GOSSYPIUM 



CULTIVATION 



Burma 



THE COTTON PLANT 



Area and 

 Production in 

 1906-7. 



Soils. 



Races of Plant. 



Yield. 



Cotton 

 Soils. 



Indo-Gangetic 

 Alluvium. 



The relative importance of the chief localities in Upper Burma may be 

 expressed by the returns of the year named : Myingyan, 65,511 acres ; 

 Sagaing, 49,575 ; Meiktila, 36,161 ; Lower Chindwin, 13,672 ; and 

 in Lower Burma, Thayetmyo (Lower Burma portion), 12,275. In the 

 following year (1905-6) the estimated area and outturn were 183,000 acres 

 and the yield 35,000 bales (125,000 cwt.) ; while for 1906-7 the estimates 

 were 186,000 acres, with the same yield. 



Traffic. The trade returns for 1905-6 show that Burma had a net 

 export of 39,225 cwt. The outturn for the same year was 125,000 cwt., 

 so the net supply available for local consumption was 85,775 cwt. Almost 

 all the exports went to Calcutta, but small quantities were also sent to 

 Bombay port and to Pondicherry. 



Crops, Seasons, etc. The most suitable areas for cotton are found in the dry 

 zone of Upper Burma. It is there cultivated on good and medium black cotton 

 soil but is also found on inferior soils of a lighter colour. Burkill (in a Report 

 on Cotton in Burma dated March 25, 1904) states that cotton is grown on 

 kain land (land periodically flooded by rivers), on taung yas (forest clearings), 

 and on ya (high, dry land). On kain land the seed is sown in September after 

 the floods have left the ground, but such cultivation is now rare. On forest 

 clearings cotton is also said to be unimportant, as the land is more serviceable 

 for other crops. The most important, therefore, is the third, viz. cotton grown on 

 high, dry land. 



Two kinds of cotton are in general cultivation, the annual (wa-gale), which is 

 sown in April and May and yields from October to December, and a perennial, 

 (wa-gyi) which is sown at the same season as the annual but continues on the 

 fields for three years and yields annually in February or March. The annual is 

 most extensively grown. Wa-gyi is a common crop in Minbu and Thayetmyo, 

 but rare elsewhere. Manuring is general, farmyard manure being considered 

 best. The yield per acre of seed-cotton Burkill gives as follows : on first-class 

 soil, 73 viss (viss = 3'65 lb.); second-class soil, 42 viss; third-class soil, 32 viss. 

 In 1901-2 the average yield per acre of clean cotton for the whole province 

 was only 80 lb. ; according to the figures discussed in the Dictionary (taken from 

 reports by the Deputy Commissioner of Meiktila), the yield would appear to 

 average from 125 to 250 viss an acre of seed-cotton. [Cf. Browne, Stat. and 

 Hist. Ace,. Thayetmyo, 1873, 87-8 ; Rept. on Settl. Oper. Meiktila Dist., 1896-8, 

 7-8; Arnold, Monog. on Cotton Fabrics and Cotton Indust. Burma, 1897, 16-8; 

 Upper Burma Gaz., 1900, ii., pt. 1, 363 ; Rept. on Settl. Oper. Myingyan, 

 1899-1901, 32, 42 ; Mollisoii, Rept. on Cotton Cult, in Burma, Aug. 18, 1904 ; 

 Rangoon Times, July 3, 1903 ; Sly, Cotton Cult, in Burma, in Agri. Journ. 

 Ind., 1906, i., pt. iii., 253-4.] 



IV. SOILS AND MANURES. As already mentioned, Middleton 

 (Agri.Ledg., 1895, No. 8, 117) classifies the Indian cotton soils into three 

 well-marked sections : (1) rich black clay soils, such as those of Surat 

 and Broach, which produce the finest cottons ; (2) soils like those of Kathia- 

 war, Khandesh, Berar and the Central Provinces, that produce the second- 

 grade cottons ; and (3) a very large area, too sandy or with too small a 

 rainfall to ripen the finer cottons the source of the Bengals of com- 

 merce. Bombay Presidency has soils and climates of all three grades, 

 but it is much more favourably placed than other provinces, by having 

 a larger proportion of both the first and second grade soils. 



In his paper on Indian soils, Leather (Agri. Ledg., 1898, No. 2) makes 

 four main heads : the Indo-Gangetic alluvium ; black cotton or regur ; 

 red soils lying on metamorphic formations (in Madras) ; and laterite 

 soils. The first consists generally of a yellow- coloured alluvium, some- 

 times sandy, sometimes stiff clay. The only rocky particles larger 

 than sand which this expanse of land contains is the nodular lime- 

 stone, kankar. (For theory of formation, see p. 711.) Leather 



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