G. L. KOTTUR 225 



reaches Bombay under various names among which miraj, bail-hongal, hagalkot, 

 westerns, and many others are recognized. Except for a relatively small area 

 in the eastern part of the Dharwar District and adjoining tracts where a form 

 of Gossypium hirsidum is grown, kno^\-n as Dharwar- American, it is the 

 dominant cotton in almost all the area where it is grown, gradually disappearing, 

 however, in favour of types of Gossi/pium 7ieglectum in the north of the Bijapur 

 District and portions of the Nizam's Dominions, and in favour of types of 

 Gossypiuni incUcum in other districts of the Nizam's Dominions. 



The present paper is, however, almost wholly concerned with hmnpta 

 cotton as it occurs in the Dharwar District which, with the southern part of 

 the Bijapur and Belgaum Districts, remains the head centre of its cultivation- 

 This cultivation is probably of very old standing, though the descriptions of the 

 local cottoas gromi seem to have interested few of the cotton workers of the 

 last century. The reports of the older work on cotton in the Southern Maratha 

 Comitry in the years between 1830 and 1870 are full of accomits of American 

 cotton and the vicissitudes which attended all eSorts to introduce it. They 

 rarely, however, refer to the cotton already grown. It was apparently beneath 

 notice, though it is, as a matter of fact, almost as valuable as that American 

 for whose introduction so many pains were spent. 



Since 1870, however, a few interesting notices of this cotton as 

 cultivated in its o^yn districts have been presented. Drmyi in 1873 mentions 

 that the yield may go up to 500 pounds per acre, presumably of seed cotton. 

 The most interesting accomit of the cultivation of hmnpta cotton, however, 

 is that given by Walton^ in 1880. He noted particularly that it is sown 

 in August, and that earlier sowing has not been a success. He mentions that 

 Dharwar- American cotton {which he calls 6^. barbadense) has replaced humpia 

 over parts of Belgaum and Bijapur. But the most interesting point he makes 

 is that the cultivators object to manming directly for kumpta cotton, an 

 objection still maintained by the people. Watt^ adds very few facts but notes 

 that the area of kumpta cotton in the three districts of Dharwar, Belgaum and 

 Bijapm- was 1,118,250 acres in 1883, but had dropped to 968,300 in the years 

 before 1890. 



I may quote two or thi'ee other authorities who note various points about 

 kumpta cotton, before going on to place my own observations on record. The 



1" Useful Plants of India,' 1873, p. 233. 



* Walton, W. "Cotton in Belgaum and Kaladgi Districts,' 1880. 



' Watt. " Dictionary of Economic Products," Vol. IV, jj. 59 (1893), and also " Wild and 

 Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World,' p. 150 (1908). 



