mM 
in any place where there is not asupply of water of some kind. The soil is: moist 
below where the seed is put down, though dry above. 
When the plants are about halfa foot high and there has been no rain, the first water- 
ingis given, and this is continued at intervals of about fifteen days until the middle or 
end of May, when the crop is in full flower. The first and last waterings are the most 
important of all. The method of watering is peculiar. A small channel is made from 
the source of the water-supply to the highest point in the cotton-field, from whence it 
can be distributed. Within the field there are small subsidiary channels connected 
with that leading to the field. When the water is first turned on, the mouths of the 
small channels are closed, and the whole supply is allowed to go into the principal chan- 
nel. The ryot then takes his stand about ten yards from the mouth and bunds the chan- 
nel at his feet. As the water comes down he throws it forward right and left with a 
scoop (sena) made of very light wood, (of the simul or cotton-tree,) with a piece of 
string which he holds in the left hand while he holds the handle in his right. When 
all the cotton within reach of his first position has been thus sprinkled with water, and 
the ground thoroughly saturated, the ryot opens the bund and lets down water to the 
next reach of ten yards, and soon until the whole of the land covered by the sub-chan- 
nel has been watered, when he proceeds to use the other sub-channels in the same man- 
ner until the whole field has received water. Cotton is never irrigated in the ordinary 
manner by flooding the roots, the cultivators declaring that water unless given from 
above kills the crop. I have invariably noticed that any crop which has by accident 
been flooded, even slightly, has suffered considerably. If you call aryot who is en- 
gaged in watering cotton in the ordinary method as above described, he will invaria- 
bly shut off the water at the source of supply before he comes to you. Any excess of 
water, such as percolation, entirely ruins the crop. To the eye there is but little per- 
ceptible difference, in an ordinary year, between an irrigated crop of cotton and one 
which has had nothing but rain-water, but the ryots say that there is a great difference 
in yield independently of the appearance of the plants. Two or three days after each 
watering, when the upper crust of the soil has got caked and sowr, (if I may so describe 
its greenish appearance,) the cultivator takes his kodal and digs the whole field, com- 
pletely turning over the soil and eradicating all weeds. When the plants are about to 
come into flower they are thinned, not more than three or four being left in the same 
place. If they are unusnally large and leafy, the tops are nipped off, or calves turned in 
to graze for a few hours to prevent their ranning too much to wood, and bearing 
less flower. The plants vary in height from 2 to 5 feet when in full growth. As the 
cotton becomes ready for picking, the whole family tarns out and collects the pods as 
occasion demands. The picking begins in May and lasts until July; the crop, how- 
ever, requires no water after the former month. As no difference is made in the treat-' 
ment of the two varieties of cotton after they have been picked, one description of their 
subsequent treatment will do for both. The cotton is first dried in the sun; when dry, 
the seed is removed, and the cotton, after being cleaned, is worked into thread by the 
women of the family and sold at the hats or to itinerant dealers. This description ap- 
plies only to the lower classes and Mussulmans, who generally have only just enough 
for home consumption. The Brahmins and better class of ryots grow cotton on ad- 
vances made by lecal mahajuns, to whom they deliver it, and who again resell it at - 
the hats, or for export in the same form as the specimens forwarded with my letter 
dated Ist March, 1873. In this form and in that of thread it is alone procurable in the 
markets, and not in large quantities in either. If, as is probable, the cultivation of 
this crop should be in future largely extended by means of irrigation, and the supply 
become greater than the local demand, it may be worth while to try an experimental 
cleaning-mill worked by water power, and let out by contract to a large dealer in cot- 
ton, who would send it, when cleaned, to Calentta. At present anything of the sort 
would be certain failure, the supply being little, if any, in excess of the amount that 
can be worked up by the women of the poorer classes. 
COFFEE-CROP IN CHYLON.—The Ceylon Observer reports that in all 
the older districts of that island the coffee-crop will be very short this 
year. In districts where the rule has been 10 to 12 cwt. per acre, the 
yield this year will not be over 1 to 3 ewt. per acre. But while on the 
plantations generally the crop will approach a failure, “the native 
gardens” promise a full yield. ‘In the Matella distriets the native 
coffee (last year supposed to be dying out from leaf-disease) is in 
splendid order and bearing heavily. Scarcely a trace of leaf-disease 
is to be seen this season on places that bat a year ago were covered 
with it.” 
GUINEA GRASS, (sorghum vulgare.)\—A smal] quantity of the seed 
of this grass having been received from Thomas H. Pearne, United 
