116 BRAZILIAN COTTON 



The Director stated that he had made in former years experiments 

 as to pink boll-worm in three fields : 



No. 1 was not irrigated and had no pink boll -worm. 



No. 2 was irrigated every third month and had pink boll- worm. 



No. 3 was irrigated every month and the crop was all eaten up. 



Calcareous soil, in his opinion, gives a silky fibre. 



An experimental agricultural -station close to a commercial town, 

 whose inhabitants are only interested in buying and selling, seems 

 almost out of place. 



There is a ginning factory at Petrolina (corruption of " Pedra 

 linda " meaning " beautiful stone," there being a huge rock in the 

 market place). 



Petrolina opposite Joazeiro, on the other side of the river, is still 

 a small place, but is growing visibly and likely to become a very 

 important centre as a railway from the Port of Maranhao is being con- 

 structed which will have its terminus at Petrolina and bring the produce 

 from that State and of Piauhy. Petrolina is situated in the State of 

 Pernambuco whilst Joazeiro is in the State of Bahia. 



At Joazeiro navigation for steamers ceases and our journey now 

 took us by rail through the State of Bahia. Arrangements had 

 been made for our special train to stop at the principal cotton centres. 



Our first call was at Bomfim (551 metres above sea-level) which 

 is 444km. from Bahia. We inspected the gin of Messrs. Ramos 

 Queiroz & Co. ; it has 40 saws and it is driven by a kerosene engine. 



All kinds of cotton were mixed, viz. : 

 Inteiro — not much — 5 years in ground, length of fibre, 28mm. 

 Verdao .. ..2 ,, ,, pruned back, .. 32 /34mm. 



American, large black seed . . . . . . planted every year. 



White-haired seed . . . . . . . . . . ,, ,, ., 



Small black seed . . . . . . . . . . ,. ,, ,, 



Six years ago no cotton was grown here ; it was introduced by the 

 above firm and cotton is now liked by the farmers. When cotton is 

 very sandy, they riddle it over a sieve, which is shaken through an 

 eccentric contrivance. There was also a seed disinfecting chamber 

 for the purpose of killing the pink boll- worm. 



The following is a copy of a Sale Note of Mr. Ramos' cotton bought 

 by a large Bahia mill. 



15 kilos at 30 $000 442 $000 



4 per cent, discount for prompt cash .. .. 17 $700 



424 $300 



Expenses : 



Freight per Rail 22 $600 



Classing the Cotton . . . . . . . . 200 



Commission 8 $800 31 $600 



Net Balance in favour of Mr. Ramos . . . . 392 $700 



