1852.] DR. WIGHT'S FINAL COTTON REPORT. 205 



now so greatly exhausted from long use, that the CHAP. 

 land produces about one fourth less, and rarely yields two ' 



successive crops from the same field. This deficiency is not 

 to be attributed to any thing inimical in the soil of India, 

 but simply to its impoverishment. This is proved by the 

 fact that heavy crops have been obtained in India from land 

 newly broken up. Generally however, a crop amounting to 

 between 400 and 500 Ibs. of seed Cotton per acre, equal to 

 about 144 Ibs. of clean Cotton, may be regarded as a heavy 

 crop ; and this will give a very handsome profit to the 

 grower, being nearly double that which is usually obtained 

 from the Native plant, even when grown in the best 

 and most fertile Black soils. 



Soil of Southern India better compared with that of 273 

 Georgia. If we really wish to compare the crops of India 

 with those of America, we ought to take the Georgian dis- 

 tricts, where the Upland Georgian Cotton is grown. There 

 from 400 to 500 Ibs. of Cotton per acre is considered a very 

 good crop, a,nd thus the Georgian districts are on a par with 

 the medium soils of India ; yet no one alleges that the soils 

 of Georgia are unsuitable to the growth of American Cotton. 



Climate of Southern India not so congenial as that 274 

 of Georgia: evil obviated by sowing in August or 



September. The climate of Southern India however is 

 not so congenial as that of Georgia. The seasons in the 

 former country are drier, and the crops suffer more from 

 drought. This however does not arise so much from any 

 insufficiency in the quantity of rain, but from the rain 

 falling within too short a period. Occasionally there is 

 scarcely a shower for months, until the monsoon regularly 

 sets in ; and then, instead of the total fall of rain being 

 distributed over two or three months, nearly the whole 

 of it will fall within two or three weeks, or even within 

 two or three days. In the light Sandy soils, which are 

 the best adapted for the American plant, the effect of 



