COTTON TEADE 135 



pay for it as such, so that the cultivator gets a lower 

 price than he would otherwise get. Further, he, too, 

 is caught up in the vicious circle ; for knowing that 

 he will get little or no premium for good-stapled, 

 clean cotton, he is quite content to grow anything 

 that will pass as cotton and to market it with a 

 liberal allowance of leaf and dirt. 



The Agricultural Department also is faced with two 

 problems. In the first place how can the cultivator 

 be induced to grow superior cottons when the market 

 is so insensitive to quality that he cannot get a 

 superior price for them ? In the second place what 

 is the use of securing the growth of pure strains of 

 cotton in the field when the cotton will not come on 

 the market pure ? During the last few years the 

 margin in price between long and short-stapled cotton 

 has widened, and this has tended to help matters. It 

 is possible that in time the trade may realise that the 

 present vicious circle must be broken; though the out- 

 cry raised in Bombay during 1920, when the Cotton 

 Contracts Board insisted on a reasonably high stand- 

 ard for Broach cotton, is not encouraging. Much 

 benefit also may be looked for if legislation results 

 from the proposals of the Cotton Committee to regu- 

 late the movements of cotton and to secure that every 

 bale shall be stamped so as to show the ginnery and 

 press of its origin. The safest course, however, is for 

 the cultivator to help himself and to organise the co- 

 operative sale of cotton on a large scale. A beginning 

 has been made in this direction, and in 1920 six 



