120 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juny, 1901. 
serious grievance against the action of the cotton company in not being able 
to receive their money promptly. Being a director of the company, and 
possibly an earnest advocate of its creation, J must admit there were some 
mistakes made, but these mistakes have been made all over the world. I may 
tell you that such men as the Hon. T. B. Cribb and the Hon. A. H. Barlow 
were with us in the organisation, and if we did make mistakes we made them in 
good company. I shall give a few reasons why cotton should be established. 
In the first place, it is a very cheap crop to grow. It is not costly to 
plant, and it does not require many implements to do the work connected 
withit. You can plant it as easily as maize, and you will obtain a better profit 
from cotton than you will from maize. It comes in very useful as a rotation 
of crops. I have known men who failed to grow anything profitably on a piece 
of land until they grew cotton on it. Then they realised a handsome profit. 
The establishment of the cotton industry may give rise to secondary industries 
connected with the manufacture of cotton goods. The money spent by the 
Government on the cotton company at Ipswich I maintain was well spent. It 
is a matter of misfortune that we did not succeed in pushing the industry as 
far as it deserved, and that is as far as it would supply the capacity of the 
Commonwealth of Australia. I have brought samples of cotton with me, and 
can give ocular demonstration as to the quality of the goods we did manufac- 
ture. These will prove for themselves that we made an honest article and sold 
it at a moderate price. I have here evidence of the quality of the cotton which 
we grew and the names of the varieties, and, if you wish to examine the cotton 
after the meeting, you can compare the quality of the cotton which we grow 
now with the quality of the cotton you remember thirty-five years ago. From 
what I remember myself, and from what others have admitted to me, I think I 
can safely say that the quality of our cotton now shows a very marked improve- 
ment on that produced in the very early days. There is a good market for 
cotton in Japan. The freights to that country are cheap, and there is a vast 
demand there for the staple. Japan imports an enormous quantity of cotton 
from the United States. I shall be glad to give any further information about 
cotton. I have had experience of it for over thirty years, and I think I know 
something about it. One gentleman asked the best kind of soil for cotton. 
Well, you do not want the best of land, and you can use ground which might 
not be profitable for other crops. Our best successes were upon black sandy 
loams. Rich scrub land is not so good, because it runs the cotton into bush at 
the expense of the fibre. 
Mr. R. C. Leruprrper (Mitchell): I would like to know whether cotton 
would grow in the interior. I have grown it in the Maranoa on a small scale, 
and from what I saw of it I think it would be a valuable adjunct to any farmer 
growing wheat or other cereals, especially if he had a big family. Of course 
cotton must be picked when it is ready, for if the rain comes on when it is in 
bloom the colour is spoiled. 
Major A. J. Boyp (Agricultural Department): I do not claim to be 
infallible on the subject under discussion, but I have grown cotton, bought 
cotton, ginned cotton, sold cotton, exported cotton, and in fact revelled. 
in cotton for years. I may therefore be pardoned for claiming to know 
something about it. Of course the main points-at issue are—what will 
it cost to grow cotton, where are the markets, and what profits are you 
going to get. First of all, Mr. Jones has told you our best market is Japan, 
and he is quite right. At present ginned cotton is worth 54d. per lb. If 
53d. is the price for ginned cotton, the question arises what price can the 
buyer afford to pay the grower. A. good crop grown on not too good a soil— 
a sandy loam is one of the best, while heavy clays and rich downs country are 
hardly suitable—will produce at the rate of 1,000 Ib. of seed cotton to the acre. 
That 1,000 Ib. will give you 400 Ib. of lint. That at 53d. per 1b. is worth over 
£9. The cost of putting in an acre of cotton would be about £8 2s., and the 
cotton which is produced will sell at about 13d. per lb. We used to pay 3d. 
and 2d. in the good old boom days. Supposing 14d. per Ib. is paid, you have a 
