KUMPTA COTTON AND ITS IMPROVEMENT. 





•CD 



BY 



G. L. KOTTUK, B.Ag., BOTanic^i 



Cotton Supervisor, Southern Division, Bombay Presidency. '^ 



[Received for publication on 5th November, 1919.] 

 I. IXTRODUOTION. 



One of the t}T)es of cotton most extensively cultivated in India is that 

 strain or series of strains of Gossypiimi herbaceum which goes in the trade by 

 the name of lumpta, or which, though called otherwise, is grown in 

 adjoining tracts and is botanically and agriculturally indistinguishable from it. 

 This cotton, which is variously knowTi on the Bombay market as humpta, 

 westerns, bagalkot, miraj, or by many other names, belongs to one recognized 

 botanical species, though^ the market value of the lint from various strains 

 or mixtures of strains differs considerably, and though the agiicultural value 

 of these strains to the cultivators of the cotton is again by no means equal. 

 It is the object of this memoir to give an account of the work done in the last 

 few years in investigating the characters of the various strauis of this cotton, 

 as they occur in the cotton grown near Dharwar, and in isolating and developing 

 types which have promise both from the point of view of the cultivators 

 and of the trade. As the growing of types of ' Gossyjnum herbaceum as a 

 commercial cotton i^ peculiar to southern and western Asia, and to the 

 Med'.terranean region, a short account of the characteristics of this species of 

 cotton is prefixed before dealin,g with the special characters of the strains of 

 kumpta cotton properly so called. 



II. GOSSYPIUM HERBACEUM*, LiNN, 



This species of the cotton plant, recognized from the earliest days of the 

 classification of various cottons, seems to be almost entirely grown in southern 



^ In this discussion I am following Gammie's description of this species. Watt has named 

 Gammie's Gossypium herlacevm as Gossypivm ohhisijolivm var. Wighd'amim and considers 

 '"H that the true Gossyphim herhaceum is a different species, identified with the so-called Levant 

 ^; cotton. 



^ ( 221 ) J 



