118 STUDIES IN INDIAN COTTONS 



This line of investigation has not in the present case received 

 more than general attention. The physical conditions as existing 

 in the province at the present time have been accepted as standard. 

 It is unhkely that any large change either in methods of cultivation 

 or in the extended use of manures will take place in the near future. 

 The main object seems, therefore, to be rather the production of an 

 improved plant under these conditions than the adaptation of the 

 conditions to meet the needs of the plant. The organic conditions 

 in like manner have not formed the subject of especial investigation 

 except in as far as they affect the methods of experiment. Of 

 major importance here is the relation of the plant to its neighbours 

 and to insects. On this relation depends the extent of the occur- 

 rence of cross-fertihzation in the field. This subject has been treated 

 somewhat fully in a previous memoir (20) and will not receive more 

 than a passing reference here. 



Before entering in detail into an account of the experimental 

 work which has been undertaken it will not be amiss to review 

 briefly the conditions under which cotton is grown in the Provinces. 

 These Provinces occupy the large alluvial tract lying between the 

 Himalayas on the north and the uplands of Central India. Through- 

 out the entire area cotton is grown, but the relative area under the 

 crop varies considerably. In map A is given the percentage of the 

 kharif area under cotton for each district, the figures being derived 

 from the Season and Crop Report for the year 1909-10, in which 

 the cotton crop was 1 08 per cent, of the normal. From this map 

 it is seen that the largest proportionate area under cotton occurs 

 in the Muttra district at the south-west corner of the Province. 

 Here over 30 per cent, of the kharif area is sown to cotton. From 

 this centre the percentage of the kharif area under the crop gradu- 

 ally decreases in passing eastwards until, in the east, the crop is 

 practically absent, the total acreage in tlie Ghazipur district being 

 3 only. From the shading of the areas showing a certain range of 

 percentages it further appears that, were the units of determination 

 smaller than a district, a series of lines of equal percentages could 

 be drawn which would be found to be V-shaped with their apices 

 pointing towards the east. In map B are given the isotherms 



