18 SEPTEMBER 1920, Page 22

The Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, dated January-March but only

just published (Murray, 3s. Bd. net), contains a report on cotton-growing in Mesopotamia, where, it seems, the soil and climate are favourable, but the industry " is restricted by the smallness of the population and the need for irrigation and drainage." Experiments were made with several varieties of seed in 1918, and the British Cotton Growing Association have taken up the matter. It is thought that perhaps 200,000 acres of cotton " could be cultivated annually by the existing popu- lation if the necessary facilities were provided "—namely, transport, machinery, irrigating plant and, not least, instruction for the very primitive Arab cultivators.