204 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [1852. 



CHAP. American would in most cases have exceeded that from the 

 !_ Indian both in weight and value. 



271 2nd. The theory is based upon a comparison of 

 crops grown in India, and of crops grown on the 

 Mississippi, instead of those grown in Georgia.- Again, 

 many have compared the crops of American Cotton grown 

 in India with the crops grown in America, without suffi- 

 ciently adverting to the difference in the circumstances 

 under which they have been respectively produced. Neither 

 the soil nor the climate of India are inimical to the Ame- 

 rican plant. This is proved. For eleven years the Ameri- 

 can plant has been cultivated in India in all kinds of soil, 

 such as rich and poor, wet and dry ; and in all kinds of cli- 

 mate, such as temperate and hot, humid and dry ; yet, 

 whilst the weight of the crops has greatly varied, the qua- 

 lity of both of the Cotton and the seed has remained com- 

 paratively unaltered. The error has arisen from a compa- 

 rison of crops raised in India, with the crops raised in the 

 most fertile districts of America, which lie along the banks 

 of the Mississippi. 



272 Differences between India and the Mississippi 

 do not prove that the soil of India is inimical to 

 American Cotton. The fertility of a soil depends on 

 causes which are liable to vary. It often differs widely in 

 adjoining fields, it is in a perpetual state of change, and it is 

 more or less modified by every crop grown. In the deep 

 alluvial deposits along the banks of the Mississippi, the 

 material, on which the Cotton plant feeds, is found in such 

 abundance, that several successive crops are taken off, 

 without any alternation, and without any other manure than 

 what is supplied from the ashes of the old plant which is 

 burnt upon the ground. In the soils of India, this material 

 which supports the Cotton plant was perhaps never so 

 abundantly supplied as on the Mississippi ; and is 



