COTTOX SHIPPERS 173 



The great interior cotton market in the north is " Campixa 

 Grande " ; some 200,000 bags of 64 kilos pass annually through here, 

 where they are put on rail for Pernambuco or Parahyba. The prin- 

 cipal cotton merchants of this place, who are more doing the work of 

 the American cotton factor, are : 



Demosthenes Barboza & Co. ; 



Jose Ignacio Monteiro & Co. ; 



Virgilio Maracaja ; 



Leitao & Co. ; 



Jose de Britto. 



These firms must often make advances to the small cultivator, 

 buying cotton '" em folha " (in the leaf), as it is called, i.e., before it is 

 harvested. When an exporter gets an order he generally makes his con- 

 tract with one of these factors, they collect the cotton required, but they 

 often have to buy in anticipation. These men do not examine the 

 cotton, they merely buy according to locality and are satisfied if a 

 bale has the traces of having passed through a certain press. Thus 

 in order to hoodwink these factors cotton grown outside the Serido is 

 sent there solely for pressing with the intent of selling it as legitimate 

 Serido, and the fraud is found out only when the bale is opened in the 

 warehouse of the exporter. The cotton factors do not knon the 

 qualities of cotton, but they are clever and keen merchants. 



Undoubtedly the establishment of ginneries and presses by 

 exportors in the interior will do away to some small extent with the 

 cotton factor ; he will be requii-ed merely there where a cultivator is 

 forced to sell in the " leaf " before picking, as I do not think many 

 exporters will be found to undertake this kind of business. It is not 

 so much the elimination of the "factor"' which will be accomplished, 

 but the distribution of pure seed by intelligent firms who recognise 

 that their own welfare, that of the cultivator and of the State depends 

 on the judicious distribution of the seed. The whole of the inhabi- 

 tants of the up-country places coming now through the construction of 

 motor roads into closer contact with more educated people, are bound 

 to profit in civilisation and they will recognise as they are undoubtedly 

 beginning to do, that in these north-eastern States exist great natural 

 possibilities for the extension and improvement of cotton, if they 

 apply themselves to a few elementary reforms. 



Strange to say, none of the modern ginning factories are in the 

 " Serido " ; the place '" par excellence "" for growing real long staple 

 cotton. There is undoubtedly an opportunity of development in this 

 direction in this district. 



Recognising that through the establishment of roller-gins in the 

 very heart of the country the supply of cotton from there would 

 improve not only in quality but also in quantity, I have tried to influence 

 the exporters to undertake the execution of a scheme of erecting a 

 chain of roller-ginneries and the ideal plan A\ould be if this could be 

 •done in co-operation by the exporter, importers and spinners. No 

 party would need to contribute large funds, all would benefit by such 

 an undertaking. The cotton would certainly improve and the 

 ginning factories would be a lucrative investment, as the States of 

 Rio Grande do Norte and Parahyba would make such concessions as 



