356 



COTTON-WOOL. 



Appendix. me, and I have some men constantly in m}' service, 

 so that the loss is less to me than I have stated. On the 

 other hand, there are bad years, and four rupees per 

 maimd is a high price for cotton : it has sometimes been 

 as low as two. The price oflaboar is rated rather high; 

 but labour, since the famine, has risen, and hands sufficient 

 for the service of the field cannot be procured when the 

 season is. 



The substantial husbandman does not immediately sell 

 his cotton, but stores it, and carries it to the hauts in 

 small quantities, by which he disposes of it to the greatest 

 advantage. The poorer men often receive advances from 

 the mooders, and contract to deliver their cotton, when 

 ripe, at a certain rate less than the market price. 



Mode of Culture. 



Photee is the produce of an annual shrub, and gathered 

 in the months of April and September : that which is 

 produced in April is most liable to failure, from long 

 drought or from too frequent violent north-westers. 

 Moderate showers are very beneficial to it. The April 

 crop is sown in October or November ; the September is 

 sown in April or May, and only upon grounds least 

 liable to be overflowed : it is certain not to suffer drought, 

 and the rains, although in this part of Bengal heavy and 

 continued, do not hurt the crop, in the manner the violent 

 sudden storms do in April. 



The seed of the cotton used by the spinners will not 

 grow. The seed for sowing must be kept in the sur- 

 rounding cotton, and when gathered from the plant well 

 dried in the sun, then put into an earthen pot in which 

 oil or ghee has been kept; the mouth must be carefully 

 stopped. It is thus kept till seed-time. 



