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The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



plauter or well-travelled official who has studied 

 the conditions of growth in other countries and 

 been able to point out which of them obtain here. 

 As for unhealthiness, Mr. McCall thinks that 

 in the N.-C.P., with a neatly built bungalow on 

 carefully drained land and with mosquito-proof 

 rooms — these are an essential, he considers — 

 life would be as healthy as in any stretch of low- 

 country in Ceylon ; more healthy, he believes, 

 than much of the Kelani Valley and Sabara- 

 gamuwa. Incidentally our visitor notices that 

 there aro two other products for which the 

 Province is eminently suited— namely, Coco- 

 nuts and Ceara Rubber. One 16 months old 

 tree of the last-named, at Maha Illupalama, he 

 mentions as showing enormous growth ; and 

 with careful tapping, such as will not kill the 

 tree, there ought to be a future for it, too, 

 in the Province— but pre-eminently it is the 

 Province for cotton. We cordially wish Mr. 

 Stewart McCall a successful career as Director 

 of Agriculture in Nyasaland, and hope he will 

 revisit this Colony in a few years when per- 

 haps he will be able to see for himself some 

 practical fruit of the Report he has just pre- 

 pared ; and possibly — after added experience in 

 Central Africa (which more nearly approaches 

 Ceylon climate, we expect, than Egypt where 

 he has been latterly)— to advise further on the 

 development of the industry. Its initiation, 

 we know, is handicapped by the current suc- 

 cess of Tea, Coconuts and Rubber; but for those 

 who want quicker returns than these provide, we 

 '•an advise few things more satisfactory than 

 Cotton— grown, cultivated and harvested on the 

 lines of the Report. 



@ARA¥ON!GA COTTON AND ITS 

 SPONSORS. 



INTERNATIONAL COTTON COMPANYS OPERATIONS. 



It'is a'curious coincidence that on the heels 

 of Mr. Stewart McCall, who has just reported 

 on the prospects of cotton-growing for Ceylon, 

 should come — from Queensland— the well-known 

 inventor of Caravonica Cotton, Dr. David 

 Thomatis : l>ul it is more curious still that 

 they should be meeting at Aden next week 

 and travelling thence to East Africa, by Ger- 

 man steamer. It remains to be seen whether 

 Mr. McCall will be persuaded as to the merits 

 jf.the bigger-yielding species, and get it taken 

 up in Nyasaland, rather than the Egyptian variety 

 which he at present favours. Dr. Thomatis 

 called on us on Jan. 15th on his passage through 

 by the N. L.;"Roon" and surprised us by 

 what he told us of the way the hybrid cotton 

 he has bred has been taken up on the Conti- 

 nent. Himself coming of Scottish and Italian 

 percentage, he appears to have combined the 

 persistence of the one race with the ingenuity 

 of the other ; and it has only been the work 

 of about five years to bring to perfection the 

 cotton, which— grown at his plantation at 

 Cairns— has already made his name famous. 

 It has been tried in South India ; but— Dr. 

 Thomatis thinks— its failure there must have 

 been due to unseasonable planting or unsuit- 

 able rainfall, lu Queensland, he uays, whore 



they have anything from 138 to :i00 inches a 

 year, the rain falls practically all during the 

 four months January to April, and the crop- 

 ping conditions are excellent. Having made 

 Queensland his home, the land of his adoption, 

 and of his unique work, the producer of Cara- 

 vonica wished to open up land on a large 

 scale there ; he would have been supported to 

 the tune of several millions sterling, had he been 

 allowed by the Australian Government to im- 

 port some thousands of Indian coolies for the 

 purposes of cotton-growing. But Australia — 

 against its own interests, as we hold, but yet in 

 favour of such colonies as Ceylon which feel 

 each strain in labour-recruiting competition ! — 

 refused to allow black labour in for the enrich- 

 ment of even its most tropical colony, Queens- 

 land. The capital has, therefore, been diverted 

 elsewhere. 



Caravonica, as produced by Dr. Thomatis, has 

 fetched the highest prices, Is 2d to Is 3d per lb. 

 and over ; but, being so fine, has not found great 

 favour in Lancashire, vv here it is still considered 

 a fancy class of cotton, and too fine for ordi- 

 nary work. Much machinery in Lancashire has 

 been altered to suit Egyptian cotton, which is 

 finer than American ; we wonder whether the 

 turn of Caravonica will similarly come later on 

 at the hub of the cotton-spinning world? On the 

 Continent, meanwhile, it has been widely taken 

 up ; in France, the silky Caravonica is used for 

 making all the finer classes of cotton goods — 

 while another kind of ' woolly' cotton, which Dr. 

 Thomatis has also bred, is widely used as a substi- 

 tute for wool. But it is in Germany that the 

 inventor has been received with open arms ; 

 and at Berlin, aro to be found the headquarters 

 of the Syndicate, called the International Cotton 

 Company (" Der Baumer Gesellschaft Caravoni- 

 ca ") which has been formed in the past year. 

 The Company, comprising several European 

 banks and leading Cotton men on the continent, 

 is designed to control and direct the produc- 

 tion of Caravonica cotton— through recognised 

 and approved landowners and agriculturists. 

 It has a capital of some £6,000,01)0 to £7,000,000 

 and will lend money at 3 per cent and provide 

 seed. The only restrictions are that no seed 

 must be sold or disposed of to any one out 

 side the Company, though as to the disposal 

 of the cotton itself the Company makes no 

 restriction. It is, however, willing to buy it— or 

 act as selling agents when desired. Asked how 

 the disposal of seed could be so controlled over 

 the wide field of operations proposed, Dr. 

 Thomatis said the Company would be dealing 

 with honest men, to whose interest it would be 

 not to dispose of the seed except as their credi- 

 tors (the Company) required. Dr. Thomatis is 

 Advising Director to the Company and while he 

 has left a Manager in charge of the plantations 

 (ouce his own) in North Queensland, he is now 

 enroute to Dar-es-Salaam, German East Africa, 

 to select land— either already occupied by set- 

 tlers, or to be occupied, to be cultivated with 

 the new product. Already, he says, some 750,000 

 acres are under preparation in the Soudan, to 

 grow it ; while Eastern Cuba is the other (fourth) 

 large centre where its culture will be carried 

 on. The " Frarn." the vessel from Norway of 

 Arctic exploring fame, has recently taken 



