COTTON-WOOL. 



379 



Append 



DIRECTIONS 



FOR THE 



CULTURE of COTTON in AFRICA. 



(Printed by the African Society after Mr. R. Hunt's Publication 

 of 1808.) 



Cotton grows in any soil that is not overmoist. The 

 common opinion however, that it flourishes most in barren 

 or impoverished land is erroneous. It will doubtless grow in 

 thin arid soils not exhausted by previous cultivation, yet 

 there cannot be a doubt that it will prove more produc- 

 tive in good or middling land, consisting of a loose dry 

 mould free from clay or marl. If the inclination of the 

 land be sufficient to carry off the water, the labour of 

 trenching and draining which is necessary in level lands 

 will be saved. As no plant requires so little rain as 

 cotton, the close vicinity of high mountains is injurious to 

 it, while it is beneficial to the coffee. On the other hand, 

 the saline air of the sea-shore, which generally destroys 

 coffee, is favourable to cotton. 



The land for cotton must be cleared in the dry season, 

 and the operation should commence in sufficient time to 

 allow the wood and brush which have been cut down to 

 dry, so as to be burned before the rains set in. The 

 process of cleaning need not be described. It would, 

 however, be a great improvement of the method which 

 prevails in Africa, if the underwood and small wood were 

 grubbed out, and the large wood were not only cut down, 

 but its branches lopped off, and its trunk also cut into 

 such logs as may be easily removed and heaped together 



for 



