VALUATION OF COTTONS 



137 



Standard value at 

 time of test. 



M.R.P. 9-ld 



M.A. 6-39d. 



F.G.F.B. 

 M.A. 6-39d. 



M.R.P. 9- Id. 

 M.A. 6-39d. 



(M.A. indicates the price ruling at the time of valuation for standard 

 " Middling American," M.R.P. that for " Moderately Rough Peruvian," 

 and F.G.F.B. that for " Fully Good Fair Brown Egyptian.") 



All the native cottons in the above table are from the 

 Niger and Benue River Provinces, but it is considered 

 probable that large quantities of the product, which are 

 looked for for export, will be obtained from the Kano 

 and Zaria Provinces, and after the opening of the Baro- 

 Kano Railway, the capitals of these may become import- 

 ant cotton-buying and ginning centres. Figs. 32 and 33 

 illustrate views of Kano and Zaria. 



In all the localities referred to, cotton is generally 

 cultivated as a sole crop, in succession to food crops, 

 and is planted upon shallow ridges from July to Sep- 

 tember, when the cotton is ready for picking from Decem- 

 ber to March. Experiments have been made at Baro 

 and Zungeru to raise plants during the dry months by 

 irrigation, but as this causes the fruiting season to occur 

 about the time that the first rain and wind storms com- 

 mence, the success of this is very uncertain. The necessity 

 for the application of irrigation to this crop is not ap- 

 parent except as an assistance in lieu of rain when the 

 season of rainfall is late. There is no extreme drought 

 throughout the year, such as is the case in Egypt, where 

 cotton is entirely an irrigated crop. 



In the Ilorin district, in the vicinity of Shari, a some- 

 what extensive area is seen under cotton, and the mode 

 of planting is similar to that applied on a smaller scale 

 near Rabba, Jebba, Bida, and Egga. A piece of land is 

 usually selected for a cotton field upon which Guinea 

 corn and millet crops have been grown continuously for 

 a long period, and which has consequently become rather 



