Fibres. 



308 



t APRIL, 1912, 



The jari types in most cases form at 

 least 90 per cent, of the mixture, the 

 remaining 10 per cent, being made up 

 of American Upland varieties, locally 

 known as gogli kapas and bani. These 

 cottons vary greatly in the quality of 

 their staple and in their percentage of 

 lint to seed. The lint of buri and bani is 

 nearly 1" in length, while that of the 

 roseas is but little more than Rosea 

 gives 39 per cent, of lint to seed, while 

 bani gives 26 per cent. only. As it was 

 found difficult to discriminate between 

 bani and malvensis, when there was no 

 lint available, they have been [classed 

 together. The former, however, forms 

 only a negligible part of the mixture 

 except in a narrow strip of country 

 bordering on the Nizam's Dominions and 

 far from the railway. The repeated 

 attempts made to restore its pristine 

 glory have failed, because the ryot knows 

 that it is a poor yielder, that it is diffi- 

 cult to pick, as the bolls are so small, 

 and the plant so tall and straggly, and 

 that it is less hardy than katevilayti. 

 The" percentage of exotic cotton of the 

 Upland type in the mixture varies from 

 1 to as high as 15 per cent. ; but it gener- 

 ally falls below 2 per cent. A trial of 

 numerous exotic varieties resulted in 

 buri being selected as the most promis- 

 ing. It has since been proved to be 

 immune to wilt disease, and to be more 

 suitable than jari for districts where the 

 rainfall is high. 



In the past far too much stress has 

 been laid on the importance of quality 

 of staple as opposed to quantity. In the 

 absence of accurate knowledge as to the 

 outturn per acre, ginning percentages 

 and relative values of the lint of the 

 different races grown, the methods of 

 improvement adopted were largely based 

 on the requirements of Lancashire Mills, 

 What was good for the ryot was lost 

 sight of. After having gained a fuller 

 experience we are compelled to admit 

 that, under present conditions, quantity 

 is a more important consideration than 

 quality, and that over 9/10 of the cotton 

 area rosea is the variety which will pay 

 best. Many buyers never look at the 

 length of the staple at all; those do 



pay more attention to such good quali- 

 ties in the lint, as " freedom from dirt," 

 "bulk," "colour" and a high ginning 

 percentage than to length of staple. 

 This is easily understood when one takes 

 into account the great demand there is 

 for short-stapled Indian cotton in Europe 

 and Japan. To get the full market value 

 f oi a long-stapled cotton in India it must 

 be sent to an agent who has a special 

 purpose for lint of that class. The grow- 

 er seldom has the business acumen to do 

 this, and therefore loses heavily when 

 he grows a cotton of superior staple ; but, 

 even if the full market value were paid, 

 it would be exceedingly hard to find any 

 long-stapled cotton that would compete 

 with rosea, which gives a heavy yield of 

 cotton of a kind which is much in de- 

 mand. In these Provinces arrangements 

 have been made by the Department of " 

 Agriculture to collect and sell the long- 

 stapled cotton grown to the Empress 

 Mills, Nagpur. Though the prices paid 

 by the Manager, Khan Bahadur Benzonji, 

 compare very favourably with the 

 valuations of the same cottons in Man- 

 chester, it is evident from the state- 

 ment below that, even after making 

 these rather troublesome commercial 

 arrangements in the interests of the 

 grower, rosea, on account of its yield and 

 very high ginning percentage, is easily 

 the most profitable variety for the culti- 

 vator to grow :— 



Average Yield for 

 4 years in lbs. 

 per acre. 



co Value at 



g. . r£ this year 

 Variety. * a g prices in 



G. Neglestum malven- 

 sis. 373 112 261 57 5 

 vera 343 115 228 51 11 

 „ „ rosea 402 161 241 69 14 

 , „ rosea 



cutchica 412 150 262 66 



Berar (Jari) 371 132 239 58 5 



G. Hirsutum (buri ) 303 100 203 57 15 



G. Indicum (bani) 255 74 181 14 3 



It is certain that large quantities of 

 such long-stapled cottons as bani and 

 buri, which Lancashire requires, could 

 be grown in the Central Provinces and 

 Berar should the prices paid for the 



