Sept. 28. significant iridization of the developing tendency in China towards self-suicieney in the production of commodities for'
Industrial purposes may be read in the announcement of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture that the} cotton crop in China this year is likely to reach record proportions and that exports may total 400,000 bales. This is confirmed in Chinese cotton circles which anticipate that imports from abroad will be reduced to a lower level than ever before owing to the bumper crop and the price differential which favours domestically-pro~ duced cotton. Favoured by good weather and the absence of drought, and floods in the cotton-growing, provinces, of which Shantung was the wors} sufferer last year when approximately a third of the plant. ed area had to be abandoned, it is estimated that this year's produc~ tion. 15 likely to be 70 per cent. higher than last year. Hupeh, oF of the principal cotton provinces, is credited with an excellent harvest and in other provinces including Hopel, Kiangsu, Shansi, Shantung, Hunan, Shensi,' Chekiang, Anhwei and Kiangsi anticipations are proportion ately high. Last year's: yield, according to the Chinese Cotton Statistic Association, barely exceeded five million quintals, a de~ crease of 26 per cent. on the production for the previous year owing to the intervention of natural forees which prevented fruition but. with more favourable conditions this year and an increasing feeling lof stability and contigence prevailing in the rural districts leading to a larger acreage being planted, it is estimated that the season's crop might be as high as eight million quintals, This Is a quantity of such proportions that the point self-sulficieney, with the exception of the longer staples needed from, abroad, is brought immeasurably' nearer and should have a marked. influence on world cotton statistics. n the last half century, China has been alternately transformed from a colton exporting country to a colton importing country, and back to a cotton exporting country again, despite the development of the mill industry absorbing huge supplies of the domestic product. Coinciding with the output of Chinese and foreign mills with an increasing standard of production has been a decline in both the importation of raw cotton and cotton goods. Up to the year 1930, cotton goods headed the list of China's imports and that year represented a total value of $223,~ 400,000. Then followed a swift decline until last year the total was only $27,700,000. As far as raw cotton from abroad is concerned, from a total of 2,800,00 quintals i 1931, which wasa peak year and for the first time raw cotton super-soded cotton goods as China's principal article of import, the figure fell last your to barely half a million quintals. China's developing mill industry and its capacity to meet domestic demands to the exclusion of either imported Taw or manufactured products
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