Miscellaneous. 405 



pium arboreiim. It is to be found growing wild, I believe, in dif- 

 ferent parts of India ; and from some experiments I made when at 

 Kaira, I have very little doubt that it will be found to be the original 

 stock from whence the Barbadoes, Bourbon, Egyptian, and Sea 

 Island varieties have originally sprung. 



It grows in every kind of soil that is met with in Guzerat. But 

 it obtains the greatest perfection in light sandy soils, to which a 

 little old cow-dung manure has been added, and where it can have 

 a proper drainage, in the black clayey soil known as " the cotton 

 soil" of the indigenous G. herbaceum ; it grows, but with diminished 

 vigour, in proportion to the purity of that soil. In a state of nature, 

 and when fully developed, the seeds are nearly as large as a grain 

 of wheat, and are closely covered all round by a strongly-adhering 

 bright pea-green coloured fur, and enveloped in a fine silky wool of 

 considerable strength, and fully an inch in length. 



Hedge-rows, gardens, groves of trees about the abodes of devotees 

 and temples, are the places where this plant is found. I do not 

 know of its being cultivated in any other way. In these places it 

 is a perennial, lasting for four or five years or more, and being cut 

 down to within 2 feet of the ground in the end of June, or a little 

 before the setting in of the annual rains ; this also is the best time 

 for sowing the seed. 



The natives appreciate this cotton, from its fine staple enabling 

 them to spin finer thread than from any other kind with which they 

 are acquainted. Muslins and long pugries for the head are made 

 from it; but since the introduction to this country of European 

 products of the loom, its use and its culture have been so reduced, 

 as hardly at this day to afford sufficient evidence to save their being 

 classified along with the fabulous stories of Hindoo history. 



Of the quantity produced per acre 1 can give no estimate, but in 

 the first year it could not be over 100 lbs. of clean cotton. In the 

 second year, as the plant then comes into full bearing, it might be 

 from 300 to 400 lbs. The great extra labour and expense over the 

 common crops, of protecting the fields during the whole year, which 

 the cultivation of this plant would entail, is, I believe, the main ob- 

 stacle to any attempts being made to cultivate it. Here we have 

 no hedge-rows, and nothing that is well calculated for such a pur- 

 pose ; all the agricultural produce being from annuals, the ryot pro- 

 tects them from cattle, thieves, &c, by living in his fields during the 

 few months they are ripening, and which he could not do for a 

 longer period. The price of this cotton in the bazaar is always 

 double that of the common country article. However, there is 

 never more than a few pounds procurable. 



I have for several years back entertained great hopes in regard 

 to this cotton, particularly that it may be improved, so as to become 

 of value, by attending to modes of culture. That from it new varie- 

 ties, suited to different soils and situations as regards climate, may 

 be obtained, is more probable than from any of the cultivated kinds, 

 and I have hoped that circumstances might some day admit of my 



