motely
resembling the present modern factory system developed during all the
thousands of years that the Indians had the field practically to
themselves. The plant grown in India for a long time produced a short,
uncertain staple, difficult to gin and still more difficult to spin. The
greater part of the cotton growing districts are still given over to the
short staple varieties (about 3/4 inch) but in recent years certain
varieties of Egyptian and American cotton have been produced with some
success. About 20,000,000 acres are given over to the culture of the
plant, but the methods used are to a great extent primitive in the
extreme. Most of the crop, being unsuited to the needs of the British
spinners, is either manufactured in Indian mills, of which the number is
constantly growing, or exported to Japan. Before the war, Germany was a
large consumer of Indian cotton.

The figures given as representing the Chinese crop probably are not any
more accurate than the usual statistical figures concerning China. The
Chinese are still largely in the domestic system of manufacture, and much
of their crop--probably a larger proportion than in India--is spun and
woven in the neighborhood where it is grown, without ever appearing in
statistical tables. The methods of growing are equally primitive. The
fiber is short, and the mills of the country import more raw cotton,
yarn, and textiles than they export.

The Growing Importance
Of Egyptian Staples

The Egyptian crop is one of the most interesting, both in the methods
of culture, and in the product. From the point of view of
statistics--remembering the uncertainty of the size of the Chinese
crop--Egypt is the third cotton growing country of the world. This is
the more interesting because it was not until about 1820 that Egypt was
considered as a source of supply. The present area, under extremely
intensive cultivation, is about 1,800,000 acres, and nine-tenths of this
is in the Nile delta.

Climatic conditions are radically different from those of the United
States. Little rain falls during the growing season, but an elaborate
system of irrigation provides a sufficient and probably more satisfactory
water supply, insomuch as the quantity of water can be regulated, and
there is little danger of either too much or too little moisture. The
regions where the soil is not composed exclusively of the black delta
mud, but is a mixture of sand and mud, produce the best crops. The la