COTTON 299 



West Indies, and that, too, so late as the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. 



" There would seem no doubt, however, that South 

 America and the Antilles were growing a superior cotton 

 closely akin to, if not identical with, much of the so-called 

 Sea Island cotton of to-day, long anterior to its intro- 

 duction into the United States." 



At p. 278, loc. cit., it is mentioned that many writers 

 say that when the plant was first introduced into 

 America it was a perennial, and that, through the accident 

 of a mild winter and the selection of early maturing pods, 

 combined with more advantageous methods of cultivation, 

 a stock had been gradually matured with an annual habit 

 directly adapted to the climatic conditions of a limited 

 tract of country in the United States, and that this new 

 and very special stock embraces all the finest grades and 

 the most valuable cottons of the world, and is in fact true 

 Sea Island. 



The botanical name by which it is now known is 

 Gossypium barbadense var. maritima, Watt. 



The cultivation of long-stapled cotton in the British 

 West Indies was never completely abandoned; it was 

 revived during the American Civil War of 1861-65, but 

 has been confined since then to a small production in the 

 Grenadines of a coarse perennial type known as " Marie 

 Galante." The best variety of this cotton still has staple 

 of from 30 mm. to 35 mm. in length, although no special 

 selection work has been done with it. 



The revival of fine Sea Island cotton cultivation, how- 

 ever, dates from the year 1901, when small experimental 

 plantings were made in St. Kitts, Antigua, Montserrat, 

 and St. Lucia from seed obtained from the United States. 

 In the two following years interest in this cotton rapidly 

 increased in several of the smaller islands, and as the 

 outlook appeared favourable, Sir Daniel Morris, then 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture for the West 

 Indies, and Mr. J. R. Bovell, Superintendent of Agricul- 

 ture, Barbados, paid a special visit to the Sea Island 

 cotton districts of South Carolina and Georgia in 

 September and October, 1903. The valuable first-hand 

 information which these gentlemen obtained was of the 



