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mistake to suppose that this record of 6,000,000 bales is to be 
looked upon as anything like an average, and we must expect 
some time to elapse before the average yield will be anything 
like so great. As regards the encouragement of cotton 
cultivation in India, I know that the Government of India and 
the local governments have paid a great deal of attention to 
this matter, and I quite agree with what Mr. Schmidt has said 
about the native cultivator having improved his methods, his 
baling, etc. But it must be remembered that the Government 
of India has to consider not only the problem of the improve- 
ment of cotton cultivation in India, but a great many other 
problems, too. For instance, the Government is pressed by 
the cotton spinners to improve the cotton of India, it is 
pressed by the millers to improve the wheat of India, and it 
has to consider the improvement of sugar cultivation, silk 
cultivation, and the cultivation of a great many other products, 
so that it cannot be expected to devote more than a proper 
proportion of the available income to cotton. The Govern- 
ment has increased very much within the last few years the 
amount of time and money which it has devoted to cotton, 
and no doubt it will continue to do as much as possible in that 
direction, with due regard to the interest of the other products 
of India, and of the people generally. I quite agree that it 
would be a great advantage to the people generally if the 
Government of India would still further increase its interest 
in regard to the cultivation of cotton, and I hope that it will 
be able to do so. 
There are one or two other points in Mr. Schmidt’s paper 
about which | should like to say a word ortwo. He is anxious 
that the Government should make better arrangements for giving 
a higher price for good quality cotton when it is grown. That 
is one of the difficulties which lie before the Indian cultivator 
who is a small man with a small area—that if he does take the 
trouble to grow cotton of good quality he finds it very difficult 
to get a better price. Arrangements have been made by the 
Government with considerable success in this direction, and 
I am glad the question has been taken up by the Bombay 
spinners. I venture to think that this is a question in which 
the International Federation of Cotton Spinners might fairly 
take a hand, and do more than has yet been done to afford a 
good market to the small man for his good quality cotton. 
Mr. Schmidt has also urged, as is very commonly urged, that 
watering bales of cotton before pressing should be made a 
penal offence. Now in India we are very reluctant to impose 
compulsion upon the people. It is far better to do things 
by way of encouragement than by way of compulsion, and J 
do not see myself why the spinners should not follow the 
