THE COTTON PLANT 



Insect Pests. 

 Cost. 



D.E.P., 

 iv., 147-8. 

 Mysore. 



GOSSYPIUM 



CULTIVATION 



Mysore 



to remain until the whole crop of the field is ready. The time of harvesting 

 varies, according to the district and time of sowing, from January to August. The 

 cotton crop in Madras seems to be specially liable to the attacks of numerous 

 insects and fungal parasites. An ordinary crop of cotton (in form of seed-cotton) 

 in Tinnevelly runs from 750 to 900 Ib. per acre, while 500 Ib. is stated to be a 

 fair average when all sorts of soil are taken into consideration. The cost of 

 cultivation varies considerably in different districts. In Anantapur it has 

 been estimated at Us. 2-13-2 per acre; in South Canara at Us. 14 per acre. 

 [Cf. Buchanan-Hamilton, Journ. through Mysore, etc., 1807, ii., 157-8, 221-3, 

 254, 313-4, 326-7, 450-1, 545; Boyle, I.e. 464-537; Cassels, I.e. 262-3; 

 J. Talboys Wheeler, Handbook on Cotton Cult, in Madras Free., 1862 ; Gribble, 

 Man. of Cuddapah Dist., 1875, 201-4 ; Nicholson, Man of Coimbatore, 1887, 

 232-5 ; Cotton in Madras Pres., Agri. Dept. Mad., Bull. 1890, No. 9 ; S. Iyer, 

 Rept. on Growth of Cotton in Tinnevelly, Agri. Dept. Mad., Bull. 1891, No. 19 ; 

 Middleton, I.e. 7-9 ; Rept. on Operations Agri. Dept. Mad., 1903-4, 5 ; Madras 

 Weekly Mail, Sept. 8, 1904, 248 ; Nov. 24, 1904 ; Proc. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Mad., 

 April-June 1905, 28-31, 36-7.] 



MYSORE AND COORG.Area and Production. The area under 

 cotton in 1904-5 was 71,000 acres and the yield 17,857 cwt., or 5,000 bales ; 

 in 1905-6, 76,000 acres with the same yield. The principal districts are 

 Chitaldrug, Tumkur, Mysore and Shimoga. The final estimate for 1906-7 

 shows a total of 89,000 acres and a yield of 10,000 bales. In 1905- 

 Mysore had a net export of 40,287 cwt., or 22,430 cwt. in excess of the 

 estimated outturn. Almost all went to Bombay Province, while small 

 quantities found their way to the Province of Madras, the Madras ports 

 and the town of Bombay. The imports came from the Provinces of 

 Bombay, Madras, and the town of Bombay. 



Cotton is not an important crop, and there is little of an exceptional 

 character to be recorded regarding either the plant grown or the methods of 

 cultivation pursued, except that after giving a crop the plants are cut down 

 close to the ground, and in a month after the succeeding rainy season they 

 produce a second crop about twice as large as the first. This appears 

 to be one of the few records in modern times of the pruning of cotton. 

 Hove records, however, that in Gujarat the red-flowered plant was 

 regularly pruned during his time (1787). The older writers on cotton 

 frequently allude to the practice prevailing in the West Indies. [Cf. Watt, 

 I.e. 94, 259, 286, 309, 322.] It is curious that it should have survived in 

 Mysore, a country closely connected with one of the once famed red-flowered 

 cottons. [Cf. Buchanan-Hamilton, I.e. 1807, i., 40, 203, 378-9, 411 ; iii., 

 323-4, 351 ; Lewis Eice, Mysore Gaz., 1897, i., 125-6.] 



5. PANJAB.Area and Production. On an average of the five 

 years ending 1904-5 the area under cotton in the Panjab represented about 

 7'3 per cent, of the total area under cotton in British India. For 1903-4 

 the Panjab area, including the North- West Frontier and Native States, 

 was 1,747,000 acres and the yield 1,492,857 cwt., or 418,000 bales. The 

 estimated area for the following year (1905-6) was 2,017,000 acres and 

 the yield 205,000 bales, or 732,142 cwt. The final forecast for 1906-7 

 gives the area as 1,408,000 acres in the Panjab and 61,000 acres in the 

 North- West Frontier, a total of 1,469,000 acres and yield of 370,000 bales. 

 The most extensive areas returned for 1904-5 were : Lyallpur, 165,849, 

 acres; Lahore, 142,621; Hissar, 96,862; Kohtak, 95,880; Gurgaon 

 92,859 ; Karnal, 75,008 ; Multan, 70,342 ; Gujranwala, 53,488 ; Shahpur, 

 31,155 ; and Montgomery, 37,474. In the North-West Frontier, Peshawar, 

 19,658 acres. 



Traffic. The net exports from the Panjab in 1905-6 amounted to 



604 



Pruning_0otton. 



D.E.P., 

 iv., 117-28. 

 Panjab. 



Area and 

 Production in 

 1906-7. 



