474 



The Supplement to the Iropical Agriculturist 



Indian cotton, keeping to the three better kinds 

 — Sea Island, Egyptian, and American Upland. 



7. It would make this report too long to 

 follow the history of these crops through every 

 year, but the general result has been this : in 

 a good year as regards climate, a yield of at 

 least 100 lb, of lint per acre can be expected 

 from Sea Island or Egyptian, and more from 

 Upland. In 1904-5 we obtained 116 lb. Sea 

 Island and 120 lb. Egyptian per acre. 



8. The quality of the Egyptian cotton grown 

 is about the same as that grown in Egypt, so 

 that a price of lOd a pound may (in an average 

 year) be obtained. The Sea Island becomes 

 shorter in staple than in the West Indies, 

 but makes a very good cotton of character some- 

 what better than Egyptian, worth Is to Is 2d 

 a pound. It is thus somewhat more profitable 

 than the Egyptian, but not much, and if any 

 large quantity were to be grown the price 

 would soon fall, the market for this special 

 kind of cotton being limited. 



9. Now, if the seasons at Maha Uluppalama 

 were always to be like those of 1904-5 and thefol- 

 lowingyear, cotton would be an assured success. 

 Unfortunately they are not, and we have to a large 

 extent failed with cotton in most years on ac- 

 count of what I may term unseasonable rains, 

 i.e., heavy rains coming at other times than 

 from mid-September to mid-January, or in 

 April. For instance, in one year the blossom 

 was destroyed by heavy rain in the early part 

 of the year ; this year a fine crop of fruit, al- 

 ready set, was completely destroyed by the 

 heavy rains of August. 



10. In general, then, one may say that in the 

 Yodi ela country cotton of the better kinds — 

 Sea Island, Egyptian, or Upland - grows and 

 bears well, but that there is too great a liability 

 to unseasonable rain, which occurs in more than 

 half the total number of years, and renders the 

 crop more or less of a failure. 



11. The same, or practically the same, soil 

 exists in districts further north, which have not, 

 to nearly so great an extent, this liability. For 

 example, at Madawachchi and Vavuniya the 

 rainfalls between January and August for the 

 last five years have been : — 



Station. Year. Jan. Feb. March. April. 



in. in. in. in. 



Madawachchi 1909 1 60 (1 45 6 05a 15 45 



Vavuniya 1909 2 14 46 4 68 3 04 



Madawachchi 1908 3 96 3 27 1 13 2 03 



Vavuniya 1908 4 45 3 60 — 6 23 



Madawachchi 1907 6 80 1 21 



Vavuniya 1907 3 97 1 '20 



Madawachchi 1306 2 30 09 



Vavuniya 1906 3 08 40 



Madawachchi 19 5 3 02 63 



Vavuniya 1905 2 34 95 



9 Ha 7 42 



3 70 4 82 



05 9 00 



25 6 78 

 3 SO 14 88 



1 88 8 28 



Station. 



Madawachchi 

 Vavuniya 

 Madawachchi 

 Vavuniya 

 Madawachchi 

 Vavuniya 

 Madawachchi 

 Vavuniya 

 Madawachchi 

 Vavuniya 



Year. 



1909 

 1909 

 1908 

 1908 

 1«07 

 1907 

 1906 

 1906 

 19H5 

 1905 



May. 

 in. 



4 30 

 3 24 



1 46 



2 91 



3 43 



3 67 



4 15 

 3 98 

 3 79 

 2 43 



June 

 in. 



July. Aug. 

 in. in. 



— — 14 0«a 



— — 10 10a 



— — 3 10 



— 2 09 2 43 

 1 42 5 78a 12 



1 40 7 Wet 65 



2 45 1 61 6 30a 



— 89 2 70 

 17 — 30 



1 57 



a' Unseasonable' amounts of rain. 

 12. Our work has thus shown that if one can 

 find a suitable locality, and is willing to spend 



ime, money, and labour on the cultivation and 

 on the selection of the seed, there is a profit to 

 be made on the growths of the better cottons. 

 But this 



PROFIT IS NOT LIKELY EVER TO EXCEED £4 

 AN ACRK, 



and may not be more than £ 1 in an unfavour- 

 able year. 



13. Such figures of profit are regarded as good 

 in most parts of the world, 



BUT CEYLON IS A SPOILED CHILD 01' FORTUNE, 



and with tea paying well, rubber very well, and 

 a boom springing up in coconuts, which are now 

 yielding about R150 an acre profit, the smaller 

 figures in cotton will not tempt the capitalist, 

 unless Lancashire people should consider it 

 worth while to invest money here for the deli- 

 berate purpose of growing cotton. 



14. 1 do not therefore think that at the pre- 

 sent time it is worth going on with experiments 

 at Maha Uluppalama in cotton growing as a 

 commercial test. But it is very important to 

 keep up the now more or less acclimatized breeds 

 of cotton we have got, and select seed from 

 these, so as gradually to produce a good race 

 that will stand our climate and yield good re- 

 sults. Several acres should be devoted to such 

 work, which should never be allowed to lapse. 



15. There remains then the question of cotton 

 growing among the peasantry. At present, so 

 far, as they grow any cotton at all, they grow 

 South Indian ; and as they do not in any way 

 select their seed, it is necessarily as poor as can 

 be, with the shortest possible staple, and lowest 

 possible price. 



16. In past years innumerable attempts have 

 been made, here and in India, to improve native 

 cotton growing by the distribution of " good 

 seed," i e., seed of better kinds. Now it is 

 utterly hopeless, and must always remain hope- 

 less, to do this, because the new seed owes its 

 good quality to selection, and if the recipient 

 will not select, the quality rapidly deteriorates. 

 Further, deterioration is greatly assisted in 

 many cases by the fact that the new cotton 

 crosses with the old. 



17. If Egyptian seed, for instance, is given 

 to the peasantry, they may get as much as lOd 

 a pound in the first year. In the second they 

 will not get more than 8d, in the third perhaps 

 7d, and so on. Further, for want of selection 

 the yield also goes down, so that the actual 

 figures may be, say, 1st year, 120 lb at lOd 

 =r£5 ; 2nd year, 100 lb at 8d = £3 6s 8d ; 3rd 

 year, 80 lb "at 7d = £2 6s 8d— a result which 

 will rapidly discourage them. 



18. The only chance to get good cotton, suit- 

 able for export, from the peasantry, is to appoint 

 a cotton expert who shall not only show the 

 people how to grow it, but shall select seed plants 

 and himself superintend the collection of the 

 seed from them. The only satisfactory way to 

 do this' would be to establish at Maha Uluppa- 

 lama or elsewhere a large seed-selection farm 

 (which, if the industry spread, might soon reach 

 200 acres), on which the expert could attend to 

 selection of good seed. It would be quite useless 

 ever to expect the villagers to select. 



