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