4 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [1845 49. 



CHAP, of country, and seemed to establish the following important 

 L_ facts. In the first place it was seen that India was not too 

 hot for the American plant, since in the Carnatic it had borne 

 unharmed the hot winds of May and June. On the other 

 hand it was ascertained that the cultivating season in India 

 was if any thing too cold; in other words that the climate 

 of the Carnatic during the cold months, which formed the 

 Cotton growing season in India, was actually colder than the 

 summer of Mississippi, which formed the Cotton growing 

 season in America : the Americans cultivating from April 

 to November, and the Indian Ryots from September until 

 April. In the first instance, Dr. Wight had noticed the 

 great difference between those fields, or portions of fields, 

 which were exposed to the cold ; and those which were warm- 

 ly sheltered. Again on the change of the monsoon, after 

 the North-easterly rain had ceased, and when the thermo- 

 meter in the house sunk daily to 60 and 65, he had observ- 

 ed that all the young plants, the produce of October sowing, 

 ceased to grow though the soil was abundantly moist. 



107 Theory confirmed by a comparison of the tempe- 

 rature of Madras with that of Vera Cruz, Mobile and 

 Natchez, This theory, that the American plant in India 

 suffered from the cold, was directly opposite to an opinion 

 which had been expressed by Mr. Mercer, an American 

 Planter under the Bombay Government, who had confidently 

 asserted that India was too hot for the cultivation of Ameri- 

 can Cotton. It was however fully confirmed by a compari- 

 son of a meteorological register of the Cotton growing States 

 s in America with a similar register of Madras. In Mississippi 

 the sowing commences in April ; in the Carnatic the latter 



Return a ' part of September, or even the beginning of October, is con- 

 221'. coml sidered to be the best sowing time. The following four lines 



pared with 



Dr.wig^ht'8 o f fig ur es exhibit the temperature of the Cotton season in 

 e! f ur Distinct localities ; viz, 



