THE WORLD'S COTTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19721, 22 August 1927, Page 8

THE WORLD'S COTTON.

The American cotton market has been startled into feverish buying by reports that the boll weevil has made extensive inroads into this year's crop. Last season the fortunes of the cotton planters were depressed because a hugely-increased crop realised a smaller return than the output of the previous year, much less in bulk though it had been. Thus the old Lancashire saying of a bad year following a good promises to be true as regards quantity of output. The reason usually given is that the heavy crop causes a decreased acreage in the next .planting. The present explanation of a low yield is that the most serious pest which attacks the cotton has made unwonted depredations. The underlying reason may be similar, for despondency over last season's return may have been responsible for a slackening of effort to control the weevil. It can be checked by use of an appropriate insecticide, but the process is laborious and the cost of the arsenic required is a serious financial factor. Whatever the facts beneath the situation, it illustrates again that the United States cotton crop is not now the dependable source it once was for the raw material on which Lancashire relies to keep the mills working and so contribute substantially to Britain's export trade. The boll weevil has done much to bring this about, especially because its ravages have been notably severe in the areas producing the fine cotton Lancashire nfeds. The wisdom of those efforts being made to develop cottongrowing within the Empire is confirmed. Egypt, the Sudan, Kenya, South Africa, India and Queensland have all been taken into account for this purpose. Egypt, though not part of.the Empire, has been included with Dominions and colonies as the scene of the endeavour. British capital and British brains have .been freely given to the enterprise, not because there is any hostility to the American planter, but because, as the cabled reports indicate will be the case this year, his product is not alwavs sufficient to keep the industrv fully at work.