COTTON 2O3 



Native States are keen to improve the cotton crop. 

 Advice is freely given, and seeds are being supplied of 

 pure varieties of Lalio and rosea, the latter in place of 

 Mathio, as the soil and other conditions are admirably 

 fitted for this type of cotton. 



In Khandesh and the closely adjoining parts of the 

 Deccan we enter from the westward an enormous tract 

 of country which produces the inferior class of cotton 

 known as Bengals. The four principal types of cotton 

 found in Khandesh consist of varieties of neglectum, 

 two with yellow and two with white flowers. Upland 

 Georgian is found everywhere as a slight admixture, and 

 its presence here reminds us of the futile efforts which 

 were once made to introduce it into this tract, its total 

 acreage reaching 60,000 acres at one time. 



In 1905 the four varieties of Khandesh cotton were 

 separately grown, and the N.R. cotton, one of the con- 

 stituents of this mixture, from 1909 has proved from 

 field trials that it is the most hardy, best yielding, and 

 the highest ginning variety of this tract. Mr. Main says 

 that the results of the last two years confirm the opinion 

 of experienced cultivators that N.R. cotton is more 

 drought-resisting than the Khandesh mixture. 



One cultivator reports having got a six-anna crop of 

 N.R. and a three-anna crop of the Khandesh mixture on 

 the same soil. The crop is relatively early maturing as 

 compared with the yellow-flowered types; the bolls open 

 well and mature uniformly. The summary of the results 

 of four years shows that N.R. gives much the highest 

 out-turn as compared with other types. It has also sub- 

 stantial advantage in ginning percentage, which secures 

 for it a much better price in the Dhulia market, and the 

 net profit per acre is strikingly superior in the case of 

 N.R. The following valuations give the relative values 

 of the components of the Khandesh mixture : 



Rs. 

 Rosea N.R. ... .. .. 280 per candy of 784 Ib. 



R. cutchica N.R.C. 

 VeraN.V. 

 MalvensisN.V.M. 

 Local Khandesh 



272 

 320 

 277 

 262 



The last is reported to be ordinary fully good Khandesh 



