] 2 



cultural Society of India. Before the close of the year I had re- 

 ceived from that Society through him abundance of Upland Georgia, 

 New Orleans, Egyptian, Peruvian, Sea Island. I also received a 

 small quantity of Tinnevelly and had obtained two kinds from 

 Manila, the white and nankeen colored. The whole of those kinds 

 were tried during the year 1837 ^nd part of 1 838, and without an 

 exception all failed as a remunerative speculation. It would be 

 useless for me to go into detail, with respect to our operations dur- 

 ing the space of nearly three years. I will simply give an outline 

 of the result of each kind of cotton planted by the late Sir JOSK 

 and myself, and some reports on samples sent to Calcutta and Eng- 

 land, which will. close my answer to your correspondent's first letter. 

 As I see he has continued his essay 1 shall continue to give the 

 agricultural amateur for cotton culture my opinion as to the likeli- 

 hood of its future success, and offer some general remarks for those 

 who may feel inclined to try it here, or elsewhere. 1 sincerly hope 

 your correspondent will not attribute these remarks to any wish on 

 my part to dampen any enterprising spirit that may wish to increase 

 cotton cultivation in our colonies, or in the Straits. Nothing can 

 be more desirable, and every means ought to be resorted to, to at- 

 tain so great a boon to the mother country. 



Pemambuco Cotton. 



Of this kind I had about 3 acres well up at the e nd of 183b and 

 ought to have taken from the held by that lime for my first crop 

 900 to 1,000 lbs. weight of .clean cotton, but it did not yield more 

 than 100 lbs. consequently a complete failure. The plants grow to 

 the height of 5 to 8 feet and 1 have seen some higher. As a gar- 

 den plant it thrives well, the pods being generally full and come to 

 maturity, but the produce under the most favourable circumstances 

 scanty : in the field the plants appeared sickly and the pods seldom 

 came to perfection, being attacked by a small maggot, destroying 

 not only the seed but also the wool, it becoming discolored by the 

 oil from the decayed seed. I did not continue this kind. My 

 neighbour had a much larger field and continued for a second crop 

 and I believe a third to the end of 1838, at which time our cotton 

 experiments were given up altogether. 



Bourbon and Sea Island. 

 My first experiments in these were apparently successful, with a 

 small patch in a very favourable spot but the first crop of 1 836 did 

 not yield the quantity necessary to make it worth cultivating; 

 neither of the kinds ever podded freely at the time they ought to 

 have given a full crop, consequently could not be cultivated as 

 annuals. From accounts received from India regarding the Bour- 

 bon, and from America respecting the Sea Island, they are reported 

 to grow about 3 feet high ; the plants in Singapore appeared to 

 have altered their nature, here they rose to six feet throughout the 

 field, and some higher, the pods of these two descriptions generally 

 were perfect but too scanty at the time they ought to have yielded 

 a lull crop, continuing to (lower and pod through-out the year, 



