April, 1910,1 



303 



FIBRES. 



CULTIVATION OF TREE COTTONS. 



(From the A griculturalJournal of India, 

 Vol. IV., Part III.) 

 Tree cotton is a perennial variety 

 which may occupy the ground for some 

 years. 



The method of cultivation should, 

 therefore, approximate more closely to 

 that of fruit orchards than to that of 

 ordinary field crops. 



The seedlings should, therefore, be 

 grown from seed sown in threes or fours 

 in well-prepared soil in centres 6 feet 

 more or less apart, or on a well-prepared 

 nursery on a well-drained site. The seed 

 should be sown in this nursery in March 

 at distances of 3 inches, and the plants 

 should be watered. In June-J uly (begin- 

 ning of the monsoon) strong young 

 plants will be ready to transplant into 

 their permanent homes. They should 

 be planted out at distances of from 5' x_5' 

 to 7' x 7' apart according to variety in 

 holes dug to a depth of about 1$ to 2 feet. 

 Care must be taken not to injure the 

 tap-root of the plants in moving them 

 from the nursery. An alternative 

 method which is not costly and which 

 avoids risks in transplanting, is to sow 

 the seed in baskets made of bamboo 

 about 8" high and 4" broad, placed close 

 together with the places between the 

 baskets filled up with earth. The whole 

 space thus occupied can be watered 

 either by hand or by flow irrigation. 

 The seedlings should be sheltered from 

 hot winds. 



When the time for planting has 

 arrived, each seedling can easily be 

 removed from the basket without dis- 

 turbing the roots to any extent, and to 

 less extent than if grown in earthen 

 pots. Well-rotted cowdung manure 

 should be freely mixed with the soil of 

 the hole in which each plant is perma- 

 nently planted. The usual showers in 

 India throughout July, August and 

 September should give the plants a good 

 start. An alternative system for trial 

 would be to sow the seed in basket or 

 in nursery in July and plant out in 

 September. 



In land which is liable to be flooded 

 during heavy rains, it is recommended 

 that the seedlings should be planted out 

 on small raised hillocks or on ridges. 



This very general advice about tree 

 cotton cultivation is given with diffi- 

 dence because, except under very favour- 

 able conditions, the cultivation of tree 

 cottons on demonstration areas has not 

 been successful in India. 



The plantations usually, even in 

 return for expensive cultivation, only 

 give a very small outturn during the 

 first two years, and a very uncertain 

 crop afterwards. It is possible to grow 

 profitably a catch crop (by preference a 

 leguminous crop) between the rows in 

 the first season. 



It is advisable that twelve months 

 after sowing, and just before the rains, 

 the trees should be cut down to the 

 lower branches, and pruning should be 

 done each year just before the beginning 

 of the monsoon, so that new branches 

 will bear in the following cold weather. 

 This pruning will check the trees from 

 bearing all the year round, which is an 

 inconvenience, as during the rainy 

 season the cotton bolls are damaged, 

 and besides, the trees should have an 

 annual rest. 



After the trees have become estab- 

 lished, they require only occasional 

 manuring if the soil is fertile, but the 

 plantations must be kept free of grass 

 weeds and undergrowth. 



One chief care is to fight insect pests, 

 to which tree cotton is very susceptible. 

 The pests, when once established, are 

 difficult to get rid of because the trees 

 are perennial.— (Editor). 



COTTON SEED. 



Weight as a Factor in Selection. 



(From the Indian Trade Journal, Vol. 

 XV,, No. 191, November 25, 1909.) 

 Although it has long been known that 

 the heaviness of the seed used for sowing 

 is closely connected with the vigour of 

 the resulting plants and with the yield 

 and quality of the crops, yet the point 

 does not appear to have received so 

 much attention from agriculturists as it 

 undoubtedly deserves. It has been 

 shown by numerous investigators, both 

 in Europe and America, that, under 

 similar conditions, larger crops of the 

 cereals are produced from heavy seed 

 than from lighter seed of the same 

 variety, and the fact has been established 

 that in most, if not all, cases, the time, 

 labour and expenditure involved in the 

 selection of heavy seed for planting are 

 amply repaid by the enhanced value of 

 the crops. 



The superiority of heavy seed is, of * 

 course, due to the larger quantity of 

 reserva material which it contains, and 

 which is available for the nourishment 

 of the plant, thereby enabling it to 



