GEXEBAL C OTTOS REMARKS G3 



" We regret that we cannot give you the complete cost of 

 an entire installation to comprise suction piping, fans, condenser, 

 etc., as Ave have not, up to the present, erected any of these plants : 

 the photographs of ginneries which you were shown,* were those of 

 factories in Peru that had been equipped by the Murray Company, 

 U.S.A. ; we mean so far as the distribution and conveying of the 

 material to and from our gins. We have it on the authority of our 

 agents in Peru that the system has realised everything that was 

 expected from it and is working very successfully. They inform 

 us that in a factory containing 24 machines, where formerly the 

 personnel used to be thirty, the total number of people now- 

 employed is only seven, with a corresponding increase in out])ut 

 of 50 per cent." 



Necessity of Recognising Quality and Grade. — The great 

 difficulty which will have to be overcome is the recognition of greater 

 value on the part of the Brazilian buyers of local cotton as regards 

 clean over dirty cotton, long over short fibres, uniform over irregular 

 staple. 



This is especially the case in Sao Paulo and Minas. Unfortunately 

 the Exchange at Sao Paulo does not difPerentiate enough as to these 

 qualities and consequently the small buyers in the interior do not 

 trouble either about these matters, but pay one uniform price for all 

 cotton, no matter in what state it is. When we visited the Sao Paulo 

 Exchange I asked for their standard samples. Instead of bringing these 

 in a well protected case, they put before us three samples, tattered 

 and torn, wrapped up in dirty old brown paper. The knowledge of 

 cotton is not yet sufficiently appreciated ; probabh^ there has been no 

 need to bother about these different points, as the cotton mills have 

 not been sufficiently insistent on getting clean and uniform cotton. 

 There is no firm to my knowledge in Sao Paulo, which thoroughly 

 grades the cotton, as is done in the north-east and this is probably 

 at the root of the evil. It would pay the spinners of the south to 

 announce to the growers of cotton that they will be prepared to pay 

 a certain premium over and above the local market rates for clean 

 and uniform cotton. The spinners would gain by such action as \hey 

 would reduce their waste in the mills. This is a suggestion for the 

 two Millowners' Associations of Rio and Silo Paulo to act upon. Let 

 the Sao Paulo Exchange make up standard samples — in such a manner 

 as they ought to be — and make it generally known that for a certain 

 type they will pay in the coming season 5 or even 10 per cent, 

 premium. In Bahia the millowners are more drastic, they accept 

 first-class at the market rate, but dirty cotton only with a reduction 

 of about 50 per cent. In Parahyba the difference between first and 

 seconds is similar ; real dirty cotton could not be sold at all for 

 spirming purposes and had to be sent to paper mills. 



Insect Pests. — A few remarks remain to be made under the 

 heading of " General Notes on Cotton " as regards the insect pests. 



The problem of defending a country against the introduction of 

 cotton pests shows the necessity for combined action in all the cotton 

 producing countries. For one country to take measures is helpless, as 

 the history of the pink boll-worm clearly shows, and it would appear 



♦Reproduced on pp. 61 and 62. 



