72 COTTON IK THE MADRAS PEEStDENCT. [CH. III. 



tween the rows. If the seed be sown broadcast, this 

 ploughing cannot be conveniently carried out ; and 

 then the hoe must suffice. When the third leaf has 

 appeared, the ground must be hoed, and the plants 

 thinned out to six or eight inches between them ; and 

 this will leave enough to allow of considerable destruc- 

 tion during the subsequent ploughing. A second hoe- 

 ing is always deemed necessary, in both American and 

 Native practice, when the " stand " should be further 

 thinned, to an extent varying from a foot to eighteen 

 inches between the plants. If the growth is vigorous, 

 the distance between the plants should average not 

 less than eighteen inches, but otherwise, an interval 

 of one foot would be sufficient. 



116 4th, Distance between the Rows. — The distance be- 

 tween the rows and ridges should be regulated as 

 follows. In moderately fertile and high and dry lands, 

 it will be sufficient to have an interval of from two 

 feet and a half to three feet between the rows. But 

 for moist low-lying rich soils an interval of five feet is 

 not too much ; as under such circumstances the bushes 

 wiU still flu the ground, for the plant is a very strong 

 grooving one, and unless it has plenty of room the crop 

 blights. 



117 5th, Treatment of the plant as an annual and rota- 

 tion of crops. — The last point to which Dr. Wight 

 drew attention, was the fact that the experiment of 

 treating the plant as a biennial, already noticed, had 



uniformly failed ; that however promising in 

 appearance the second year's plants might 

 be, he had never succeeded in obtaining a really good 

 crop off the same bushes. He would therefore always 

 recommend the plan of cultivating the New Orleans 

 Cotton plant as an annual. Again, as regards rotation 

 of crops, he would recommend that the same land 

 should never be sown oftener than every third or fourth 

 year, as the foreign Cotton seems to be a very exhaust- 

 ing crop. 



118 Profitable cultivation of American Cotton throughout 

 the Peninsula. — The final results of Dr. Wight's ex- 

 perience in 1849, may thus be summed up in a few 



