1853-62. J CENTEAI, TABLE-IAND : HTE DISTKICTS. 229 



but for moist low-lying rich soils five feet is not too 

 much, as in 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 sam- 

 ples 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 obtainable. The roots of the Bourbon plant ap- 

 pear to average one foot and a half in depth and fifteen 

 inches in spread, and those of the Native Oopum Cot- 

 ton 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. 



Mode of cultivation, time, of flowering, weight of 360 

 Cotton wool per acre, etc. — " In the southern pro- 

 vinces of India, the cultivation of Cotton has to be 

 adapted to the peculiarities of the season. Drought is 

 an obstacle, not so much from insufiSciency in the 

 quantity 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 distributed over two 

 or three months, nearly the whole falls in as many 

 weeks or even days. This usually happens ia October ; 

 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 grow- 

 ing, and dry sunny weather while maturing. The 

 mode of cultivation is simple. The ground is well 

 ploughed, the deeper the better ; and as much as possi- 

 ble freed from weeds, and if uneven the inequalities 



