CHAPTER VI 

 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COTTON-GKOWING 



THERE is some peculiar fascination about cotton which 

 defies analysis. Probably the enormous size of the 

 industry, and the unsuspected revelations which it con- 

 tinually makes to the student, have something to do 

 with its charm; the gap between the native cultivator 

 and the mill-hand is so wide that any person dealing with 

 any part of the cotton trade must of necessity take some 

 interest in the other parts which only concern him re- 

 motely. It is a humiliating reflection on the intellectual 

 effect of prosperity that the relations between science 

 and the cotton trade became steadily less intimate during 

 the past century, so that the sentiments expressed by 

 writers on the subject read as if they had been written 

 backwards, the writers of a hundred years ago summon- 

 ing all the scientific knowledge at their disposal, while 

 those of to-day frankly admit that the trade has been 

 working by rule of thumb. 



The obvious retort is that science was found a fallacious 

 guide, and that the only path worth pursuing was the one 

 which led to financial profit quickly. That the latter was 

 the case till the end of last century is undeniable; the 

 world had all the cotton it wanted for the time being, and 



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