1841.] Memorandum on Nurma Cotton. 717 



b. Scrape off two or three inches of the soil with the hand, and 

 take your specimen also from the field before any manure has been 

 laid on. The soil at two or three inches deep may pretty nearly be called 

 surface-soil ; unless, as in rare cases, it changes at this depth. One 

 specimen should be taken here and another at eighteen inches deep. 



c. If any rocks or stones are lying about the fields, these should be 

 sent separately. The same of those below at eighteen inches or two 

 feet deep. 



d. The soil should be dried on a hot-water plate, or in a hot sun, 

 that it may not rot the labels. 



e. A label should be inclosed within the box, and it should also be 

 numbered, so as to refer to a list. The box should also be marked 

 outside in ink or paint, on the side, and lid. 



f. If the manure used be any kind of earth or stone, samples of 

 it should be sent also. 



10. Inquiry should be made if at the time of ripening any peculiar 

 manure is added, as with some of the choice sorts of tobacco. If the 

 plants are topped, i. e. the young shoots pinched off, or beaten with 

 sticks, or allowed to be eaten down by animals. All these processes 

 are used in various parts of the world, (America, the French and 

 Spanish Colonies, Persia, &c.) and no doubt influence both the pro- 

 ductiveness and the quality of the cotton to a great extent. 



11. Nothing relative to the native methods of culture, irrigation, 

 &c. should be overlooked. 



12. Inquire if it is subject to any diseases or insects, which seri- 

 ously affect the returns from it. 



13. The amount of return in clean merchantable cotton per biga ; if 

 a known number of square yards, is of importance; and the average price 

 of the best sorts. 



Specimens of the soils are requested for the Museum of Economic 

 Geology now forming ; and I shall be glad to afford any assistance in 

 the investigation of their qualities which may be desired. 



H. PiDDINGTON. 



Calcutta, Zi St August, 1841. 

 P.S. — Since writing this, I learn from Mr. Grant, that the Nurma 

 cotton is so highly prized in Malwa, that the rajahs and great persons 

 will wear no garments, but such as are manufactured from it. He 



