GOSSYPIUM HERBACEUM. 



There is no crop tlie outturn of which has been so systematically underrated as that 

 of cotton, and if we are to believe the District reports of the last three years, the Provincial 

 average is only 59-8 lbs. per acre, in which case it may be demonstrated that it would not 

 pay to grow it at all. After consideration of the estimates arrived at by Settlement 

 officers, which exhibit, it must be said, the most astounding discrepancies, and utilizing 

 the experience of two years on the Cawnpore Farm, an all round estimate of 170 lbs. of 

 clean cotton per acre of irrigated, and 150 lbs. per acre of unirrigated, land is the lowest 

 which can be safely struck, except for Oudh and the Benares Division, where 100 lbs. may 

 be taken as sufficient. Por cotton mixed with arUar these outturns should be reduced by 

 about 25 per cent. 



The average area under cotton during the three years 1878 to 1880 in the 30 tem- 

 porarily settled N.-W. Provinces Districts is shown below : — 



Cotlon alone. 



Irrigated, 

 Uuirrigated, 



Total, ... 



Cotton and Arhar. 



Irrigated, 

 Unirrigated, 



Total, ... 



Grand Total, ... 



Meerut 

 Division. 



Rohilkhand 

 Division. 



Agra 

 Division. 



Allahabad, 

 excluding 

 Jaunpur. 



Benares 

 Division, 

 including 



only 

 Azamgarh, 

 Gorakhpur 

 and Basti. 



Jhansi 

 Division. 



Tarai 

 District. 



Total of 30 

 temporarily 

 settled 

 Districts. 



acres, 



73,G01 

 l,2G,10l 



acres. 



1,0G5 

 66,819 



acres. 



13,273 

 89,733 



acres. 



1,435 

 1,03,758 



acres, 



27 

 2,108 



acres, 



426 

 37,001 



acres. 



192 



2,459 



acres. 



90,019 

 4,27,979 



1,99,702 



67,884 



1,03,006 



1,05,193 



2,135 



37,427 



2,651 



5,17,998 



84,010 

 81,599 



827 

 1,04,051 



27,082 

 2,53,103 



4,244 

 3,12,519 



207 



3,226 



467 

 53,71 G 



6 



406 



66,843 

 8,08,620 



1,15,G09 



1,04,878 



2,80,185 



3,16,763 



3,433 



54,183 



412 



8,75,463 



3,15,311 



1,72,762 



3,83,191 



4,21,956 



5,568 



91,610 



3,063 



13,93,461 



The annual District returns show the area under cotton in Oudh and the 5 perma- 

 nently settled N.-W. Provinces Districts to be about 56,000 acres, which brings the total 

 average up to close upon 14,50,000 acres. 



Below are given the net exports by rail for the last three years — 



1878-79. 1879-80. 1880-81. 



mds. mds. mds. 



To Calcutta,... ... ... 4,39,041 9,00,950 10,22,339 



Elsewliere, ... ... ... 87,246 1,81,429 1,75,581 



Total, ... 5,26,287 10,82,379 11,97,920 



This account would be incomplete without some notice of the efforts which have 

 been made by Government (especially during the period succeeding the American war of 

 1864) to improve the cotton produce of the country and stimulate traffic in it. Numer- 

 ous " Model Farms" were started, and efforts made to acclimatize foreign varieties and to 

 hj'^bridize the indigenous ones, but with little or no success, except in the Dharwar tract 



