THE IMPROVEMENT OP COTTON BY SELECTION. 



By J. STEWART J. McCAix, P.A.S.I., C.D.A.Glas. 



Director of Agriculture, Nyasaland. 



DURING the last few years the habits of the cotton plant 

 have been closely studied in Africa, but much work 

 remains to be done before African cotton fields, like 

 those of America and Egypt, will contribute their normal 

 returns to the commerce of the world. 



At the commencement of the British cotton movement, 

 which is intimately connected with the foundation of the 

 British Cotton Growing Association in 1902, there were 

 no reliable experiments nor knowledge of what types of 

 cotton were likely to succeed in Africa, the dominating 

 factor of the movement being the necessity of broadening 

 the basis of supply and supplementing the American crop, 

 which promised to be unable to cope with the ever- 

 increasing demands of the world. 



From 1904 cotton growing has received a large share 

 of attention from the Government Agricultural Depart- 

 ments, and in not a few instances officers with special 

 knowledge of the crop have been appointed, and, through 

 their co-operation with the British Cotton Growing 

 Association, considerable native and European industries 

 have been established on sound business lines in the 

 Colonies and Protectorates of East and West Africa. 



In the initial stages of an industry, whose rapid develop- 

 ment is of considerable importance, there is little time 

 for the cotton expert to settle down at headquarters and 

 carry out careful scientific selection; his services are 

 always in demand at all points of the compass, instructing 

 planters, distributing seed to natives, and advising re a 

 thousand and one problems connected with cotton, but 

 such travelling and work are necessary before he is 

 competent to settle down and select what is required for* 

 the country of his adoption. 

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