THE TECHNOLOGIST. [May 1, 1865. 



440 THE COLTURE OF COTTON IN 



It is presumed that water alone will always supply all the nourish- 

 ment the plants require, and that, therefore, no manure will be needed. 

 When they reach an age to he no longer productive, it is proposed to 

 uproot them, burn them on the ground, and plough in the ashes. No 

 ploughing between the rows has yet been attempted, and very littleweed- 

 ing has had to be done ; so that the trouble and expense of keeping 

 the plantation in order are probably less than in any other part of the 

 world. 



We have just seen with what ease cotton may be grown — the seed 

 speedily germinates, in any kind of soil, if it only have moisture — the 

 plant grows rapidly and is easily kept alive — it is even patient of injury 

 so long as it gets sufficient nourishment, and I have seen cotton bushes 

 that seemed to thrive all the more from being broken and trodden 

 upon ; and yet to secure a certain and abundant crop of the peculiar 

 product of the plant — the beautiful cotton — no kind of agriculture is 

 more precarious, for there are enemies to be contended against whose 

 attacks no amount of foresight can ward off. Of all these enemies, none is 

 more baneful in Northern Peru than blight, which (as we have seen) the 

 inhabitants persist in calling heladas or frosts. For many years past its 

 ravages appear to have been on the increase, and of the two crops produced 

 annually, one at least has been an almost total failure. I was informed 

 by the small holders of land along the vega at Monte Abierto and Tan- 

 gaiaia that for a long while back they had invariably lost their Christ- 

 mas crop from heladas. As I witnessed the same effect last Christmas 

 on the Chira, I noted the symptoms, which are as follows : — When the 

 lowest pods on the branchlets were nearly ripe, and the upper ones only 

 half-formed or so, they suddenly began to turn brown at the point, as it 

 is only natural for them to do when perfectly mature. At the same 

 time the upper pedicels, especially where the[terminal one still bore only 

 a flower, began to disarticulate,'and*fell off with a touch, or when shaken 

 by the wind. The larger pods still hung on, but ceased to increase in 

 size, became more embrowned, and after a few days burst open, dis- 

 closing the cotton welded together into a hard mass, not to be broken 

 up by the gin, and, in fact, rendered quite useless for the loom. In a 

 very few of the pods that happened to be quite or nearly ripe, the 

 cotton, after a few days' exposure to the atmosphere, puffed up into its 

 normal state, and could then be gather and ginned ; but the great bulk 

 of the produce of the [plants attacked was entirely wasted. In most 

 cases (but not in all) part of the leaves of those plants turned yellow and 

 fell off ; and in short the general aspect of the plants and of their dried- 

 up fruits was precisely the same as I have seen in fruit trees in England 

 suffering from the drought in a summer. I cannot help referring 

 the blight of the cotton-plant to a similar cause, especially when I 

 consider the meteorological conditions that accompanied its appearance. 

 Through the latter part of December there was a rapid increase of heat, 

 and on the 2Sth the thermometer rose to 85°, having been only 



