 190708 

 1908-09 



1909 10 



1910- II 

 1911-12 

 1912 13 



1913-14 



3.500 ... 11,413 



14,322 ... 26,885 



14,520 ... 4 I 2 3 2 



23,180 .. 60,445 



49,454 ... 168,620 



74,498 ... 236,759 



93,575 254,359 



99,924 ... 317,689 



All the cotton is not ginned in the country at present, 

 as in the year 1913-14 the actual exports of ginned 

 cotton were 85,216 cwt. valued at 272,367, whilst 

 44,126 cwt. of unginned or seed-cotton valued at 45,322 

 were exported to British East Africa to be ginned and 

 baled there. Some thousands of tons of cotton seed are 

 also exported annually. 



In the early days various kinds of cottons were grown, 

 sold, ginned, and baled indiscriminately mixed together, 

 so that complaints on the home markets were very 

 frequent, whilst the shortage of storage accommodation 

 and bad methods of handling were responsible for a large 

 amount of stained and dirty cotton being exported which 

 was extremely difficult to sell. 



Numerous experiments were carried out with various 

 varieties of cotton which resulted in long-stapled Upland 

 American varieties being ultimately selected as best 



