The most interesting report of all in the record of the results oF the new variety of improved Chinese cotton known as. the "Million Dollar." Tt has boon rather universally accepted as. 0 fast that no cotton indigenous to China can compute in respect to ongth, fineness, strength, colour or value to the American product. Without mixing with superior cottons from India or Amerten, 1 is seldom spun into anything but the coarser counts ranging from 108, to. 168.
The following extract from the inning depantmenty ropovt the mill making thie test "ts therefore significant "Herowith report the spinning of sample Chinese cotton.
the first instance thiy tot ton supersedes our ordinary The samples. delivered from the thie Tnob test, convey nq nanner mote-vivid than figures. ov state. ments the contrasting quality of this now variety with common stocks on nceount.of its extarae ordinary: whiteness, lustre, and: smoothness both inthe yarn and cloth, In these respects the wp. pearance is manifestly—sipertor even to the American cotton.
The vanely of Chinese cotton from which the raw stock was supplied ig an absolutely new strain, bred at the University of Nanking from a, single plank "ts covered" near Woosung in the Autimn, of 1919. This was only. one, although the best one: of over 40,000 selections made in effort 6 secure such an Improved strain and which as the mill test above demonstrates has been actually. accomplished, From the fow seeds saved from first plant, seven plants wore grown in 1020, the following year Several hundred, and the progeny, carefully multiplied again until in 1924 thoro Will be sufficient seed for over 200 mow of this variety, and the year following should seo 10 to 30. times Xhas area.
An indigenous cotton of standard should be of consider, ble significance for a number of reasons, chief of which is thud the, Amerioin cottons which prove quite. adaptable to the interior cannot ba grown successfully" the great delta region of Yangtze, which is the most important cot ton producing aren of China.
DEGRNERATION OVERCOME, tests. of the tivo varieties of jean cotton indented are from stocks now in the fourth year of their propagation, rhe fact is thoroughly demonstrated that, the problem of degeneration hae been overcome through intensive selection and that thrdag out' lange area in China cottons equal to and oven superior to the Good Middling Upland of Amer-can be successfully grown, The rapidity with which those improved cottons will become commercial factor on the market will depend in a Jarge measure on how carefully these selected seed supplies may be multiplied without loss. To this, end effort is being made to organize pure seed growing—communities with ce-operating farmers, About 10 tons of seed will be so dis. tributed at the planting time of next Spring.
The complete reports of the three mills making the test ce! tain many more: detuls of interest and serve to verify further the merits of these improved cottons, and can be seen by any one in the office of Mr. R, J. McNicol of the Mill © Department. of Messrs, Jardine, Matheson {¢ Ca., Ld, who is Chairman of the Got ton Milfowners': Association.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.