February, 1910,] 



155 



Miscellaneous. 



9. The experiment was continued of 

 trying; to employ the large grain golas of 

 the Sonthal Parganas as central agencies 

 for villaage rain societies, and appears 

 to have met with a moderate amount of 

 success, The Registrar is probably 

 correct in holding that village grain 

 banks will be success!' ul only if kept on 

 a small scale, and that as their utility is 

 limited, they will tend as soon as they are 

 successful to develop into cash societies. 



10. The Lieutenant-Governor desires 

 to acknowledge the energy and tact 

 displayed by Mr. W, H. Buchan, the 

 Registrar, and his personal Assistant, 

 Babu Jamini Mohan Mitra, in the per- 

 formance of their duties, and to ac- 

 knowledge the work of the officials re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Buchan in his report. 

 To the honorary organisers in particular 

 his special thanks are due, both for what 

 they have accocomplished, and still more 

 for the example they have set to others 

 in a work of which the ultimate success 

 is dependent on the self-sacrifice and 

 enthusiasm of private individuals. 



SOME COMMERCIAL CROPS OP 

 INDIA. 



(From the Indian Trade Journal, Vol. 

 XIV., No. 179, September 2, 1909.) 



The Proceedings of the Conference of 

 the Board of Agriculture in India, which 

 assembled at Nagpur in February last, 

 have now been published and will be 

 read with interest by those concerned 

 with the agricultural products of this 

 country. The cultivation of cotton is 

 now receiving extended attention in 

 practically all countries capable of pro- 

 ducing that fibre ; and, as might be 

 expected, cotton occupied a prominent 

 place in the programme of the Board, 

 the idea being to make special investi- 

 gations into the distribution of Indian 

 cotton in the field throughout the 

 country, more especially for the purpose 

 of ascertaining exactly where the most 

 valuable forms of each variety are 

 grown, and to discover the possible 

 natural forces which favour these ; and, 

 secondly, to substitute the superior 

 varieties already discovered in place of 

 the inferior varieties now grown in 

 some tracts. This enquiry is now in 

 full swing in almost all the Provinces 

 and Presidencies of India, and is also 

 engaging attention in some of the Native 

 States. In the United Provinces, for 

 example, we find that special steps are 

 being taken to select for cultivation 

 cottons that are noted for length and 

 strength of fibre ; the distribution of 

 acclimatised American seed and the 



organisation of a market for the produce. 

 In the Punjab a collection of the cotton 

 grown there, as well as in the North- 

 West Frontier Province, has been made 

 and a botanical survey of this will be 

 completed. Plant to plant selection and 

 hyhridising are to be continued, while 

 some new Egyptian varieties are under 

 observation. In the Bombay Presidency 

 it has now been shown that Egyptian 

 cotton can be grown with success in 

 Siud at a good profit, and this fact is 

 now to be demonstrated on a larger 

 scale on the Jamrao Canal in order 

 to induce the people to cultivate it 

 properly. Upland American cotton is 

 also to be tried in Upper Sind. The 

 cultivation of Broach cotton is now an 

 established success in the Southern 

 Maharatta country, and Cambodia cotton 

 promises well at Dharwar. Throughout 

 the Bombay Presidency the improve- 

 ment of cotton by plant to plant selec- 

 tion is being continued and efforts are 

 being made to obtain a fixed type of 

 cotton of superior quality. In Madras 

 the cultivation of desirable cotton is 

 being pushed to the front, and the seed 

 of good varieties is being distributed on 

 a large scale. Cambodia cotton has 

 already found favour there, but the 

 experiments now in hand are calculated 

 to decide the best varieties for culti- 

 vation in the various districts of that 

 Presidency. Cotton cultivation is also 

 receiving a large deal of attention in 

 the Central Provinces and Berar, where, 

 amongst other scientific tests, the rota- 

 tion of crops with cotton as the principal 

 crop is determined. In Burma, too, the 

 experiments recently undertaken with 

 Egyptian cotton show promise of success. 

 In Bengal, cotton is under experiment 

 at Chaibassa where manurial and selec- 

 tion experiments on the buri variety are 

 in progress. In short, the progress 

 being made throughout the country 

 seems to imply that the time will soon 

 come when suitable varieties of cotton 

 will be found for most of the cotton- 

 producing districts in both India and 

 Burma, and that this country's annual 

 contribution to the world's cotton stocks 

 should grow appreciably larger in the 

 almost immediate future. 



A matter of great importance to 

 India, as we have frequently tried 

 to show, is the cultivation of a good 

 quality of sugarcane on a very much 

 larger scale than has hitherto been 

 practised ; and we notice that this 

 subject is given a liberal measure of 

 attention by the Board. In the United 

 Provinces important local varieties of 

 cane are being tested with a view to 

 determine some of the factors that in- 

 fluence the composition of the juice: 



