DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 179 



the most inferior in Chiapas. The three cotton sections of this country are the east 

 .and west coasts and in the central plateau, in the latter irrigation being necessary. 

 Mexico is a purchaser of cotton from the United States. 



A little cotton, perhaps 1,000 hales, is grown in the West Indies, whence at the 

 beginning of the present century 25,000 hales were exported, chiefly to this country. 

 The cotton produced was the sea island, known also as Anguilla, claimed to he 

 indigenous in Honduras. In 1874 the island of Puerto Rico produced 254,000 pounds, 

 hut the culture has declined. 



Several of the South American countries cultivate considerable quanties of cotton. 

 In Brazil it grows in nearly every province. R. B. Handy states that while it may 

 be grown in almost unlimited quantities from Sao Paulo all along the coast to the 

 Amazon, and for that matter throughout the whole Empire, in reality, however, its 

 cultivation to a considerable extent is limited to the drier regions of the north, 

 along the valley of the River Sao Francisco and in parts of the province of Minas 

 Geraes. In the more southern provinces the amount of cotton grown for export is 

 at r>resent insignificant. Brazil exports about 60,000,000 pounds, chiefly to England. 

 Ecuador is a small producer of cotton, and Dutch Guiana also produces a little, 

 though early in the p resent century the cotton export in a single year amounted to 

 over 3,000,000 pounds. Peru produces a peculiar native variety of "tree cotton," 

 with a strong, rough, crinkly staple usually If to 1£ inches long, known as " vegeta- 

 ble wool " and used by manufacturers for mixing with wool, and difficult to detect 

 except by chemical tests. For this reason the woolgrowers, in a new wool tariff 

 bill, have asked for a customs duty of 15 cents per pound on it. It is a varying 

 product estimated at a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 50,000 bales of 180 

 pounds. In 1885 our imports were only 14 bales; 9,500 bales in 1890; 12,500 in 1891. 



Europe. — Spon says: Of European countries Italy alone seems to possess the con- 

 ditions requisite for successful cotton culture. The present centers are around Bari 

 and Barletta, on the Adriatic; in the neighborhood of Salerno, Saron, and Castella- 

 mare, south of Naples, and in the provinces of Caltanissetta and Girgenti, on the 

 south shores of Sicily. The products are known respectively as "Pugliar," "Cas- 

 tellarnare," "Biancavilla," and "Terranova." Sardinia also grows a little. 



The cotton of the Levant, Greece and Turkey and their provinces, amounts to not 

 more than 8,000,000 pounds annually, 75 per cent of which is shipped to England and 

 other parts of Europe. Cyprus grows in ordinary years 1,000,000 pounds, a small 

 part of what might be produced, as the island is adapted to the culture. 



Asia. — British India, or Hindostan, the part of India where cotton is raised, em- 

 braces four principal cotton regions : The Valley of the Ganges, the Deccan, western 

 India, and southern India. The Ganges Valley is again divisible into two parts, the 

 lower Bengal district and that of the Northwest Provinces, including Doab and 

 Bundelcund, lying on both sides of the Ganges and Jumna rivers. In lower Bengal 

 the cultivation of cotton is not of very great importance. In the plains of Bengal, 

 which are so fertile in other produce, the production of cotton is very inconsiderable, 

 and none is exported. The cotton raised here in former times, though short in staple, 

 was the finest known in the world and formed the material out of which the very 

 delicate and extremely beautiful Dacca muslin was manufactured. The border lands 

 of the Ganges are too low and marshy and the rainfall too great for the successful 

 cultivation of cotton, but the hills back from the river are suitable for this purpose, 

 as they are better drained. The Doab and Bundelcund districts produce almost the 

 entire crop of the Northwest Provinces, and furnish about 70,000,000 pounds of cotton 

 for exportation, which is a good "India cotton." The climatic character of these 

 districts is "first a flood and then a drought," with an inclination to an insufficiency 

 of rain, in great contrast to that of lower Bengal. (B. B. Handy.) 



The Deccan, or central India, is the great cotton section of India. It occupies the 

 triangular area lying south of the Vindhyan Mountains, in latitude 23° north, and 

 extends to the valley of the Kistna, at 16° north, with the Eastern and Western 

 Ghauts on either side. It is an elevated table-land of undulating surface, having 



