314 APPENDIX.
These regulations, of which a summary is given above, refer, it
should be noted, to a crop which has been or is being newly introduced
into countries where there is very little settled agriculture, as it is
known in more civilised parts of the world. In iact, many of the
people who are now being encouraged to grow eotton are not true
agriculturists at all. Many of them are, «however, beginning to
welcome the introduction of a crop which provides for them the
means of earning money to pay their taxes and for such luxuries as
they are beginning to require, but there is a grave danger that the
encouragement of a single money crop, such as cotton, may in time
lead to conditions which are not to the benefit of the ultimate success
of this crop. This danger is all the gréater in such parts where there
1s no real ownership of land and where natives can more or less at
will clear new land to any extent for cultivation. Where the native
poulation is dense this means the rapid denudation of forest growth
for opening up new gardens for cotton-growing gardens, which are
likely to be abandoned after the initial fertility of the land is
exhausted. The native has not yet learned to look upon his cotton
patch as part of his holding, if it can be called such, where he can
grow his food crops in rotation with cotton. One usually sees that
the food crop area is concentrated near the village, while the cotton
lands are further afield. In some parts of the country one already
sees signs of pressure on the land on account of the introduction of
cotton and the promiscuous methods which are permitted the native
in the taking up of land. It seems, therefore, that the time has
come to look to the future and to attempt to settle the native on the
land as a farmer and not merely a squatter, and to develop his
farming in general, rather than to concentrate merely on one crop.
Tanganyika. cotton regulations appear to be the only ones which make
any attempt to control the cultivation of cotton and bring it into line
with the other crops which the native grows, and even here it seems
possible that the means taken may defeat the ends intended. This
refers especially to Rule 11, which, as far as can be seen, will
encourage the native to continue to open up fresh and abandon old
land, if the rule is in any way strictly enforced.
This matter is probably more a question of land policy and
settlement rather than agriculture, but if such danger exists, as has
been pointed out in this note, then it is for the agricultural
authorities to bring this to the notice of their several Governments,
if they have not already done so.
(6) THE CONSIDERATION OF THE QUESTION OF THE
MOVEMENTS OF COTTON, SEED COTTON, AND SEED
FROM ONE TERRITORY TO ANOTHER.
(Note by Mr. H. C. Sampson of the British Empire Cotton Growing
Corporation.—T.C.(C)Cot.2.)
The regulations at present in force controlling the movements of
cotton, whether seed, seed cotton, or lint from one part of East or
South Africa to another are based very largely on the fear of
introducing insect or fungoid pests, which may not at present occur.
In addition to this, there is the necessity especially where cotton
growing is a native industry, of regulating such movements in order
to maintain the purity of the seed supply.