INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1911-12. 9l 



cultivation will, of course, depend on the willingness of the 

 selected zemindars to devote more careful attention to 

 cultural methods than they at present exercise in the case 

 of their deshi cottons. The valuations received on these 

 cottons show, by a comparison of outturns, that the most 

 highly priced varieties are by no means the most profitable 

 to grow. 



Mr. Conville, a local cotton merchant, mentioned that 

 during this year he had observed a great improvement in 

 the cultivation of cotton in the Colony and he attributed 

 this advance to the good example held out by the Lyallpur 

 Farm. He considers that the bad practices of cotton sell- 

 ers and buyers, ginneries, etc., have helped to lower the 

 prestige of Indian cottons. 



Mr. Miliades says that in his long experience of Lyall- 

 pur, the yield of cotton has fallen from 10 to 12 maunds to 

 4 or 5 maunds per acre. He thinks that this decrease is 

 wholly caused by the diminishing fertility of the soil which 

 was practically virgin land only a few years ago. Mr. 

 Milne explained to me that the natural indigenous vegeta- 

 tion of the tract before the days of irrigation consisted 

 mainly of leguminous plants and that the cotton yielded 

 its maximum while the plants could draw on the nitrogen 

 stored in the soil. His idea of introducing Berseem or 

 Egyptian clover as a fodder and a renovator of the soil is 

 a sound one and I shall follow with interest the results of 

 his experiments. The deterioration of some well-known 

 staples in the Punjab is said to be due to careless cultiva- 

 tion and treatment. Multan cotton (a pure sanr/mneum) 

 is a hardy cotton capable of producing full crops on the 

 western side of the Province. Mr. Miliades considers that 

 even now, in many respects, he prefers this cotton to the 

 Narma or acclimatized Upland cotton. 



Mr. Roberts is growing on a field scale what has been 

 handed over to him by the Economic Botanist and he 

 already has urgent demands for select seed from the culti- 

 vators. This is, in itself, sound proof that the cultivators 

 realize the value of what is being done for them. The 



