THE TECHNOLOGIST, 



[May 1, 1865. 



438 



THE CULTURE OF COTTON IN 



but I learnt afterwards that many of the succeeding ones had been 

 destroyed by blight. 



I subjoin a tabular view of the weight of the contents of an average 

 pod of each of the kinds of cotton grown at Monte Abierto : 





Weight. 



Kind of Cotton. 





Cotton. 



Seeds. 





grs. 



grs. 



Ica 



60 



65 



Piura 



54 



75 



Egyptian 



51 



102 



Georgia 



37 



73§ 



Binon .... 



35£ 



58 



Imbahura .... 



32 



51 



New Orleans 



28 



501 



Sea Tslind i wooll y seeded . 

 bea Island j sniootll seeded _ 



20J 



50 



13 



37^ 



I regret being unable to give the most important element for esti- 

 mating the value of different kinds of cotton, viz., the annual yield on a 

 given area, for the materials to determine it were still incomplete. It 

 seemed that, on a very moderate estimate, the average produce of all the 

 kinds might be safely reckoned at 1,000 lbs. per acre per annum, and 

 that, under favourable circumstances, it might surpass double that 

 amount ; but some time must yet elapse before that estimate can be 

 tested. 



As I have already stated, there had, strictly speaking, never been 

 any cultivation of cotton in North Peru — nothing beyond sowing the 

 seed and gathering in the crop. The methods now in use at Monte 

 Abierto, and in Mr. Stirling's plantation of Santa Lucia, near Amotape, 

 are still scarcely more than experiments awaiting the sanction of results, 

 so that I shall need to say very little about them beyond the hints 

 already given. The cotton-plant can be cultivated in almost any warm 

 climate, moist or dry, but every modification of climate and soil seems 

 to necessitate a peculiar treatment, only to be decided upon after expe- 

 rience of niany varied trials. " Cotton Planters' Guides," detailing the 

 methods pursued by the most able cultivators in the Southern States of 

 North America, have proved very fallible guides on the Chira, so very 

 distinct are the conditions of growth of the cotton-plant in the two 

 regions. The valley of the Chira is, in some respects, a miniature Egypt ; 

 but there is no periodical wide-spreading inundation of its little Nile, 

 leaving a thick deposit of fertilising alluvium. 



The method of sowing at Monte Abierto is to dibble the seeds, 

 dropping from three to six into each hole. In three or four days the 

 seeds germinate, and if more than one plant spring up from a hole, 

 the less vigorous have to be weeded away. This seems to answer 



