270 



a good article of produce as compared with an inferior 

 one, it will go very far to discourage the effort to excel/' 



A correspondent of the Times of India, writing 

 from Berar, says on the subject of cotton improve- 

 ment : 



" You get plenty of information about the cotton of 

 this cotton-growing land ; but I have never seen any 

 allusion to the main cause of its being of different 

 qualities and of some of it being dirty and some clean. 

 Much has been written about the respective qualities of 

 different kinds of seed, and much trouble has been taken, 

 and much expense incurred, to produce and to distribute 

 among the cultivators what are considered to be the best 

 varieties ; but I believe that all who have sojourned 

 much among ' k the real cultivators will agree with me in 

 saying that difference in the quality of seed has compara- 

 tively little to do with the difference in the quality of 

 the crops. Railways and roads make nine-tenths of the 

 difference. Other things being equal, the best seed will 

 of course produce the best cotton ; but the difference in 

 other things is so great, that difference of seed is 

 scarcely worth taking into account in calculating the 

 results. 



" In the vicinity of the railway, and of made roads 

 leading to the cotton depots, that is to say, where suffi- 

 ciently potent influence has been brought to bear upon 

 cultivators to induce them to deviate from their ordinary 

 modes of procedure, the fields are well ploughed, and the 

 ground thoroughly prepared. The seed is very care- 

 fully drill-sown. The plants are thinned where necessary, 

 and the fields carefully weeded- kept, indeed, as clean as 

 a well-tended garden, which they require to be. The 



