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example of the millers, who have raised the quality and clean- 
ness of Indian wheat very much during the last seven years 
by insisting on only getting clean wheat. If the spinners 
would follow their example by saying that they will only buy 
cotton which has not been in water, the result will very soon 
be that ginners in India will not find it worth while to water 
the cotton, because they will not be able to sell it. It is a 
matter which rests more with the spinners who buy the cotton 
than with the cultivators, or even, in a sense, with the ginners. 
Generally speaking, I agree with Mr. Schmidt’s paper, and 
I am very pleased to find that the arrangements introduced in 
Lord Curzon’s time have turned out very advantageous to the 
cotton of India, and therefore to the cotton spinners and to the 
consumers throughout the world. 
The Presipent: If there are no other remarks on the paper, 
I will ask you to accord a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. 
Schmidt, whose paper is full of interest to those concerned in 
the advancement of cotton cultivation in India. 
Mr. Scumipt: Mr. President—I beg to thank the Congress 
for the kind expression of appreciation. 
I would like to take this opportunity of saying, in reply to 
the remarks of Lord Derby, that the same advantages that I 
advocate as resulting for the Lancashire spinners from an 
extension and improvement of the Indian cotton-growing 
industry were used by his own Association in the circular of 
1904 of which he spoke. 
As regards the remarks of Sir James Wilson, I can con- 
scientiously say that the climate in India during the last season 
has certainly not been specially favourable to the growing of 
cotton, and there is no reason whatsoever why we should not 
be able to count upon India supplying six million bales next 
season, and possibly more. If the sale of cotton seed on the 
credit system, which Lord Kitchener has introduced into 
Egypt, were adopted in India, the yield per acre would 
undoubtedly be increased and the quality improved. 
The remarks made by Sir James upon the question of 
artificial damping are naturally those which theory would 
dictate. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible for the 
spinner to find out who has ginned his cotton. It is bought 
and sold in the open market, and a bale may often change 
hands twenty or thirty times. The spinner cannot detect the 
damp in the cotton until he opens the bale and uses it. Bales 
are sometimes stored three, four, or five months in the mill, 
and it is too late then to endeavour to trace the perpetrator 
of the fraud. The damping of cotton rots the fibres, and 
where not much water has been used it stains the cotton and 
reduces its value. 
