30 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [183640. 



CHAP, sent day the Cotton grown in Vizagapatam is insufficient 



'. for the home consumption of the province, and consequently 



supplies of Cotton wool are imported from the Godavari 

 district. In 1836, Dr. Wight was appointed by the Madras 

 Government to report on the state of agriculture in Southern 

 India; and he subsequently represented that the returns of 

 Cotton per acre were greater in Yizagapatam than in any 

 other district. But these early reports and proceedings are 

 of small importance, in the face of the large experiments 

 which were conducted through the agency of American 

 Planters, and which we shall now proceed to record. 



35 Ten American Planters sent to India, 184O. In 



Letter of 1840, the Court of Directors engaged ten Planters or Over- 

 tors, Dl i5th seers from the Cotton states in North America, to instruct 

 Pari! Re- the Natives of India in the cultivation and cleaning of 

 p. 2. Cotton. This measure was initiated with considerable diffi- 

 culty. Captain Bayles of the Madras Army, who had been 

 deputed to the Cotton states for the purpose, managed to 

 keep his secret for some time ; but after he had engaged a 



tivated as a perennial. The plants should be sown eight feet apart, in rows 

 which should be again eight feet asunder ; in order to afford facility for 

 ploughing and hoeing, and for a free circulation of air. If the sowing could be 

 effected in September, the young plant would be able to resist the continued 

 wet of a heavy monsoon. Little was gained by sowing in October, Novem- 

 ber, or December; but the intervals of clear weather in those months answer- 

 ed well for transplanting; and the first week of January very well, both for 

 sowing and transplanting. (4.) Pruning should be practised twice in the 

 year. The first and most important pruning should take place between 

 the 15th and 31st of December, when the shrub is cut down to two feet 

 high and two feet wide, only the firm wood being left with the strong 

 white and brown bark. In January during the fine days the plantation 

 should be ploughed thoroughly three or four times. In less than two 

 months the whole of the plants will be again in the finest foliage and full 

 blossom, and continue in full bearing throughout the months of March, 

 April, and May. Early in June a good many pods still remain, and a second 

 pruning should be practised of the long, straggling, twisted soft shoots with 

 diminutive pods. Subsequently from July to September good produce 

 may be obtained, unless the plants are damaged by rain. (5.) Cleaning 

 was practised on Mr. Hughes' s plantation in a most careful manner, the 

 wool being cleaned by hand. 



It must however be remarked that Mr. Hughes calculated this Cotton to 

 cost him about twelve pence a pound ; but then in 1817, it was sold in Lon- 

 don for more than two shillings per pound. See Mr. Hughes' s instructions 

 to Mr. Heath. Royle's Cotton Culture, p. 227. 



