52 BRAZILIAN COTTON 



are in such inaccessible parts. This '' ganga " cotton is of a creamy 

 colour, has fine glossy fibre, is jH'etty strong, but only |in. to |in. in 

 length. The seed is almost naked, in its original state it has probably 

 been entirely free from hairs ; its weight is only half that of an Egyptian 

 cotton seed. The opinion is generally held in the Serido district that 

 this cotton was the forerunner of the splendid " Moco " cotton, of which 

 I shall speak at length ^^•hen dealing with the Serido district. 



Cotton was cultivated in the early colonial times in Bahia, Per- 

 nambuco and Maranhao, first to supply the needs of the districts and 

 gradually to supply the outer world. Indeed, during the War of 

 Secession the exports of Brazilian cotton reached the important 

 quantity of 80,000,000 kilos (355,000 bales of 500 lbs.). These ship- 

 ments of cotton brought great wealth to the Brazilian planters who 

 at those times had no one but slaves as their workpeople, but instead 

 of stimulating them to further efforts with a view to establishing 

 permanently the cotton growing industry, the planters squandered 

 their easily gotten riches and allowed the North Americans to regain 

 their old preponderance. The North of Brazil reverted to sugar and 

 the South to coffee. When in 1888 slavery was abolished all the 

 large planters gave up cotton in the North and from that time onwards 

 cotton was only cultivated in small plots, often to supply the domestic 

 needs of the village only. 



Cotton is to-day again of importance for Brazil : its own cotton 

 mill industry with Ih million spindles, spinning mainly coarse counts, 

 requires ever increasing quantities. Brazilian economists realise 

 that the exports of their country must increase if a sound financial 

 position is to be achieved. In the last decades Brazil has committed 

 the grave error of relying on one or two crops for the adjustment 

 of her balance of trade. It was practically a question of " mono- 

 cultivation," rubber and coffee being the only staple crops for e.rjwrt 

 purposes. Rubber in the Amazonas district is almost " played out." 

 The plantation rubber of Asia has been found to be so cheap, that 

 it does not pay any more to gather the milky juice from the wilds 

 of the Amazonas. Coffee, of which three-quarters of the world's 

 requirements are grown in Brazil, and in Sao Paulo in particular, 

 is not finding its pre-war consumption, because the Central 

 European markets, which were formerly Brazil's second best coffee 

 customer, are not in a position to })uy much : they have learnt to 

 substitute various products for coffee, and the U.S.A., the best coffee 

 customer, has been holding aloof for some considerable time, due, 

 no doubt, to the aftermath of war ; in addition, Africa is increasing 

 her output and likely to do so on a greater scale. Agriculturists and 

 statesmen are, therefore, clamouring to substitute " poly-cultivation " 

 for their former " mono-cultivation." Brazil has always been a 

 sugar-growing country, but the average yields are not as favourable 

 as those of other countries, such as Java ; indeed, it was only during 

 the war that sugar became again an export commodity of im- 

 portance. There is no other crop which would seem to me more 

 suited for Brazil to take up than cotton, the principal reason being 

 that the j'ields per acre of lint in Brazil, especially in the State of 

 Sao Paulo, are almost phenomenal. But not only Sao Paulo can boast 

 of a greater average yield than any country, but also the North-Eastern 



