One of the earliest impressions one forms out there is the contrast between the presentation of the case at home and conditions on the spot. The view at home—somewhat modified by recent events—has seemed to be inspired by the idea that if the number of square miles which Nigeria covers is totted up in one column and the number of inhabitants it supposedly contains in another and these totals compared with conditions in the cotton belt of North America, then you arrive at a conclusion which enables you to speak of the “huge possibilities” of Nigeria, and even to forecast that Northern Nigeria alone “at some future date” will be able “to supply the whole of the requirements of Great Britain and to leave an equal quantity over for the other cotton-consuming countries.” Four years ago a prominent British statesman declared publicly that “once the fly belt near the river was passed ... cotton would be grown under exactly the same conditions as it was grown under on such a great scale in America.” He went so far as to say that the native of Northern Nigeria was “beginning to cease to grow cotton” because he could get British manufactured goods in lieu of his home-grown article. Well, between these statements and actualities there is a “huge” gulf fixed. In the first place it can be said of Nigeria that in a part of it only is cotton now grown, and that in a part of it only will cotton ever be grown. To talk of Nigeria, as a whole, being a cotton-growing country _par excellence_, either now or potentially, is absurd. Three-fourths of Southern Nigeria and a third, probably more, of Northern Nigeria are quite unsuitable for cotton-growing, and this for many reasons. To talk of Nigeria supplying the whole requirements of Great Britain (to say nothing of the promised surplus) is tantamount to saying that some day “Pleasant Sunday Afternoon” excursions to the moon will be a regular feature of the national life. Both may become possible “at some future date,” but there is so much future about the date that such flights of rhetoric might well be left to the compilers of gold-mining prospectuses. These extravagances have not helped the Association. The sincere and sober persons connected with that body are merely hindered by them. As to cotton being produced in Northern Nigeria under the “same conditions” as in the States, and the natives of the country “beginning to cease” to grow cotton, one can only remark that they are too silly to deal with.