GOSSYPIUM 



CULTIVATION 



Sind 



THE COTTON PLANT 



on cotton-growing in India, issued by the Government, the total area in Sind 

 and its Native States was 245,549 acres. The method of cultivation in 

 Sind differs considerably from that pursued in Bombay. The rainfall is 

 excessively small, and the greater part of the cotton is cultivated by 



Flooding. irrigation. An unfailing supply of water can be procured from the Indus. 



Two methods of cultivation are employed. By the first, frequent watering 

 is necessary after sowing, and the seed is sown on ridges in holes 

 18 inches apart, after the surface has been inundated. By the second, 

 no watering after sowing is required. The only care necessary is to 

 keep the earth about the stems loose and free from weeds. 



Seasons. In Upper Sind the crop is sown at the end of February or 

 beginning of March, or sometimes as late as May or even June. Picking 

 ordinarily takes place in July to August. After picking, cattle are turned 

 on to the fields to graze, but the roots are left for a second year. Farm 

 yard manure is used, about 12 maunds to the bigha. In other parts 

 of Sind cotton is not cultivated till the canals fill in June, and the crop 

 consequently is not picked till November or December. 



Egyptian. Exotic Cottons. Unlike Bombay, the experiments with Egyptian 



cottons would appear to have been successful. In a report on the experi 

 ments carried on at Dhoro Naro, dated August 30, 1904, Mr. F. Fletcher, 

 then Deputy Director of Agriculture, said of ashmouni and abassi cottons 

 that they yield a minimum of 1,500 Ib. of seed-cotton per acre. The plants 

 were irrigated every fifteen or twenty days, at the rate of about 380 cubic 

 metres per acre. In his opinion the experiments so far conducted have 

 sufficiently demonstrated that on perennially irrigated areas in Sind, the 

 Egyptian cottons can be grown normally, and would presumably give 

 even a large yield, but the proper time for sowing would be February or 

 March, and not, as now practised, June to July. He further holds that over- 

 irrigation is often practised on the Jamras. The report then concludes 

 that if the whole of Sind were put under perennial irrigation (through a 

 dam constructed at Bukker) the potentialities of the province for cotton- 

 growing could not be surpassed even by the United States. Mr. Fletcher's 

 experience in Egypt gives an importance to his utterance on the question 

 of cotton-growing in Sind that carries it to a higher platform than the 

 sanguine expectations of many previous writers on Indian cotton-growing. 

 The area under Egyptian cotton at present is 1,500 acres, but if Mr. 

 Fletcher's expectations are even partially realised the future may witness 

 a greatly increased interest in this subject, much to the advantage of 

 India. [Cf. Watt, I.e. 225-6.] 



[Cf. Boyle, Cult, and Comm. of Cotton in Ind., 1851, 332-464 ; W. R. Cassels, 

 Cotton in the Bombay Pres., 1862 ; Ann. Rept. on Cotton, Bomb. Pres., 1880-1 ; 

 Crop Exper. Bomb. Pres., 1890-1900; Exp. Farm Rept. Poona, 1893-4, 9-10; 

 1894-6, 14-6 ; 1895-6, 18-9 ; 1896-7, 33 ; Surat Farm, 1900-1, 12-5 ; 

 1902-3, 33-5 ; Exp. Farm Rept., Bomb. Pres., 1903-4, 1-13 ; Middleton, 

 Agri. Ledg., 1895, No. 8, 95-100 ; Cottons of Southern Maratha Country, 7 ; Sind 

 and Persian Cottons, 17-8 ; Text. Journ., Oct. 1897, 1 ; May, 1901, 215-6 ; 

 Mollison, Textbook Ind. Agri., 1901, iii. 215-24 ; Pioneer Mail, Feb. 1, 1901, 

 8 ; Times of Ind., Nov. 9, 1904 ; Sly, Egyptian Cotton in Sind, in Agri. Journ. 

 Ind., April 1906, i., pt. ii., 165-8 ; Fletcher, Improv. of Cottons in Bombay Pres., 

 in Agri. Journ. Ind., 1906, i., pt. iv., 351-89.] 



2. CENTRAL PROVINCES AND BBRAR.Wet,tt, I.e. 131-4. Area 

 and Production. On an average of the five years ending 1904-5 the 

 tract under cotton represented 23 '60 per cent, of the total cotton area in 



Berar. British India. In 1904-5 there were 1,492,323 acres in the Central 



600 



Seasons. 



High 

 Expectations. 





D.E.P., 

 iv., 86-96, 

 128-32. 



