8 



COTTON-WOOL. 



Letter from shrub the fii'st and second time of gathering is the 

 Governor-gen., finest, and it afterwards gradually diminishes in 

 quantity, as the vigour of the shrub becomes more 

 and more exhausted ; the difference of which be- 

 tween the first and last crop is estimated at about 

 five rupees in the candy. The produce is gene- 

 rally valued at two third-parts seeds and one third- 

 part cotton, when cleaned at the wheel or cheriah ; 

 but if the soil is fine and the season has been 

 favourable, it will produce a few seers more, some- 

 times yielding even seventeen seers of clean cotton. 

 It is usual to sow four or five seers of seed in one 

 begah of ground, which with a favourable season 

 is expected to yield about twenty-five maunds 

 including the seed. At the season for flowering 

 and budding, sun and dews are much required, 

 cloudy and rainy weather destroying the crop. 



Cotton ought not to be sown two succeeding 

 seasons in the same ground, though it does not 

 injure the ground to sow grain of different kinds, 

 such as do not, like rice, require much water in 

 it ; yet, letting the earth be fallow one season, 

 having it well cleared of weeds and roots, and 

 thoroughly opened so as to imbibe the rains, much 

 improves it, and makes it yield a good crop of the 

 finest cotton the next year, provided the season is 

 not unfavourable. Among the poorer planters it 

 is customary to sow cotton every year in the same 

 land, but it generally lessens the crop considerably, 

 both in quality and quantity. 



The 



