Proceedings of the South & East African combined agricultural, cotton, entomological and mycological conference held at Nairobi, August, 1926

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1738588467

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-115043

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Proceedings of the South & East African combined agricultural, cotton, entomological and mycological conference held at Nairobi, August, 1926

Place of publication:: Nairobi

Publisher:: East African Standard

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: VI, 337 Seiten; Ill.

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part III. Cotton

Collection:: Economics Books

PART 111. 193 droughts to which large areas of the country are subject have further concentrated attention on this plant. Where maize and other crops failed cotton grew, stood up to the trying conditions and yielded a profitable return. Consequently every year sees an ever-increasing acreage under cotton, so that at present many thousands of acres are devoted exclusively to this purpose. In 1909 the Tobacco and Cotton Division of the Department of Agriculture was formed for the purpose of encouraging the development of the industry. Experiments were planned and plots established in a number of likely areas in order to ascertain by actual field trials how the cotton plant would thrive under various local soil and climatic conditions. Seed of a large number of promising varieties was imported and experimented with, with the result that after a thorough trial of years the undesirable ones have been eliminated, and such remaining ones as ‘‘ Improved Bancroft >’ and one or two others have been improved beyond recognition. To-day these compare very favourably with any of the best commercial varieties grown in the United States of America. Innumerable difficulties had, and still have, to be faced and overcome, and as valuable data has accumulated and experience gained the industry has grown.* The production of cotton in the Union is still comparatively small, but the industry was started on a sound basis and can now be considered permanently established. The assistance given by the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation since 1924 has been of material advantage to the further development of the cotton industry in South Africa. The Union Government greatly appreciated the help which has been forthcoming from the Corporation. The close co- operation between the ofiicials of the Cotton Division of the Department of Agriculture and the officials of the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation augurs well for the future of this industry in the Union. The expansion of cotton growing in this country is now claiming wide attention. The available lands for future development, where soil and climate are favourable, comprise, generaily speaking, the whole of the Middle and Low Veldt. These areas include large stretches of country in the Western Transvaal north of the Magaliesberg Mountains, in the northern and eastern Transvaal, Swaziland, Zululand, northern and eastern Natal, and numerous river valleys in Natal and the eastern Cape Province. Cotton is also very successfully grown under irrigation*in Griqualand West and along the Orange River. The approximate acreage planted during the 1925-26 season was 3,700 for the Transvaal, 36,000 for Natal and Zululand, 4,100 for the Cape Province, and 4,000 for Swaziland, making a total of 81,000 acres; whereas the estimated potential acreage is three millions for the Transvaal, half a million for Natal and Zululand, 100,000 for the Cape Province and slightly less than half a million for Swaziland, making a grand total of over four million (4,000,000) acres. Tt is considered that there is more potential wealth in the future cotton fields of South Africa than in the gold mines of the Witwatersrand. In order to cope with this rapidly developing agricultural industry an appreciable number of up-to-date cotton ginneries have * See Table A at end of Statement. Le

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