THE COST OF LABOUR AS AFFECTING THE COTTON 

 CROP (ESPECIALLY IN THE UNITED STATES). 



By JOHN A. TODD, B.L. 



Professor of Economics, University College, 

 Nottingham. 



THE problem of the increase of the world's cotton 

 supply has been very much before the trade and the 

 Government for the last fifteen years. A great deal of 

 time and money have been spent in efforts to increase the 

 supply by discovering" and developing new areas suitable 

 for cotton growing, and also by improving the conditions 

 in existing areas. The time seems opportune, therefore, 

 for a survey of the general conditions which have emerged, 

 and the future possibilities which they indicate. The 

 writer's point of view is naturally that of the economist, 

 and the line of inquiry which it is proposed to follow in 

 this paper may be indicated thus : Every country has 

 among its own peculiar conditions at least one limiting 

 factor which is the chief thing to be considered in estimat- 

 ing the possibilities of its future. To pick out and com- 

 pare these limiting factors should be of interest, and may 

 throw some light on the broad tendencies of the future 

 development of the world's cotton supply. 



Thus in Egypt the limiting factor has all along been 

 the water supply available for irrigation. There has 

 always been a neck-and-neck race between the maximum 

 water supply and the area under cultivation. Again and 

 again new irrigation facilities have been provided which 

 seemed capable of meeting maximum requirements for 

 some time ahead, but in an incredibly short time the 

 fellah has again been crying out for more water. In the 

 most recent case, the raising of the Assuan Dam, a 

 single year has been enough, owing to an abnormally low 

 and late Nile flood, to produce renewed water shortage 

 in spite of the increased supply. It seems probable that 

 .this will always be the case. 



