168 Dr. Heifer's Fourth Report [No. 98. 



diate valleys and slopes would furnish an apparently good 

 locality. We have hitherto, however, no experience whatever 

 of cotton growth with introduced superior qualities, and can 

 therefore throw no light upon the probability of success 

 with cotton. 



Of the cultivation of the sugarcane I have spoken in my 

 former reports, as well as of indigo and tobacco cultivation. 

 All these articles grow well in these provinces ; there are how- 

 ever no known data on which to base how far an extended 

 well attended cultivation would be remunerating, as these 

 articles have been only reared on a small scale for home con- 

 sumption, and no care taken to replace deteriorated varieties. 



In Hindoostan a great proportion of the land is already 

 converted into fields which are actually under tillage, and 

 the people cultivate indigo, tobacco, and sugarcane; in this 

 case it seems advisable to unite perennial cultivation with 

 annual. 



The following is the sketch of a plantation upon an ex- 

 tensive scale, which seems to the writer to combine all desired 

 profits from cultivation in Tenasserim, and which seems to 

 indicate the most advantageous method under present circum- 

 stances, to be pursued for transforming the virgin forest into cul- 

 tivated land. It is only applicable to the southern parts of Ten- 

 asserim, especially Mergui Province. The first operation is the 

 selection of an appropriated locality with reference to soil and 

 situation. The best soil for the purposes which I am about 

 to indicate, is that which has a layer of humus of at least 

 two or three inches depth, whose upper soil is the red clayish 

 earth, intermixed with a moderate quantity of sand. 



Localities where the upper surface is constituted of decom- 

 posed granite rocks will be found, on account of the fertili- 

 zing quantity of the decomposed felspar, highly advantageous. 

 Should a more than ordinary admixture of calcareous substances 

 happen, as is the case in localities where isolated limestone 

 groups protrude, it will be still better, the vegetation in the neigh- 

 bourhood of such localities being always distinguished by a par- 

 ticularly luxuriant appearance. 



