Commercial Parasitism in the Cotton Industry

Abstract

THE opinion of Sir George Watt in NATURE of February 23 that the report to the Board of Trade of the Empire Cotton Growing Committee is “ingeniously elaborated,” but leaves a “confused impression,” may justify a brief consideration of an allied phase of the subject. Why “the whole history of cotton improvement is most disheartening” may be explained if an essential feature has been omitted. The argument for research is ably presented in the pamphlet issued at Manchester by the Provisional Committee on Research and Education for the Cotton Industry, but with no reflection of the actual state of production.