1841.] On the Nurma Cotton of Bundelcund, 825 



beginning of July last. As long as the rainy season continued, the plants 

 looked healthy and fresh. About the middle of September, the rains, 

 it may be said, ceased ; and almost immediately after, the leaves of the 

 plants became brownish, and began to wither and fall off. This could 

 not have arisen from want of moisture, as some of Captain Bayles* 

 cotton fields had only, a iew days before, been well saturated with the 

 rain that had fallen. 



Towards the end of September, the wind set in rather hot from 

 the Westward, and I am of opinion, that the injury which the cotton 

 sustained, is ascribable to it. If my conjecture be correct, I fear the 

 American method of culture will never answer in Upper India, owing 

 to the hot winds. 



The American mode of cotton culture, I think, is, in one essential 

 point, objectionable with respect to this country. It exposes too much 

 of the surface of the soil to the rays of the sun ; this is liable to occasion 

 too rapid an evaporation of moisture. It has been found by experience, 

 the " Purwa" soil, or mixture of clay and sand, will not bear it ; and 

 the black marl, I have had opportunities of ascertaining, unless it 

 has lain fallow for some time, and is overrun with weeds, is seldom 

 more than superficially turned up. The ^^huckhur^' instead of the 

 plough, is usually employed in the preparation of the black soil. It 

 has an iron scythe, in the room of a share, about twenty inches broad, 

 and five deep, fixed to a beam of wood, between four and five feet long, 

 and six inches in diameter. The buckhur is peculiar to Bundelkhund, 

 Malwa, and Central India generally. In the course of the day, as far 

 as five or six beegahs of land are buckhered. The iron scythe, which 

 is fixed to the centre of the beam, enters about eight inches in the 

 ground, effectually cutting, and rooting up weeds and grass, and 

 the beam pulverizes the earth as it is turned up. The sand intended 

 for the Khurreef, or rainy season crop, is once buckhered before the 

 seed is scattered. It is then ploughed to cover the seed, and prevent 

 the birds from getting at it. The Rubbee land is two or three times 

 buckhered during the rains, and merely sown with the drill plough 

 about eight inches deep. 



The cultivators of this district have an idea, that if too much of the 

 soil is turned up, the produce is not so great. The black soil is subject 

 to immense cracks and fissures during the dry months of the year, 



5 M 



