168 



COTTON. 



quent changes of weather are injurious to it. 

 The dry and wet seasons are doubtless more re- 

 gularly marked at a distance from the sea, and if 

 any variation is felt in such situations, it is from 

 a want of rain, and not from a superabundance 

 of it. The cotton-plant requires that a great 

 portion of the year should be dry ; for if much 

 rain falls when the pod is open, the wool is lost ; 

 it becomes yellow, decays, and is rendered com- 

 pletely unfit for use. The soil which is preferred 

 for its culture is a deep red earth, with veins of 

 yellow occasionally running through it ; this be- 

 comes extremely hard, after a long interval 



heard, met with the desired success. Might not the Sea- 

 Island seed be sent for, and a trial of it made ? The Per- 

 nambuco cotton is superior to that of every other part, 

 excepting the small quantity which is obtained from those 

 islands. 



Bolingbroke, in his " Voyage to the Demerary," says that 

 " On the sea^coast the British settlers also commenced the 

 culture of cotton, and found that land to answer much bet- 

 ter than the soil up the river." — In Phillips's Collection, &c. 

 p.81. 



The cotton of the settlements upon the part of South 

 America of which he writes, is very inferior to that of 

 Pernambuco. 



In the Third Report of the Directors of the African In- 

 stitution, p. 23., I find it stated, that " the saline air of the 

 sea-shore, which generally destroys coffee, is favourable to 

 cotton ;" at p. 27., it is said that cotton never fails to dege- 

 nerate " when it has been propagated in the same ground 

 for many years without a change of seed." 



