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States, where, it is stated, a stock was gradually matured 
with an annual habit directly adapted to the climatic conditions 
of a limited tract of country. This special stock, according 
to Sir George Watt, embraces all the finest grades and most 
valuable cottons of the world, and is in fact true Sea Island, 
now known botanically as Gossypium barbadense var. mari- 
tima, Watt. 
The cultivation of long-stapled cotton was never completely 
abandoned in the British West Indies, but was confined after 
the American Civil War to a small production in the 
Grenadines. The revival of fine Sea Island cotton growing, 
however, dates from the year 1901, when small experimental 
plantings were made in this and the following year from 
seed obtained from the United States. The results were so 
promising that Sir Daniel Morris, then Imperial Commissioner 
of Agriculture for the West Indies, and Mr. J. R. Bovell, 
Superintendent of Agriculture, Barbados, paid a special visit 
to the Sea Island cotton districts of South Carolina and 
Georgia in 1903. The valuable first-hand information which 
these gentlemen obtained was of much value to West Indian 
planters. Besides, during his visit Sir Daniel Morris obtained 
a large supply of seed of the fine River’s type, produced on the 
seaboard of South Carolina. This variety is still largely 
grown, as are also other fine varieties obtained through the 
British Cotton Growing Association and others. In the year 
1905 the American growers of the finest Sea Island cotton com- 
bined to prohibit the exportation of seed, but this action had 
little or no effect on the West Indian industry, for it was 
proved by this time that with careful local selection and 
cultivation the quality of the cotton could be maintained and in 
many instances improved, with the result that to-day the finest 
cotton in the world is produced in certain of the islands. 
The chief British islands exporting Sea Island cotton are 
St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Barbados, and Montserrat, but the 
industry is successfully carried on in several of the others. 
St. Vincent, besides being the premier cotton-growing island, 
also produces the most valuable cotton. In St. Kitts, how- 
ever, where the soil and climatic conditions are somewhat 
similar to those of St. Vincent, some exceptionally fine cotton 
is grown. In the paper now submitted it is proposed to refer 
more particularly to the St. Vincent industry, because : — 
(a) The British Cotton Growing Association advises West 
Indian planters to cultivate for fineness of lint in view of the 
competition of certain Egyptian and American cottons with 
some of the cotton produced in the West Indies, but not with 
that of St. Vincent; 
(b) The methods adopted in the production of cotton in St. 
