Abstract

Cotton is an agricutural product, the product of a plant. Its successful. cultivation, apart from the financial aspect, must conform, therefore, to two requirements. It must provide both the essential conditions which the nature of the plant as a living organism demands, and the amenities which man, the producer, considers to be his due in return for his labour. But there is no question as to which of the two is the more fundamental. The plant is a sentient, but unreasoning. organism and can only adapt itself to a certain limited ringe of conditions. The plants in a greenhouse will die if left unwatered for a few days, and the fact that the absence which led to the neglect was unavoidable makes no difference to the result. With man the vital limits are wider, but he is reasoning and not only can, but does, voice his protests in strikes and rioting long before those limits are renched. This is a simple proposition, but one which is frequently over-looked. The human requirements, for the above reasons, assume primary importance, and the protest of the plant, because silent, is ignored.

Keywords: