Cotton Growing in South America

As the most largely used textile, the greatest staple of international trade, cotton has a prime geographical interest from the mere magnitude of its place in human affairs.' The peculiar features of its distribution add greatly to that interest. The cotton plant is of very ancient cultivation, but only during the last century has it attained its great relative importance. Although cotton in its natural state is widely distributed, commercial cotton is produced in restricted areas. Of the world's production three-fifths comes from the United States, nine-tenths of the remainder from China, India, Egypt, and Russia (Turkestan and Transcaucasia). But only the United States, India, and Egypt produce for export. The supply for the world's market is thus virtually an Anglo-American monopoly. Concerning the distribution of cotton as a commercial crop two questions arise. How can the area devoted to cotton be increased to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for cotton? How can the distribution be extended that the dangers of dependence on so restricted sources of supply may be avoided? Since the American Civil War the industrial countries of Europe have been concerned with these questions, more especially in recent years, as the activities of the British Cotton Growing Association (founded in 1902) and the similar organizations of France (1903) and Germany (1900) bear witness.2 Cotton, in the wild state, is a plant of the tropics and subtropics-of the warm regions with summer rains and a succeeding dry season. Under cultivation the range is extended, in particular under irrigation. At present cultivation is largely limited to the regions near the northerly climatic limit in North America and Asia. In the search for new fields Africa and South America, presenting the bulk of the land surface within the tropics and subtropics, naturally invite attention. Both continents offer hopes for the future extension of the cultivation. In Africa interest concentrates on the Sudan. The various railroad schemes for tapping the heretofore inaccessible resources of this naturally productive region point to extensive possibilities of cotton growing. The irrigable lands of the Niger bend, for instance, are compared with Egypt. Such expansion will be chiefly to the profit of France and Britain. In contrast South America offers possibilities in countries politically independent, a circumstance that has already awakened wide interest. Efforts to increase production here are

Agricultural economics · Economics · Geography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Logistics and Infrastructure Analysis · Rural Development and Agriculture

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