254 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [1853 62. 



CHAP, moist low lying rich soils five feet is not too much, as in 



1__ such circumstances the bushes will still fill the ground, and 



unless they have plenty of room the crop blights. The 

 roots of Native Cotton penetrate deeper than American, and 

 the Bourbon plant goes even deeper than the Native ; hence 

 the two latter bear heat and drought better than American. 

 In the samples of American plants now forwarded, the roots 

 owing to their age (5 years) are immensely developed, ex- 

 tending some of them to four feet in length and two feet in 

 lateral spread : this no doubt much exceeds the average of 

 ordinary plants, which are now unfortunately not obtain- 

 able. The roots of the Bourbon plant appear to average 

 one foot and a half in depth and fifteen inches in spread, 

 and those of the N ative Oopum Cotton to be about the same 

 in depth, which considering it is much the smallest of the 

 three, argues a greater proportional depth. Its lateral roots 

 however appear to be very insignificant. 



360 Mode of cultivation, time of flowering, weight of 

 Cotton wool per acre, etc." In the Southern provinces of 

 India, the cultivation of Cotton has to be adapted to the 

 peculiarities of the seasons. Droug ht is an obstacle, not so 

 much from insufficiency in the quan tity of rain, as from its 

 all falling within too short a period. Occasionally for 

 months scarcely a shower falls, until the monsoon regularly 

 sets in; and then, in place of the total quantity being distri- 

 buted over two or three months, nearly the whole falls in as 

 many weeks or even days. This usually happens in Octo- 

 ber; and a few days of gloomy weather and heavy rain has 

 been known to destroy a fine crop just bursting the pod. 

 It becomes therefore an object so to regulate the sowing, 

 that the flowering shall commence after the heavy rains 

 have ceased, and the pods ripen during the bright clear 

 weather that always follows; so that in short, the plants 

 may receive wet weather while growing, and dry sunny 

 weather while maturing. The mode of cultivation is simple. 



