PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
יון דד
Reference :-
PELLI C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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of cotton seed of the estimated value in good years of £250,000. The chief value of cotton growing in the West Indies is its adaptability as a rotation crop with sugar
cane.
Government activity has been chiefly manifested in the work of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. This Department works in close co-operation with the planters and the British Cotton Growing Asso- ciation. It is the task of the Department to give the planter information as to the sorts of Sea Island cotton he should grow, the kind of market he is likely to get, and the demand which exists for the product. It supplies the planter with seed where necessary, directs his selection of seed, and helps him to meet his difficulties, eg, by suggesting means of avoiding or overcoming pests. Planters are encouraged to work on new lines, and to improve the quality of the staple. The work of seed selection is carried on at the Experimental Stations in every island where cotton is produced, in order to ascertain the most suitable varieties both as to yield and quality, and in order to secure new and improved varieties. The Department utilises the best knowledge obtainable relating to plant life in order to raise such new varieties. These varieties afterwards are planted in the fields, where the work is taken up by the plauters in co-operation with the Experimental Station workers. While much is done at the Experimental Stations the more extensive experiments are thus carried out in the fields in co-operation with the planters. On more than one Experimental Station vigorous and heavy yielding strains of seed have been obtained by selection. Some of these strains have passed into commercial use.
Manurial experiments with Sea Island cotton have been carried out since 1904-5. Where cotton is planted alternately with sugar cane or other crops, it is found that, with soil in moderately good condition, the application of manures is not absolutely necessary. Where, however, cotton is planted continuously in the same land, it is advis able that provision be made for returning to the soil the residual meal from the cotton seed or manure from the farmyard, otherwise the quantity and quality of the cotton lint will suffer, and the industry may prove unremunera- tive.
assists
The British Cotton Growing Association generally, but more particularly in the commercial side of the work, by supplying information and giving advice, by studying markets and establishing sound relations between producer and buyer, and by securing the sale of the cotton under the most favourable conditions.
In addition to work on these lines the Governments in the Leeward Islands in the early stages of the enterprise, in conjunction with the Association, made small advances to planters to enable them to undertake active cultivation. In St. Vincent and the Virgin Islands Government ginneries have been established, in the absence of private enterprise, with a view to building up the industry. Ginneries of a co-operative character exist at Barbados and Antigua. Elsewhere there are numerous ginneries worked by private companies. There are also several factories for extracting the oil from the seed and returning the residual cotton-seed meal to the cultivators for feeding cattle and maintaining the fertility of the soil in the cotton fields. In certain Colonies, e.g., Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana, and Jamaica, experiments in
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cotton cultivation have been carried on at the Government
Botanical Stations separately from the work of the Imperial Department of Agriculture. Owing to climatic and other circumstances the results have not been of an encouraging character, except at Tobago, where experi- ments are being continued under the direction of an officer formerly in the employ of the Imperial Department of Agriculture.
Articles appear in the Agricultural News, the fortnightly publication of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, containing notes of current interest relating to Sea Island Cotton, and a pamphlet (in the series of more than sixty already issued by the Department) entitled "A.B.C. of Cotton Planting" gives directions for planting and dealing with the crop,
In the Annual Reports of the Botanic
and Experiment Stations the position and progress of the cotton industry are regularly summarised.
WEST AFRICA.
West Africa has been the scene of strenuous endeavours to develope the cotton-growing industry. Here the Colonial Governments and the British Cotton Growing Association have worked in close co-operation throughout, and Government expenditure on experimental work has hitherto been largely undertaken through the medium of the Association.
In 1902 it was arranged that the Governments of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Lagos, and Southern Nigeria should provide the remuneration of cotton experts selected and sent out by the Association, and that the Association should defray all other expenses in connection with the attempt to encourage the cultivation of cotton, including the cost of seed, mechanics, agricultural imple- ments, ginning and pressing machines, labour, etc., and should also undertake to buy any cotton grown by the
natives.
In January, 1904, this arrangement was revised. Hence- forth the Association were to undertake all control and expense in connection with the buying, ginning, packing, and shipping of cotton, (in other words, every expense after the cotton was grown), while the Colonial Govern- ments were to superintend the experts and pay all their salaries and expenses and all other expenses in connection with cultivation, such as the cost of experimental farms, seed, implements, and labour. The Association in returni were to refund one-fourth of the total expenditure incurred by the Governfients up to a maximum refund of £500 per annum in any one Colony or Protectorate.
This arrangement did not survive very long. A few months later different proposals were made by the Associa- tion, and it was agreed that the Governments of Sierra Leone, Lagos,* and Southern Nigeria,* should contribute £1,500, £2,000, and £3,000 per annum respectively for three years towards the cost of the Association's work, on condition that—
(1.) the Association should provide experts to carry out all the experimental work required to the satisfaction of the Governments concerned ; (2.) they should spend £30,000 gross in the three years on each of the three plantations which they were to establish, viz., one in each of the three Colonies; and
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These were then two separate Governments.
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