June 1, 1904.] 
THE TROl'lCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
805 
Islanfls can be grown the very finest kind of cotton 
which is nsed, commonly known bs the Sea Island 
variety. I am {jlad to say the movement for an in- 
creased f!''o\'''t'i of cotton has been taken up with 
great enth'jsiasm, many thouaanrt acres are planted, 
and next year the acreage will be still greater. 
Sir. D. Morris, the Imperial Director of Agriculture, 
is taking the deepest interest in the question, as is 
also Sir Gerald Strickland, the Governor of the 
Leeward Islands. The impoverished condition of 
landowners has made many of them unable to under- 
take the growing of cotton without financial assistance, 
but by the aii of the Golonial Office it has been 
arranged th;it grants shall be made to respectable 
planters, under the joint guarantee of the local 
authorities and the Btitish Cotton-Growing Asso- 
ciation. 
Correspondence is being carried on with Austra- 
lasia, Ceylon, Burma, Borneo, and Fiji, and some 
experiments are being made in Ceylon. In 
reference to Australia, where there are great areas 
of land suitable for growing cotton, the difficulty 
lies in the great cost of the production of cotton by 
means of white labour. 
COTTON IN AFRICA. 
I have alrealy deilt with Egypt, but have not men- 
tioned the Egyptian Soudan, the ownership of which 
we share with Egypt, Dr. ll igberg Wright wrote to 
the Times on January 5th, enclosing a letter fi om a 
friend of his in which this extract occurs : — 
"The inverted alluvial delta of the Egyptian Sou- 
dan, which is situated between the White and the 
Blue Isiles, is even more favourable to the growth of 
cotton than the lower parts of the Nile Valley, and 
affords ten times the area for the plantation of cotton 
of that available in Egypt proper." 
It seems quite certain that when the Suakim- Berber 
Bailway is open, cotton can be grown and sent to 
Europe at very reasonable rates. The Association 
has constantly pressed upon Lord Cromer, through 
the Government, the necessity for building this rail- 
way with as little delay as possible, and he has pro- 
mised that this shall be done. The principal oiffi- 
cnlty one foresees is the question of labour; but in 
theoe days of wholesale immigration from other coun- 
tries, is it too much to hope that it may be possible to 
attract some of our Indian fellow-subjects to settle 
there ? 
A new field of cotton has also been opened in the 
neighbourhood of Tokar, on the Red Sea. From 
20,000 to 30,fi00 acres are already under cultivation, 
and it is said that this area will be greatly increased 
in the future. It is also stated, that if the Khor 
Baraka were dammed, some 2,000,000 acres of land 
would be cultivable between Tokar and Kassala. On 
the whole, the Egyptian Soudan is one of the most 
hopeful fields for the growth of cotton for the United 
Kingdom, because it is capable of producing, appar- 
ently at reasonable price, cotton which- is long in 
staple and tine aud silky in quality. 
(xoing further south in Africa, we come ta Uganda 
and Briti&h East Africa The Foreign Office has sent 
an expert there, and Sir Charles Eliot reports that 
there is plenty of good cotton land, aud a supply of 
cheap labour. It has also been shown that cotton can 
be grow^n there from Egyptian seed quite as good as 
that grown in Egypt proper, but the cost of growing 
on a commercial scale has not yet been proved. 
Again, going south, British Central Africa is the 
next available field. Here there is a wild cotton plant 
(Gossypium aiiomahtiii), and a plant introduced by the 
Arabs ((ros.-.y herhaceum), which has been culti- 
vated iutermittcutly for centuries, but the best cotton 
in this district is grown from recently imported 
Egyptian seed. It is nearly fifty years since Living- 
stone was despatched to the Zambe.-i aud Lake Nyasa, 
to open up the country to cotton growing, for a cotton 
famine was threatened in the fifties, and, as thi^ world 
know.', actually took place in the sixties. The chiet 
obstacles to Livingstone's schemes lay in transport 
difficulties. During only six weeks in the year is the 
Z imbesi-Shire navigable to the verge of the Shite 
Highlands. The railway which is being built from a 
point on the navigable Shire through British Central 
Africa to lake Nyasa is meant to meet the difficulty. 
The present situation is this. Cotton is being 
grown successfully, and can now be put on the Liver, 
pool market at 4id. to 5.'1. a pound. On the table are 
samples of two kinds of cotton grown from Egyptian 
seed, which have been sold recently in Liverpool at 
7|1. and 8.^3. per lb. respectively. These samples 
w^ire sent to the Society of Arts by the African Lakes 
Corporation, Limited, who imported the cotton. 
Labour, however, is not too plentiful, and that 
" Imperial " policy which is depriving this district of 
its labour in order to work a fev,' more stamps in 
South Alricrtii gold mines, is going to make it leas 
plentiful than ever. This policy seems likely to delay 
even the completion of the railway which is a ncoes- 
sity of the first importance. VVheu the railway ia 
built there is an enormous territoiy waiting for deve- 
lopment. Even under present circumstances some 
advances have been made to cultivators, and if suffi- 
cient funds are forthcoming, it is in contemplation 
to advance £ 100,000 or £ 150,000, in order that 100,000 
acres may be put under cultivation. 
It is important to remember thai men like Sir Harry 
Johnston, who knows this district well, and who 
recently sent a letter to the Times from which I have 
largely borrowed, are the most keen and enthusiastic 
about cotton growing in this territory. 
The only other British possession on this aide of 
Africa which I need name is Rhodesia, in which 
experiments are being made by the British South 
Africa Company, with considerable hope of success, 
Turning now from East to West, it is unnecessary 
that I should tell you cotton can be grown in Gambia, 
Sierra Leone, Lagos, Southern and Northern Nigeria, 
as well as in the f'rench and German possesaions in 
that region, in the Oameroons and Congo region. 
The only question is the extent to which it can be 
grown, and the price at which it can be put upon the 
English market. 
In Gambia an experimental farm is being started, 
but it is not an easy matter to induce the natives to 
take up anything new. Some very fair samples of 
cotton have been grown, Gambia possesses an excel- 
lent vvaterway, and it is important for this colony 
to cease to be so dependent as it is on ground nuts. 
Thereis a larger field in Sierra Leoue. Experiments 
have been made with American seed, but the result 
is still doubtful. The best cotton sent home so far 
has been a native variety. The British Cotton-Grow- 
ing Association has been fortunate in securing the 
services of Mr. Shelby Neely, an able young American 
from the Mississippi Valley ; three expert black far- 
mers have also been sent out, and every effort is being 
made to ensure progress. 
We now come to the Gold Coast Colony. In part of 
the colony, labour is so fully employed in gold-mining, 
that the supply is thort and the cost is high. 
Passing by Togoland, where the Germans, with 
their usual soientific thoroughness, are trying to estab- 
lish cotton cuUiva.ion, and the French colony of 
Dahomey," we arrive at Lagos, a most hopeful field. 
Here is a large aud intelligent population, already 
interested in agriculture and acquainted with cotton 
cultivation, it only by primitive methods ; there are 
large tracts of undulating land in the Hinterland ; 
there is a railway slowly, if most expensively, wending 
its way into the interior; there is a Governor (Sir 
William MacGregor) who takes a great intere5t in 
the question, and there are experts who are very san- 
guine about the future. 
Unfortunately, a good deal' of ill-feeling has been 
caused by the revival of the old custom of levying 
octroi dues in Abeokuta and Ibadan. I state this as 
a fact; but express no opinion on the merits of the 
case, ilacb of the seed recently sent oat was not 
