40 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [2ND. SEASON. 



CHAP, into ridges, about four, five, or six feet apart, and about eight 



- or ten inches high. The distance between these ridges must 



compare ^ Q regulated by the richness or poverty of the soil, and by 



ifnCui- the variety of the Cotton grown. The object is to keep the 

 219. ' plants sufficiently near to each other, that when full grown 

 the branches may meet and cross in the intervals between 

 the ridges, and thus protect the soil from the heat and dry- 

 ing influence of the sun. Accordingly in rich soils the New 

 Orleans Cotton plants maybe five feet apart, but in the poor- 

 er soils they must be nearer to each other ; as the branches 

 naturally will not be so luxuriant on a poor soil as on a rich 

 one. Then again the ridges for Sea Island Cotton may be 

 seven feet apart. The primary object of these ridges 

 is to draw off the superfluous moisture, by means of the 

 water furrow between them ; a precaution which is especially 

 necessary in America, where the frequent and heavy rains 

 of spring and summer are especially injurious to the young 

 plant. 



5 Sowing in a furrow of about two inches deep along 

 the centre of each ridge, In the Farms at Coimbatore 

 the seed is sown thus. A slight furrow, from an inch and 

 a half to two inches deep, is run along the centre of the 

 ridge with a country plough. The seed is then pretty 

 thickly scattered in the furrow, and covered in by running 

 over it a small triangular drill harrow. 



51 Scraping out of superfluous plants and weeds. 



When the plant is three or four inches high, and beginning to 

 put forth a third or fourth leaf, it is thinned or "scraped ;" that 

 is, the greater part of the superfluous plants, together with the 

 weeds, are scraped out with the hoe. About ten or twelve 

 days afterwards this scraping operation is repeated, to com- 

 plete the thinning and superficial cleaning of the land. 

 With regard to this hoeing, Dr. Wight remarked that the 

 American plan of scraping was decidedly inferior to that 



