Cotton is raised in Ecuador south of Guayaquil and also around Ibarra, north of Quito, but to what extent there is no available information. Most of the cotton produced is used in domestic manufacture, and occasionally some little is exported. In 1908 7,317 pounds were shipped to the United States, and in 1914 120,000 pounds to Great Britain. The mills depend upon home grown cotton for their limited supplies, the duty on raw cotton being so high (4.42 per pound) as to prohibit any imports.
• Qf the imports cotton goods are the most important, forming 24.5 per cent of total in 1908, the value of which was $2,453,900. Of this amount Great Britain contributed $1,573, 243, or 64 per cent ,• Germany, $395,724, or 16 per cent; Italy $147,020, or 6 per cent; the United States, $106,770, or 4.5 per cent; Spain, $103,268, or 4.5 per cent; and all other coun tries, $127,875, or 5 per cent, of which Bel gium contributed $76,357; France, $34,820; and all other countries $16,698. The principal articles of import are white shirting, prints, gray shirting, knit underwear, cotton trousering, handkerchiefs and hosiery. Cotton goods in general are dutiable at 5.06 cents per pound gross weight, but a few pay special rates. In 1915 the value of cotton goods imported from the United States was $146,854, and in 1916 $498,321, an increase of $351,467, or 240 per cent.
• Cotton has been one of the chief products of Peru since the time of the Incas, but only within the past 15 years has there been any attempt to increase the acreage and im prove the methods of cultivation. Nearly all of the crop is grown on the west coast near the sea and within the valleys formed at intervals between the mountains and the sea by small rivers. The alluvial deposits in these valleys are rich in nitrogen and potash and are very" productive. Cotton growing as a rule is very profitable, and hence the area is being increased, and with greater irrigation upon which all of the crops depend and the gradual development of intensive farming the crop is steadily in creasing, or was increasing until the European War. The very high freight rates and the limited demand in European countries has been very discouraging to planters, and the crops the past few years have fallen off considerably. The cotton plantations vary in size from 500 to 5,000 acres, are owned principally by Peru vians, and the laborers are native Indians whose average wage is about 60 cents a day. Peru vian cotton may be divided roughly into five staple classifications : The so-called a f ull rough') cotton, coming mostly from the planta tions in the Piura Valley; the °modern rough ,a from the districts of Palpa and Uazca; sea island, largely from Supa; mitififa, grown at several localities along the coast; and °Peru soft," locally known as Egypto. The rough
Peruvian is the indigenous cotton of the tree cotton variety, and has a strong, rough, wooly, crinkly staple, about one and three-eighths to one and one-half inches long, and its price is largely governed by the price of wool as it is used to mix with wool in the manufacture of uall-woolp underwear, hosiery and cloth. The crop of long-stapled sea-island and mitififa, grown from imported sea-island and Egyptian seed, is small as the staple and quality are found to deteriorate with a consequent lower ing of price, which to some extent is governed by the price of Egyptian cotton, a variety it closely resembles. The °Peru soft° or Egypto (a misnomer for it is grown from American upland ,seed) is much more extensively culti vated than even the native cotton. In the United States it is an annual, in Peru it is cultivated as a biannual, though the second year's crop is about 20 per cent less than that of the first. Its staples run from one and one eighth to one and one-quarter inches, and its market value is governed by the price of Amer ican upland.
In 1902 the cotton crop of Peru was 106,914 bales; in 1905, 139,609 bales; in 1909, 315,640 bales;" in 1913, the largest crop ever made. 364,706 bales; in 1914, 346,422 bales; and in 1915, 318,071 bales. The average bale weighs about 170 pounds. The United States con sumes annually about 5,654,500 pounds of Peruvian cotton. In 1915-16 the imports amounted to 5,454,000 pounds, but the bulk of the cotton exported from Peru goes to Liver pool. In 1913. the United States exported to Peru cotton goods to the value of $198,331, and in 1916 to the value of $675,686, an increase of $477,355, or 242 per cent. There are seven cotton mills in Peru, five of which are located at Lima, operating 67,900 spindles and 2,293 looms, the capital invested being $2,057,000. These mills manufacture mostly gray sheetings and shirting, gray ducks, ticks and drills and gray and colored checks and striped cloths; also blue drill khaki drills and trousering, ordinary grades of white flannel, and white drills and towels. Outside of the domestic consumption one of the best markets for these goods is Bolivia, and a small quantity is also taken by Chile. The mills consumed 41,177 bales (Peruvian weights) in 1913, 32,353 bales in 1914 and 44,118 bales in 1915.