CU.VP. XXIV. COTTON-CULTIVATION. 395 



The great importance of the question of cotton supply from 

 India has been long felt, and never more so than at the pre- 

 sent time. To meet the requirements of the English markets 

 numerous and costly attempts have been made dm-iug a 

 course of years to introduce the American species, which 

 produces a much longer staple than the indigenous Indian 

 kind. Yet American cotton has not hitherto been raised so 

 as to yield a profitable return, excepting in the province of 

 Dharwar, in the Bombay Presidency. The success in this 

 instance is chiefly to be attributed to a suitable soil and cli- 

 mate ; but also, in no small degree, to the energy of Mr. 

 Shaw, a former Collector. 



Great attention has been paid to the nature of the soils, 

 while less importance than it really deserves has been 

 attached to climate, though climate, and mainly one element 

 of .climate — the moisture of the atmosphere — is an essential 

 condition in the successful culture of American cotton. In 

 travelling southward from the latitude of Bombay the climate 

 becomes gradually moister, and at 300 miles there is a very 

 decided change. The American cotton-plant has a very 

 different constitution from the Indian ; it cannot stand so 

 much drouglit, and the conditions required for its cultm-e are 

 an equable and moderate supply of moisture through all the 

 stages of its growth. These conditions are fulfilled in the 

 Dharwar country, which retains a considerable quantity of 

 moisture in the air during the cold season, when other parts 

 of the Bombay Presidency are intensely dry. A\'herever this 

 is the case, as in Sind, Guzerat, Broach, and Ahmednuggm*, 

 the American plant will not yield a remunerative crop. The 

 indigenous plant is able to endure this dry season well, be- 

 cause it is a native, not of the peninsula, but of the arid 

 country of Sind and part of the Punjab, where it grows vd\d. 



If careful hygrometrical observations were taken through- 

 out the year in the various cotton districts, the results might 



