and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society,— Nov., 1910. 



473 



be hoped for unless this work is conducted 

 under expert supervision with a view to tho 

 establishment of an acclimatized type of cotton 

 in the Island. This should be the settled policy 

 of Government work in the subject. 



17. At the same time, as several persons in 

 Ceylon appear to be willing to undertake cotton 

 cultivation at the present time on their own 

 account, the British Cotton Growing Associa- 

 tion should give every encouragement and 

 assistance to these enterprises. 



Wyndham K, Dunstan. 



(8) . (To the Director, Royal Botanic Gardens) 

 from the Colonial Secretary, August '24th, 1910, 

 requesting a report on the proposal made in 

 paragraph 5 of Professor Dunstan's report and 

 asking what action he would recommend to be 

 taken with regard to paragraphs 15 and 16. 



(9) Lord Crewe, to Governor McCallum, Aug 

 19th, 1910, transmitting a 



LETTER FROM THE BRITISH COTTON GROWING 

 ASSOCIATION, 



(To the Under Secretary of State.) 



15, Cross street, Manchester, Aug. 4th, 1910. 



Sir,— I am in receipt of your letter of July 

 29th, enclosing copy of letter from Professor 

 Dunstan, with reference to cotton growing in 

 Ceylon. 



2. Professor Dunstan's report is, I am sorry 

 to say, not very encouraging, but as far as I 

 can judge it seems to me that the conclusions 

 he has arrived at are absolutely sound, and 

 one cannot expect any great results until a 

 considerable amount of experimental work has 

 been carried out by the Government, or through 

 other means. The great difficulty seems to be 

 that it has not yet been established which 

 variety of cotton is most suitable for Ceylon. 



3. As regards the difficulties that arose with 

 reference to the ginnery, I am glad to say that, 

 thanks very largely to the assistance of the Gov- 

 ernor and the Agricultural Society, arrange- 

 ments have been made for Messrs Freudenberg 

 & Co., one of the leading firms in Colombo, to 

 take over the ginnery and to work it on behalf 

 of the Association, and to act generally as our 

 agents. So far as provision for ginning and 

 marketing of the cotton is concerned, no diffi- 

 culty will arise, and we shall be glad to make 

 arrangements either to purchase cotton out- 

 right from the planters on the spot, or to make 

 them advances against shipments,orto help them 

 financially in other directions. 



4. The main difficulty seems to be as regards 

 the variety of cotton which planters should be 

 encouraged to cultivate, and until some syste- 

 matic and properly conducted experiments have 

 been arranged for it seems to us to be almost 

 impossible to decide what types should be given 

 to planters. As pointed out by Processor Dun- 

 stan, such experiments should bo conducted 

 under expert supervision. 



Some excellent shipments have been made 

 of various types of cotton from timo to time 

 from Ceylon, Sea Island, Egyptian, and other 

 varieties, and there seems to be little doubt 



that good qualities of cotton can be grown in 

 Ceylon, but as to whether it can be grown on 

 a commercial scale is another question. 



5. The advice we generally give planters is 

 always to grow the very best quality adapted to 

 the local conditions; if Sea Island cotton can be 

 grown, so much the better, though, as pointed 

 out by Professor Dunstan, Improved Upland 

 varieties are in very large demand in Lanca- 

 shire, and command prices which are slightly 

 inferior to some of the Egyptian varieties. 



6. I would respectfully suggest that a copy 

 of Professor Dunstan's letter, together with a 

 copy of this, be sent to the Governor, with a 

 request for a full report on the subject. — It 

 seems probable that a cotton growing industry 

 might be established, which would be of great 

 advantage to the Island, and also to the interest 

 of the Lancashire Cotton Trade. 



J. Arthur Hutton, 



Chairman. 



(10) Colonial Secretary to Director, Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, September 10th, forwarding 

 the above. 



Dr. Willis's Views. 



(11) (to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary.) 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, September 

 13th, 1910. 



Sir, — With reference to your letters Nos. 142/ 

 S/S 349 and 148, of August 24th and September 

 10th, respectively, I have the honour to report 

 as follows : — 



2. While on leave in 1902-3 I went carefully 

 into this question with the aid of the then 

 newly-formed British Cotton Growing Associa- 

 tion, and visited the cotton districts in the 

 United States, arranged for seed, &c. 



3. On my return I urged upon Government 

 the advisability of opening an Experiment Sta- 

 tion in the irrigable country of the north, with 

 especial reference to the possibilities held out 

 by cotton cultivation, but with a view also] to 

 determining the crops likely to succeed in this 

 rich-soiled district, once the home of a large 

 agricultural industry. 



4. This suggestion being agreed to, I went 

 over the irrigable land of the North-Central 

 Province in company with Mr. Booth, then 

 Government Agent, North-Central Province, land 

 finally selected the land at Maha Uluppalama. 

 This beingcovered with thick forest, asmall piece 

 was also reserved near the crossing of the Kana- 

 dara-oya at Madawachchi for immediate use. 



5. In September, 1903, I went over to South 

 India for a week to study the local cultivation of 

 cotton, and on my return we sowed a small area 

 of the black soil at Madawachchi with Indian 

 seed. From five acres we obtained a yield fairly 

 like that obtained in India, viz., 289 lb. of lint, 

 or about 60 lb. an acre. As this cotton 

 only sells at 3d to 5d a pound, it was obvious 

 that it was utterly impossible to make a profit 

 by cultivating it with hired labour. The natives 

 in the North-Central Province and the Wanni do, 

 as a matter of fact, grow this cotton at times, but 

 of course in small patches, with their own labour. 



6. The land at Maha Uluppalama was cleared 

 ready for the next season, and we abandoned 



60 



