ing the institution through a correspondence prized by
every graduate of the school. The summary I include here, as it may be
of interest to the reader:

At the outset it was very difficult to excite any interest at all
in our work on the part of the natives. For some reason they
mistrust every proposition made them by a foreigner, and in the
beginning they would not even accept the gift of cotton-seeds from
us. They claimed that if they should accept our seeds we would come
again and claim our own with usury. Many of the Europeans here said
that the natives would never become interested in the movement. But
we worked on, and now already in the farming districts are hundreds
of native cotton farms. Now they no longer mistrust us, but they
come and ask for cotton-seeds, and a conservative estimate places
the incoming native harvest near the thousand-bale mark. Of course
the native methods are very irrational. They cultivate their cotton
altogether as a secondary crop. But we are content, at the
beginning, to let them cultivate in their own way.

We find distributed through the colony not less than three distinct
species of cotton, with some hybrids and varieties; but none of
these are indigenous, and, having been left in a neglected state
for centuries, are consequently not far removed from nature and are
not so remunerative when put under even the best culture. The seeds
imported from America are not able to survive the greatly changed
conditions of climate. Here is our greatest obstacle. Our course
was plain. If we did not have a plant that exactly suited us, we
had to make it.

The production of a commercial plant is very important. Our present
domestic seeds will yield about four hundred pounds of seed-cotton
per acre, and the character of the fruit and the arrangement upon
the stalk make it very expensive to harvest. Besides, the stalk
grows too much to a tree and is not prolific proportionately, and
the quality of the lint is equal to American "middling." We are
trying to develop a plant that will yield 1,000 pounds of
seed-cotton to the acre, with a lint equal in quality to fully good
"middling" or to Allen's 1-7/8-inch staple.

Now suppose we succeed in making this plant as I have above
outlined; the 4,000 acres under cultivation would then at least
produce 2,000 bales