188 COTTON ITs THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [CHAP. Y.jl 



several of tlie most useful varieties of foreign Cotton ;j $ 

 particularly the Mexican or New Orleans, the Seam 

 Island, the Egyptian, and the Brazilian or Pernambuco, h 

 The three last are long- stapled Cottons, and fetch high; \ 

 prices in the English market. My remarks however^ 

 will be less explicit, as I have seen but little of the^ 

 coast experiment, which is still in its infancy, andj tt 

 which has laboured under considerable disadvantage, ft 

 from being conducted by gentlemen but little con-^ 

 versant with agricultural affairs. K 



280 Partial success of Mr. David Lees on the sandy I 

 coast lands of Tinnevelly: error as regards deep w 

 sowing. — The cultivation of American Cotton by Mr. ;lt 

 David Lees, on the sandy coast lands of Tinnevelly,^ 

 has proved only partially successful ; for whilst Mr, f 

 Lees was a warm and sanguine advocate of the experi- 1 

 ment, he was unfortunately an unskilful agriculturist. [ 

 He desired to modify the cultivation by deep sowing;^ 

 and feeling dissatisfied at the results of sowing theft 

 seed three inches under the surface, he gave directions w 

 for sowing it still deeper. This modification wasj} 

 founded on an erroneous deduction, and its practice p 

 has already been found to do harm. Cotton ought t ] 

 not to be sown deeper than one or two inches. Whatf] 

 is required is a light loose soil, into which its slender j 

 tap root can easily penetrate ; and when that is secured. ji 

 the nearer the seed lies to the surface the better^] 

 Nature sows entirely on the surface, and ordains that p 

 the root shall descend and the stem ascend. Loose 

 soil and light covering promote both these ends, and 

 are more likely to increase than to diminish the pro- 

 duce ; and indeed, unless the former of these conditions ^ 

 be secured, and maintained by occasional hoeing and j 

 ploughing between the rows, the plant does not thrive J 

 The roots, in short, of a healthy growing plant require j 

 the free access of the air, almost as much as the leaves j 

 require light ; and unless they have it, the plant be- r 

 comes more or less sickly. 



281 Sandy soils along the Coromandel Coast adapted tc 

 the cultivation of American Cotton. — But whilst the tt 



