Fibres, 



298- 



[October, 1910, 



Under date March 8th, Messrs J. H. 

 Rayner & Co., Produce Brokers of 

 Liverpool, in their weekly report, state 

 in reference to this fibre, that recent 

 arrivals per " Fulaui," amounting to 1,500 

 bundles, were offered at public auction 

 on the preceding Friday ; there was very 

 fair competition and the bulk sold at 

 full prices as follows :— 



£ s: d. £ s. d. 

 Grand Bassa ...18 10 to 21 15 per ton 

 River Cess ...21 5 

 Junk River ...20 ,, 21 



Sherbro and Gaboon sorts on private 

 terms since the auction. 



CARAVONICA COTTON. 



By G. A. Gammib, f.l.s. 



(From the Agricultural Journal of 

 India, Vol. V., Pfc. Ill, July, 1910.) 



In the Board of Trade Journal, Vol. 

 66, No. 668 of the 6th September last, 

 there is a short note on the experimental 

 cultivation of Caravonica cotton in the 

 Sudan. From this we learn that the 

 Agent of the Sudan at Cairo reports 

 that it decided to discontinue these ex- 

 periments because the growth of the 

 plants was not satisfactory, and the 

 yield did not compare favourably with 

 that from Egyptian cotton. 



I have already dwelt on some ex- 

 periences with this cotton in India. 

 (Agricultural Journal of India, Vol. III., 

 Pt. 3, p. 271.) 



In order to demonstrate further the 

 slender grounds on which are based the 

 assumptions claimed for Caravonica 

 cotton, 1 shall shortly quote information 

 gleaned from a perusal of articles con- 

 tained in the Indian Trade Journal 

 and Tropical Agriculturist. 



From the former (September 30, 1909) 

 we gather from reliable authority that, 

 at the present time, there are several 

 small growers of this cotton in the 

 immediate vicinity of Cairns, one having 

 some 10 acres planted out. There are 

 three varieties, and the indications show 

 that they are not constant in their 

 characters, and that the young plants 

 are liable to attacks from insects. The 

 article, which should be read in full by 

 those interested in the matter, is indefi- 

 nite on vital points, but the short 

 abstract I have given serves as a useful 

 commentary to what now follows. In 

 the Supplement to the Tropical Agricul- 

 turist, Vol. 32, New series, No. 2, page 

 186, a long note on an interview with 

 Dr. Thomatis can be found. He again 

 avers that he established his hybrid 



cotton in the short space of five years. 

 He • attributed its failure in South Iudia 

 to unseasonable planting or unsuitable 

 rainfall. In Queensland (he weut on to 

 say), where they have anything from 

 138 to 200 inches a year, the rainfall 

 occurs during the four months, January 

 to April, and the cropping conditions 

 are excellent. He was only withheld 

 from opening out land for his cotton on 

 an enormous scale by the refusal of the 

 Australian Government to allow the 

 importation ot some thousands of Indian 

 coolies. In Lancashire his cotton is still 

 considered to belong to a fancy kind 

 and too fine for ordinary work. On the 

 Continent, however, it has been widely 

 taken up, tlie silky kind being used for 

 makiug all the fine classes of cotton and 

 the woolly as a substitute for wool. In 

 Berlin are the headquarters of a Syndi- 

 cate, called the International Cotton 

 Company with a capital of £6 or 

 £7,000,000. This will lend money at 3 

 per cent, and provide seed, and the only 

 restriction is that no seed must be sold 

 or disposed of outside the Company, and 

 he is now selecting land in German East 

 Africa. He says that already some 

 750,000 acres are under preparation to 

 grow it in the Sudan. We know that 

 this statement is not accurate. Sixty or 

 seventy Norwegian families have mi- 

 grated to Eastern Cuba expressly to grow 

 Caravonica cotton, and they sailed in 

 the " Fram," Nansen's ship of Aractic 

 fame I He unfortunately considers that 

 perhaps Ceylon has uot a climate quite 

 suitable for Caravonica cotton. Cara- 

 vonica is said to yield one ton (2,240 lbs.) 

 to the acre, about 90 per cent, pure 

 fibre beiug obtainable from a properly 

 grown crop, against a minimum of 300 

 lbs. per acre with Egyptian. 



In another issue of the Tropical Agri- 

 culturist we learn that a produce 

 broker of Brisbane has evolved a hybrid 

 " Mamara," which promises to be a 

 serious rival to Caravonica. It has 

 yielded at the rate of 300 lbs. of lint per 

 acre, and a small crop is secured in six 

 months after planting. 



He who runs may read and form his 

 own conclusions as to the merits or 

 otherwise of Caravonica and other 

 vaunted tree cottons. It is strange that 

 the marvellous results proclaimed on 

 their behalf have never been attained 

 within our experience in India. Even 

 in Australia, where we have cast our 

 mind's eye over boundless plaius whiten- 

 ed with the overflowing harvest of 

 Caravonica cotton, the bald truth is 

 published that there are several small 

 growers of this cotton in the immediate 

 vicinity of Cairns 1 



