GOSSYPIUM HERBACEUM. 



77 



Injuries and diseases. 



Cost of cultivation. 



part of the liot weather to stand before it produces its fibre. Bat the radya variety is 

 said to require copious irrigation. It is essential to the proper growth of the plants 

 that they be kept free from weeds, and the ground is, as a rule, carefully weeded by hand 

 at least twice in the season, and often four times. 



The cotton bolls commence to open in October, and picking is in progress from 

 then till the end of January, unless cut short sooner by frost, — the great enemy of the 

 cotton plant. Good fields are picked every third or fourth day, but only between sunrise 

 and mid-day, while the cotton remains damp with the night's dew and comes away 

 easily. If force is necessary to separate it from the boll, bits of pod-shell come away 

 with it, which are technically known as " leaf, " and greatly damage the commercial 

 value of the produce. Cotton picking is generally done by women, who are remunerated 

 by receiving ^th to it tli of the pickings. For " ginning " or separating the cotton 

 fibres from the seed, a simple but ingenious machine is used (called a charlchi), consisting 

 of two small rollers about a foot long (one of iron the other of wood), each with one 

 end turned into an endless screw, and so geared one into the other, that when one — the 

 wooden one — is turned by a handle the other also turns in the opposite direction. When 

 cotton is applied to the rollers the fibres are drawn through, and are in this way parted 

 from the seeds. With this instrument a woman can turn out from 4 to 5 lbs. of clean 

 cotton fibre a day. The proportion of fibre and seed varies considerably, being in great 

 measure dependent on the quality of cultivation. Occasionally it rises so high as f ths 

 and falls as low as \ih, but |rd is the general average. It is interesting to note that an 

 instrument practically identical with the charkhi is used for cotton cleaning by the 

 negroes of the Southern States of America. 



Stagnant water, especially at the commencement of its growth, is most harmful to 

 the cotton plant, and fields selected for cotton are, as a rule, those in which water does 

 not lodge. Eain when the pods have commenced to open is also most damaging, since 

 the fibre becomes discoloured and rotten. Early frosts may altogether terminate the 

 picking season a month or six weeks before it would otherwise have ended, and hence the 

 eagerness shown to get the cotton seed into the ground as soon as possible. Caterpillars 

 are often very destructive, sometimes stripping a field entirely of its leaves, and an 

 immense deal of loss results from the ravages of a small white grub (called smdt) which 

 lives within the pod. 



The cost of cultivation is estimated below : — 



Ploughing (four times), 

 Clod crushing (twice), 

 Seed (nominal), 

 Sowing, 



Weeding (twice), 



Picking (jV^^i produce on 200 lbs.), 

 Cleaning (at 1^ anna per 10 lbs.), 



Manure (100 maunds), 

 Bent, t,. 



KS. 



o 

 •J 





 



13 



3 



4 



1 H 



p. 





 

 

 

 

 

 



Total, 



Grand Total, 



13 

 3 

 G 



22 9 



