180 



growers out of the tropics ; that is, that they should depend on annual* 

 plants ; — and on cultivation in large fields, with a proper economy of 

 gangs ; and of prickers, frequently traversing the fields to gather in 

 the pods as they successively expand and ripen in crop time. 



If instead of cultivating by a system of standard trees, bearing for 

 a continuance of ten pears, we resort to annual planting, Cottton must 

 always be an expensive and precarious crop. We, within the tropics, 

 are not bound to any such system. If we feel that we have no expe- 

 perience now to guide us, in what is best for the economy of labour, 

 we must resort not to the North American Continent for instruction, 

 but to China and the neighbouring Indian Islands that cultivate Cot- 

 ton to a large extent for the Chinese market. We shall show what 

 this is, by some extracts from Richardson Porter's " Tropical Agri- 

 culturist." 



" The Chinese possess both the Cotton tree, and the herbaceous Cot- 

 ton plant. These are cultivated to a very great extent in different 

 parts of that vast empire, yet its produce is not in sufficient abundance 

 to answer all the demands of the Chinese population, and very consi- 

 derable supplies of Cotton are drawn from India. The annual ship- 

 ments of Cotton-wool from the presidency of Bombay to Canton has 

 been stated at nearly forty millions of pounds " (Tropical Agricultu- 

 rist, page 28.) 



" It is customary in China to allow the Cotton shrub to remain on 

 the ground during three years, and in ths fourth year to root it out 

 and plant the land with grain. In some provinces a different course 

 is pursued, and after two crops of Cotton have been taken, two grain 

 harvests are produced, and so on in succession : — it is said that legu- 

 minous plants are never raised from land appropriated to Cotton ciilti- 

 vation" (Ibid, page 29.) 



"The cultivators of Cotton in the Southern States of the American 

 Union, confine their attention to such plants as are of annual growth." 

 (Ibid, page 34.) 



Here you perceive, we have the Chinese in a more torrid climate 

 than the American, getting rid of annual planting and maintaining a 

 system of standard perennial trees — increasing the years of their du- 

 ration, according to the increase of temperature ; and to the extent of 

 that difference, cheapening the cost of culture. 



" Both the shrub and the tree species of Cotton are cultivated to a 

 great extent in the Indian Islands Of the first kind, there are many 

 varieties differing in the duration of the plant, some being annual, and 

 others perennial. The Cotton produced in Kutung is reported to be 

 the finest; a fact which probably is more owing to local circumstances 

 than to any real and essential difference in the plants. Yast quantises 

 are raised in the Kingdom of Celebes, in Timur, Mongarai, Lombok, 

 Bali, and in the productive island of Java, which last, although pro- 

 bably the most improved of all, as respects its agriculture, yet yields 

 the coarsest v and least valuable description of Cotton." (Ibid, page 

 33 ) 



Having shown in these extracts that there are two systems of Cot- 

 ton planting, — the annual and perennial : and that dependence on ihe 



