Evening star., 1924-11-23

VF cotton is king in America it
surely is emperor in China This
is the land of the blue cotton
gown, and it has at least 400
100000 who wear nothing else
hut cotton all the year around. 1t
is only the few rich and well-to-do
who can afford silk or wool. Every
man, woman and child of the masses
has one or two thin cotton garments
for Summer. and in the Winter as
many suits of well-wadded cotton as
will keep him warm.
In the northern provinces, which
are much like Montana, the people
add suit after suit as the weather
grows colder. They gauge their tenn
Cerature not by the thermometer but
by the number of suits they have to
put on. The two-suit days are mild,
the e-suit days are colder and
FIVE or six suits mean that it is 10
degrees or more below freezing. On
such days the portly Chinese, who is
able to have FIVE wadded suits, has to
squeeze to get through his own door
way.
There is no other country in the
world that consumes as much cotton
as China. Suppose that the Chinese
buy only 20 yards per person a. year.
At that rate, the cotton goods required
for their clothing would annually
equal S,00o,o00,000 yards. The figures
alone are beyond comprehension; but
to make a concrete illustration, the
cloth would be enough to carpet
motor highway wide enough for 80
automobiles running abreast all the
way from here to the moon. 1t would
make strip almost miles in width
as long as from Philadelphia to Los
Angeles.
But even this is only a patch on the
possibilities of the future. Wages
are rising, and the wants of the peo-
pie increasing. The Chinese can use
three times as much cotton as now
and not be overclad. Indeed, it is
probable that they are now wearing
60 yards, instead of 20, per capita
The demand is rapidly growing, as
may be seen in the new movements to
increase the cotton area and in the
modern factories that are being built
throughout the republic.
But first let US look at the cotton
plantations. We are apt to think that
we have the only big cotton area
upon earth. DR.. Swingle, one of our
agricultural explorers, who has travel
ed widely over this country, tells me
that China has as much good cotton
soil as the United States, and he calls
it the cotton belt of the future. The
Chinese had been raising cotton 400
years before there was a single cot
ton plant in our country, and 1t has
been spinning and weaving cotton
from that time to this The plant
will thrive almost everywhere from
Peking to Canton, and from Ningpo
to Chengtu; and there are eight great
states in which it is a principal crop.
Even the present yield makes China
about second or third among the cot
tom growing countries. The United
States ranks first, and it is neck and
neck between India and China as to
which holds second place. The best
cotton fields are in the Yangtze VAL
ley, and the very best in the delta.
X X
THE cotton grown is of a short
l. staple, and the seed used has
been bred so carefully throughout the
ages that the crop per acre is not
large. The average is about 470
pounds of seed cotton and 176 pounds
of clean cotton per acre.
OF late, however, the new agricul-
tural colleges have been turning their
attention to increasing the yield. Seed
is being imported from the United
States, and the Chinese government
has hired an American cotton expert
to assist in the movement. He has a
contract for three years At present
the Trice variety Of American Gotten
is being introduced.