202 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Srpr., 1902. 
Tropical Industries. 
COTTON CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 
By DANIEL JONES, Department of Agriculture. 
From time to time during the past few years there have appeared in the 
local Press, and more particularly in the pages of this Journal, many articles 
relating to the subject of cotton cultivation. Statistics relating to probable cost 
of growth, preparation, markets, freights, &c., have duly been put before the 
readers of this Journal. Thus it will not be incumbent upon me to recapitulate 
this information, but deal with the subject from the growers’ standpoint. 
The purely mercantile considerations involved in questions such as export or 
manufacture will be dealt with as occasion may arise. The question of the 
moment is that the farmer be apprised of such advantages as lie within his 
grasp in regard to the value of cotton as a field crop for his own personal 
benefit, and that he be furnished with such information as will assist in bringing 
this industry once more into the fayour it so well merited in past years. 
One important factor proved by our local experience and emphasised by 
scientific investigation in other countries where this crop is largely grown is, 
that this crop is about the least exhaustive to the soil of any we are acquainted 
with. Local experience has shown that the richest soils should not be chosen 
for this crop. Many errors were in this way committed in past years. The 
less fertile areas would have been far more suited to the cotton plant. 
Undoubtedly, at times, cotton will need fertilising. This, however, need not 
concern the planter at the outset of his operations, unless he farms very poor 
soil, which in Queensland is not very probable. 
Tt will be well for the planter to keep this fact in mind, and not concern 
himself at first so much about the fertility of the soil as thorough cultivation 
of that which he crops. 
In our past experience we always found that the rich land forced the plant 
so much to wood that not only was the yield meagre, but the quantity of 
resulting foliage and wood much retarded picking. This especially was the 
case in wet seasons, but, on the other hand, in seasons of sparse rainfall, the 
trouble was not-so acute. An illustration of this is seen in this season’s 
experiment at the Acclimatisation Society’s plot at Bowen Park, where the dry 
conditions have so retarded the growth that little difference is noted between 
plants of very robust growth, such as Sea Island and Egyptian, as compared 
with the more modest growth of the Upland variety, which, despite the 
unparalleled dry season, has returned a very fair crop of cotton. 
Cotton has always been regarded in Queensland as a dry-season crop. Its 
vitality under drought conditions is. well recognised. The climatic influence 
most adversely affecting this crop is excessive wet, and to this cause the major 
part of our losses in the sixties and seventies, when cotton was largely grown, is 
to be attributed. The cycle seems to have now alternated to the other extreme 
for some years past ; hence the risk from this cause need not, in the Southern 
part of the colony, be so much feared. 
Tue VARIETIES TO PLANT 
Will much depend on climatic conditions, and as far as many parts of 
the State are concerned must be, for some time, experimental. In the South, 
experience thus far has demonstrated that the Upland variety is the best suited 
to our region. 
In the North, probably the longer-stapled varieties, such as Sea Island and 
Egyptian, will be grown. ‘These three species, differing as they do in texture and 
length of fibre and value, appear to have become so blended and intercrossed 
