GENERAL COTTON REMARKS 59 



•only for each district, and I have the promise that something will be 

 done, but the vastness of the country, aggravated by the lack of com- 

 munication makes it expedient that all ginners must co-operate in this 

 direction. Much can be achieved b}^ private enterprise. Indeed, in a 

 country like Brazil, it is very questionable whether such work as the 

 distribution of seed could be efficiently undertaken by the Government. 

 Brazil is governed on very democratic lines. With every change of 

 President, which occurs every fourth year, the principal heads of the 

 departments change as well and often the new Minister decides to 

 discontinue certain work which his predecessor had undertaken. It 

 may occur, when the present Government goes out of power, that 

 the Cotton Seed Farms and Experimental Stations planned and 

 already established may be discontinued. Continuity of action is 

 the bed-rock of success in the distribution of pure seed, and it is in 

 this direction that the International Cotton Federation might be of 

 great help, either by establishing jointly with the existing firms in Brazil 

 and with Government concessions their own ginning concerns and 

 seed farms, or by interesting financial and other houses in such a 

 scheme. 



Establishment of Ginning Factories. — I have not in mind that 

 the International Federation should undertake the growing of cotton 

 on a large scale, but I think that by establishing roller gins, first in the 

 long fibre growing districts, and perhaps buying cotton at a fixed 

 premium over local rates for clean picked cotton, raised from the 

 seed that has been distributed, a real benefit would accrue, not only 

 to the spinning industry but also to the growers of cotton. 



I ani adverse to such an undertaking growing cotton on a large 

 scale, because it has been proved in many countries that cotton is 

 best grown by the small cultivator. Further, the purchase of land, 

 on anything like the necessary scale, would be a means of raising 

 the price of land in advance, and I also hold that agricultural work 

 does not fall within the limits of the activities of spinners. It is another 

 thing altogether when we come to the purchase of raw cotton. If, by 

 some unfortunate incident, the crop in a year should be very small 

 the company that undertakes solely the ginning and perhaps the 

 buying does not lose much, whilst in times of heavy harvests 

 the ginning company would benefit accordingly. In any case, by 

 leaving out the actual growing of cotton one eliminates one great 

 risk and at the same time one can achieve through the distribution of 

 pure selected seed and by running a small experimental plot, the same 

 beneficial results for the district as by undertaking the actual planting 

 of cotton. 



On the question of seed farms, the necessity of picking cotton 

 -clean, the establisliraent of markets, ginning by roller-gins and mixture 

 of seeds, I refer the reader to the lecture T gave before the National 

 Agricultural Society of Brazil at Rio de Janeiro, of which a trans- 

 lation will be found in the Appendix. 



The Production of Roller Gins as Compared with Saw Gins. — 



In consequence of an interview with Messrs. Piatt Brothers & Co., Ltd., 

 whose roller gins are extensively used in Egypt and India, they have 



