( 25 ) 
As the market for the finest Sea Island cotton is 
very limited, types producing moderately fine grades 
of this class of cotton should be grown ; these, 
together with selected Egyptian varieties, are 
required in large quantities in Great Britain. The 
plants can be grown as annuals- — that is, they would 
occupy the land only for about seven or eight months 
of each year; this is a great advantage because 
pests can be better controlled, as will be described 
later. Again, the danger of natural hybridization 
and mixing of seed of long and short staple varieties 
would be avoided. Cotton from mixed, or hybridized, 
seed is hardly saleable. 
It has been shown that long-staple cotton of good 
average quality can be grown in Malaya, provided 
that its cultivation and the time of sowing are 
given adequate attention and that pest control is 
systematised. The best time for sowing the crop 
would vary in different parts of the Peninsula, 
calculations being based on the necessity of rain 
for germinating the seed and the advantages of dry 
weather during the picking period. The incidence 
of pests, more particularly the cotton-stainer, de- 
pends somewhat on the presence of other host 
plants, “ Kapok/’ “ Roselle,” and “ Hibiscus,” which 
would require to be destroyed or the pests found 
on them controlled in localities likely to be devoted 
to cotton. 
The question of rainfall is not serious, since our 
rains in the growing season are of the nature of 
showers, though a certain amount of boll-shedding 
usually results. The extent of this boll-shedding 
wohld differentiate between good, average and bad 
crops in the same way that rainfall affects rice and 
>-W ,oS 
