Arizona republican., 1903-12-21
r AIlING CROP
 tICnnrinnnd rrnnn Pare One

.fsh Cotton Growing association IS try ing to grow cotton in west Africa and the West Indies. He says that about 30.0OO acres will shortly be under ct ton cultivation on the Britis'l West African coast, where the movement gives much promise of success. Frea transportation. extensive distribu ion ct seed, and advice of experts are among the means employed to promote the industry. Cotton grows wild in many parts of the colony. and during the American civil war large quan- titles were grown and sold in England.
 Consul Halstead, at Birmingham, al so calls attention to the conditions in the Yaruba country in British West Africa. The soil is said to be rich and fertile and the labor apt and cheap, an unlimited supply being available at about IS cents a day. Consul Boyle does not speak SO favorGbly of the quality of labor obtainable. but says that the association hopes that it will improve with training and experience. He says ttat the cotton received from this region is substantially equal to American, except in color, due to the lack of skill in 1icling and handling. The area suitable for cotton growing | in British West Africa and Nigeria is claimed to be equal to that in our southern states. but Consul Boyle says this claim seems to be extraVagant Ir Sierra Leone and Gambia the product from native seed seems to succeed bet- | ter than from Egyptian or American ] seed.
 The British association is also eX- perimenting in British East Africa, British Central Africa, Rhodesia, and the gold coast, but not SO much pro- gress has been made as in some of the | other regions mentioned. The West ! Indies and the colonies in Central and | South America gre also receiving the r share of attention. Consul Estes at 1 Antigua, reports cotton planting there 1 and Consul Boyle mentions lama ca, ! Trinidad, St. Christopher. St. Lucia, i the Barbadoes. and the Bahamas as l places where cotton will be grown iC l largely increased quantities. h this ! connection he notes that sea-isl3ni ! cotton is a native of Barbadoes. and ' also that at the close of the eighteenth 1 century 70 percena. of England's cotton | supply came from the West Indies
 Consul Boyle also reports favorable [ prospects for cotton growing in Brit | ish Guiana. British Honduras, and | Ceylon. with less probable success in Australia.
 In India a movement is also on foot ] not only to increase the quantity
 (which is said to be capable Of an aug ment Of a million bales). but also tC ! improve the quality. The Ni,e improve ments. # is said, will immediately in crease Egypt's crop about 100, 900 O0( rounds while in the Sudan there ars
 said to be millions of acres of land O.
 pablo Of producing a fiber at least as good as Egyptian.
 The Germans also aIe attempting tc
 secure a cotton supply from their owT
 colonies. Tn 1901 Consul Alb.rt, a' Brunswick. reported that gradua tes O.
 the .Tuskegee institute were engaged ir 1 establishing cotton cultivation in Togo land Consuls Monaghan; at Chemnitz and Hughes. ct Coburg, have mads
 more recent reports on the subject ! Considerab'e quantities have been ship
 ped from Togo, where there Is sad tC
 be as much land suitable for cotton as in Egypt, with a favorable soil and eli
 mate. More recently. Kamerocn i' German Southwest Africa. Ambolade
 and German East Africa have come in
 to the field. From the KiIwa district III teIiflaE East <AIIICsi- e Sillrli '-udll
 tity reached Bremen, and is said 10 h' ! as good as the Egyptian product. The French are investigating thei
 tropical colonies as to the possibilities
 of cotton rrodUction. Tn 1902 Consu l Covert, ct Lyons, wrote that Frenc' statesmen expected that in the futu~
 they would be able to procure thei
 supply of cotton from Tunis, Algeria
 and Madagascar. Consul Harauer m en tions Madagascar, Irdo- China, the Su dan. and the colonies on the west coas
 of Africa as promising sources of sup
 ply for France. EX-minister of pubf
 works, M. Baudin. says that money ha
 been raised to make trials in the Su , dan and the valley Of the Niger.