1863-62.] CENTEAL TABLE-IAITD : TIVE DISTEICTS. 231 



tween the rows, and well exposed to air before the mon- 

 soon rains set in ; and should they be copious, may be 

 again ploughed and afterwards hoed and weeded. The 

 plants win then shoot afresh and bear another year ; but 

 the second crop is seldom good, and scarcely worth the 

 cost, in the interior at least. On the coast, New Orleans 

 Cotton has been known to yield better crops in the se- 

 cond year. The foregoing account refers to the culti- 

 vation in this district of American Cotton. The Native 

 mode of cultivating Indigenous Cotton answers to it in 

 aU essential points. The ground is ploughed four or 

 five times in April ; the seed sown early in October, but 

 usually broad cast, and the ground again ploughed, and 

 three times weeded during growth. At the flJst weed- 

 ing five labourers are employed per acre ; at the second 

 sis ; and at the third four : they are paid in grain. The 

 picking occupies February and March, and is done at 

 intervals of eight days at a time. Four labourers are 

 employed per acre in picking, and one labourer will 

 pick 12 lbs. of clean Cotton in the season. Generally 

 Speaking, from 150 to 250 lbs. per acre is always looked 

 upon as a fuU crop of Native seed Cotton, while from 

 350 to 500 lbs. is by no means unusual in the case of 

 American in good soil and very dark coloured. Very 

 light, almost sandy, alluvial loam, usually cultivated as 

 rice fields, has been known to produce from 1200 to 

 1400 lbs. of seed Cotton (American) per acre. Three 

 hundred pounds of seed Cotton represent 90 lbs. of 

 clean Cotton. Cultivation to be profitable should yield 

 100 lbs. of ginned staple per acre. Gins give for Na- 

 tive Cotton about 21( and for American 29 per cent, of 

 Cotton to seed. 



Mannre. — " No manure is used, nor any Cotton seed 361 

 returned to the soil. The stalks are not allowed to de- 

 cay on the ground. They are always plucked up and 

 used by the Natives as firewood. 



Diseases. — " With respect to Native Cotton, in No- 362 

 vember and December the roots are liable to be attacked 

 by a worm or grub, which kills the plant. In Decem- 

 ber, too, the flowers and leaves are sometimes destroyed 

 by a blight. Should too strong an east wind blow in 



