320 
from October to March, the major portion from October to January. 
The latter does not commence to come into market much before February, 
and is, as a rule, over by April, though exceptional erops are not ripe 
before June. The early crops are represented by the * Bengals" (such 
as the cottons of the Panjab, the North-West Provinces, Oudh, and 
gal), the “ Oomras "' the chief cottons of Khandesh, Berar, &e.), 
. the * Hinganghats ” e the Central Provinces, &c.), and many of the 
Sind cottons. The late crops are represented by the “ Dholeras ” 
a 
o n 
such as “the saw-ghinned Dharwar,” “Verawal,? “Salems,” and 
“ Coimbatores,” which are also, however, all late crops. While we have 
thus a comparatively easy classification according to season, this is at 
once revealed as more or less the expression of meteorological conditions, 
since within almost any one of the regions of these crops widely different 
forms are separately classed in the trade under the names of the districts 
where produced. "These when examined botanically are often found to 
yield one of the finest of all Indian long-staple cottons. During the 
months mentioned, however, the soil is split into great blocks, the cracks 
penetrating to such a depth as to render perennial crops an impossibility. 
As the result, trees are very rare and hedges all but unknown. few 
miles off, the lighter soils of large portions of Baroda are able to 
support perennial cottons, trees become frequent, and hedges universal. 
Here, then, are two cotton erops of the late series growing side by side, 
but which practically cannot be interchanged from distriet to district, 
and in which the systems of cultivation pod and the quality of the 
staples afforded are as different as the two plants are from each other. 
They are botanically, agrisultardity. and mimm iie different things, 
and dure to be trented as „such, — the object desired be to extend 
oler so 
Indeed one of the chief forms of Broach has inar been derived from 
Kathiawar, so that the trade distinction of ** Dholeras" from * h 
and Surats” cannot be upheld botanically. What is more curious, the 
once famous Laberkhuva cotton of Mongrol was found on inquiry to be 
often o 
limits indeed within which an extension of the area of cultivation can 
carried without destroying completely all the special properties of the 
crop. 
The total area in cultivation under cotton in British rm in 1892-93 
was nearly 9,000,000 acres. The largest areas were in Madras, Berar, 
. Bombay, and the "North-West Provinces. The highest punt of cotton 
during the last five years took place in 1889-90, when cotton to the 
value of 187,000,000 rupees was shipped from India, ‘The export in 
