804 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June 1, 1904. 
It is unnecessary to allude at length to the question 
of the yield per acre. There is a general impression 
that the yield in America is decreasing, but having 
looked somewhat closely at the fignres, I cannot, at 
present, find any justification for it. 
Our next chief source of supply is 
EGYPT. 
This cotton is longer, finer, and more silky than 
the American variety ; it ii more suitable for our 
finer manufactures, and lends itself to the newly 
discovered mercerising process which makes it look 
almost like silk. AVe are the largest consumers of 
Egyptian cotton, and obtain one-sixth of our total 
supply from that country. The Aseouan Dam will, 
no doubt, do something to increase the acreage under 
cotton. I understand, however, that Lord Cromer esti- 
mates that it will only increase the total cultivable 
area by 15 per cent., half of which ia suitable for 
growing cotton. It will be seen, therefore, that no 
great addition can be made to the amount of cotton 
grown in Egypt. 
We obtain a certain amount of cotton from Brazil 
and Peru. The quality is sox.iewhat harsh, and 
although for many purposes these varieties can be used 
instead of American, our coni-umption of them has 
very materially decreased since 1870. There has 
also been a great decrease in the amount of East 
Indian cotton we consume. The length of the staple 
is very short, and it is quite unsuitable to the manu- 
facture of any of our finer goods. I shall deal wiih 
the possibility of further supplies from India when 
I reach the question of the work of the British 
Cotton-Growing Association. 
This list exhausts our principal sources of supply, 
but we get small quantities of cotton from Chili, 
Venezuela, Columbia, the British West India Islands 
and British Guiana, European and Asiatic Turkey 
and a ton or two even from Australia and New Zealand. 
From none of these countries, however, has the supply 
af cotton suitable for our purposes been increasing 
of late years. I come now to the efforts that are 
being made to extricate the cotton trade from the 
dilemma in which it finds itself placed. This is not 
a small problem, it is a large one. 
There are, at present, probably 45,000,000 to 
50,000,000 acres growing cotton, or say, 75,000 
squarj miles, or nearly two-thirds of the area 
of the United Kingdom. In ten years' time, we 
want to have a further area, half as large again, 
planted with cotton. Let me put it in another way. 
Take a length of railway, about 30 miles. To keep 
one good modern mill running on ordinary medium 
counts would require a plantation extending for half 
a mile on each side of the line for the whole ot 
that distance. In addition to the present area, fhe 
world will want at least another thousand such plan- 
tations within the next ten years. The value of 
the cotton produced on this extra acreage, at an 
average of 5d. per lb., would be £70,000,000, or, at 
present prices, over £100,000,000. What a stin?ulus 
to the trade of the Empire if we can grow even half 
of it in our own possessions ! 
We have in the British Empire almost endless 
territory suitable for the growth of cotton, It would 
be a clear Imperial gain that we should grow it 
there, for whilst the extra cotton would supply our 
mills and discourage speculators, the people who 
grow it would become excellent customers for our 
manufactures. 
The British Cotton-Growing Association ha<? been 
formed to try to achieve this desirable end. Its 
inception was due to the Oldham Chamber of Com- 
merce and to Sir Alfred Jones. At the annual dinner 
of the Chamber in January, 1901, a discussion took 
place on the important question ot increasing the 
vrorld's supply of cotton. Subsequently a committee 
was appointed to make inquiries, other Lancashire 
Cbambera of Commerce were approached, aud a 
meeting was held on Pebraary dSth, 1902, at the 
Manchester Chamber of Commerce, of those interested 
in the qaestion. Sir Alfred Jones had meanwhile 
been dealing with the question with his usual 
energy. In May, 1901, he sent out ten tons of seed 
to our West African Colonies; he impressed on the 
Governors of those colonies the importance of in- 
creasing the growth of cotton there, and, with a 
generosity no less real because it may eventually 
prove to have been fai'-sighted, he offered special 
facilities for the shipping of the first thousand bales 
o£ cotton that may be sent to this country. 
On June 12th, the Association was publicly inaugu- 
rated, and it was decided to raise a guarantee fund 
of £50 000 for the purpose of making the necessary 
preliminary inquiries and of undertaking experiments 
and providing machinery wherever it seemed ad- 
vii=able. Instead, however, of a guarantee fund of 
£50,COO. it is now intended to raise half-a-million ; 
instead of isolated experiments, expert advice and 
presents of solitary gins, one or two considerable 
plantations and large advance to cultivators are 
under corsiderction. Great encouragement has been 
received from Government officials of all kinds. The 
drawbacks have been, firstly, the lack of response on 
the part of the bulk of the cotton trade, but I hope 
this will now be altered ; and secondly, the fact that 
the Association has been so over-whelmed with corre- 
spondence and appeals from all tropical and sub- 
tropical parts of the Empire, that it has been diflS- 
cult to concentrate its attention, or even decide 
wisely on what seems best worth doing, I will now 
take the different parts of the Empire in which cotton 
can be grown, and state very briefly what has been 
done, and what it is hoped to do, 
COTTON IN INDIA. 
India was the original home of the cotton trade. 
Even the word '' calico " comes from India, and 
the finest muslins have been made there from time 
immemorial. So far, little has been done by the 
British Cotton-Growing Association for India beyond 
holding many interviews with officials and conducting 
a large correspondence. The Indian sub-committee 
of the Association believes that much may be done 
there. On February 27tb, Mr. Brodrick, the Secre- 
tary of State, kinoly granted an interview to a 
deputation. He made the interestiog suggestion that 
the British Oottou Growiug Association should start 
a plantation in Burma and try to produce a better 
quality of cotton there. Several earnest attempts 
have been made in the past in this direction in other 
parts of India. 
All the various kinds of cotton grown in India at 
present are, however, too short for general use 
here. In uhe old days we used them largely for coarse 
counts and coarse cloths, which were sent to the 
East; but India can now make these more cheaply 
for herself. 
Three things stand in the way of any great growth 
of cotton in India suitable for our purposes. The 
first is that exotic seed has never yet been success- 
fully cultivated there for any long period. It aeems 
as if in regard to cotton, the soil forces the product 
of the seed into some primeval type of its own choos- 
ing rather than gives it fair play to reproduce its 
own prototype. The two other difficulties are re- 
movable. One is that sufficient care is not exercised 
in the selection of seed, and this is vital for growing 
good cotton. The other is the primitive methods of 
cultivation used by the Indian ryot. How long it 
will take to remove them, I leave to those who 
know India better than I do to judge. 
THE WEST INDIES. 
In 1786 to 1790 we received from the British Wpst 
Indies, British Guiana and British Honduras, 45,000 
bales a year out of a total consumption of 63,'000 
bales, whereas of late years we have not imported 
more than 1,000 bales of the same size. In these 
