Fibres. 



[December, 190S. 



tons, the excellences of which he briefly- 

 summarised as follows :— " The tree 

 cotton will require only one planting, 

 will necessitate but simple and inex- 

 pensive culture, will live probably a 

 man's lifetime, will withstand and defy 

 roaring floods arid resist parching 

 droughts, once in full vigour, size and 

 growth. Its proportion of lint I am 

 raising every year ; it is now already 40 

 to 50 per cent, and will steadily increase 

 every year, probably up to a seedless 

 crop." He also claimed to have 

 improved the percentage of clean cotton 

 in the Kidney seed variety from 26 to 

 40, and stated further that it is a very- 

 hardy tree and a heavy and sure crop- 

 per in all kinds of seasons. This is 

 entirely opposed to our experience of 

 the plant in India, where it is delicate 

 and a notoriously poor yielder. 



In 1905, he wrote to the Ceylon 

 Observer as follows :-" You will notice 

 how well I succeeded in disintegrating 

 or loosening the kidney-shaped group 

 of seeds in the Kidney cotton, thus 

 making ginning more practicable. I 

 also succeeded in enlarging the size of 

 the boll and in improving the staple 

 altogether." 



I have found, from personal observ- 

 ation of the plants in Poona, that the 

 seeds are certainly loosened to some 

 extent in the majority of examples, but, 

 on the other hand, they are disposed to 

 coalesce in smaller groups, and this 

 feature, looking at it from the ginner's 

 point of view, is probably just as objec- 

 tionable. He further states that it took 

 three years to educate the trees, but, 

 unfortunately, he does not divulge his 

 educational method. 



In other communications to the Indian 

 press he reiterates his statements regard- 

 ing the super-excellence of his cottons. 

 He professed to have no doubt Avhatever 

 that the sandy delta of the Gauges and 

 many river flats or beds and the exten- 

 sive sea-shores can be made a prosperous 

 home for his wondrous productions. 



An article by a botanical expert in 

 the Madras Mail, some time in 1905, is 

 particularly valuable, as it gave clearly 

 and sensibly valid reasons why the pre- 

 tensions of Dr. Thomatis should not be 

 supported, and it deserves to be quoted 

 at some length. 



After briefly dwelling on the failures 

 experienced in the attempts to introduce 

 exotic cottons into India, the article 

 winds up with the following pertinent 

 conclusions :— " Dr. Thomatis has said 

 he expects to produce an almost seed- 

 less crop. It would be interesting to 



know how he has been improving his per- 

 centages of lint and, at the same time, 

 been working to obtain a seedless variety. 

 The two results are diametrically 



opposed to nature The cotton 



plant produces its fibre or lint on the 

 seed itself and to produce a seedless 

 cotton plant for the purposes of cotton 

 growing is as easy of accomplishment 

 as to produce or grow feathers without 

 birds." 



Dr. Thomatis, in 1904, said :— "Three 

 years ago I collected scores of varieties 

 of seed from all parts of the world, 

 got samples of bolls and lint thereof, and 

 then chose two, both of the ' Sea Island' 

 variety I crossed them by hybri- 

 disation." 



To have obtained seed from all parts 

 of the world, to have grown them to a 

 flowering stage, to have hybridised and 

 obtained seeds from these, and to have 

 i-aised plants from this seed capable of 

 producing cotton, must have taken some 

 considerable time, and when we remem- 

 ber that it was not until 1901 that Dr. 

 Thomatis sent to different parts of the 

 world to collect his seed, we may judge 

 with how much authority he can speak 

 of its habits and requirements, especially 

 for Indian Cultivation." 



Now that we understand how the 

 evolution of the Oaravonica cotton was 

 effected, we pass on to the relation of 

 some actual experiences in the cultiva- 

 tion of these products in India itself. 

 At Poona, in 1905, seeds of Oaravonica 

 No. 1 were received through the In- 

 spector-General of Agriculture. Twenty- 

 five were sown; of these, twelve only 

 germinated and ten plants were finally 

 put out in good soil in a situation , 

 sheltered but not shaded. After two 

 years, only one plant had survived, and 

 that has yielded nothing. The principal 

 characteristic of this variety was its 

 extremely low vitality. 



Thirty seeds of Caravonica No. 2, 

 receivedatthe same time, produced fifteen 

 plants which were put out in the same 

 area as the above. In two years the 

 individual variations of these were 

 remarkable ; the best was a plant with 

 a height and spread of about 7 feet, 

 three more had attained about half 

 these dimensions, and the remainder, 

 weak and stunted all through, died 

 off one after another. 



Four plants only yielded cotton in 

 the second year. 



Plant No 1, the largest, was so brittle 

 that some of its branches broke down 

 merely with their own weight, and others 

 snapped during the prevalence of winds 



