1836.] 



Flora of Court allum. 



change are becoming evident. The exportation of piece goods, from 

 the comparatively small quantity that could be produced for exporta- 

 tion, and the great expense of fabrication, never could return a propor- 

 tional, if even a remunerating, profit to the country. The raw material, 

 on the contrary, owing to the unlimited demand, the comparatively high 

 price which it bears, and the small expense of preparing it for the 

 market, not only remunerates, but returns such a profit, as to stimulate 

 to a vastly increased production ; when we add to this, that our growers 

 can now clothe themselves with English cloth more cheaply than they 

 formerly could with native, we can at once appreciate the advantages 

 which India is in course of deriving from the English cotton manufac- 

 tories ; and how 7 much her fulure prosperity must depend on the exten- 

 sion and improvement of her cotton cultivation- The fulfilling of these 

 conditions is, in truth, indispensable to a continuance of that commercial 

 prosperity, which is now beginning to dawn on us ; since, unless we 

 labour diligently to improve the quality, and diminish the exportation 

 price of our cotton, great as the demand now assuredly is, we can 

 scarcely expect that it will be able to hold its present place in the Eng- 

 lish market, when opposed by so many competitors, and, still more, by 

 the long and expensive voyage required to bring it into that market. 



This is not the place to enter on the description of the methods of 

 cultivation, but I may mention, generally, that the soil of much of the 

 Peninsula is w 7 ell suited for raising some of the finer kinds of foreign 

 cotton, such as the Bourbon and American green seed cottons. Those 

 soils in which the former thrives best, at least in the Tinnevelly district? 

 are light, loose and sandy, of a deep rusty red colour, and largely im- 

 pregnated with iron ; for the latter, dark soils, of a loose and friable 

 description, from containing a considerable admixture of sand, and that 

 have formerly been under wet cultivation. To do the plants justice 

 these should be ploughed with a deeper furrow than is usual in Hindoo 

 agriculture, to allow of free access to the depth of at least a foot to a 

 large descending, or tap, root with which it is furnished. The sowings 

 are generally commenced near the end of the rains ; it would be better 

 if they were done earlier, to allow the plants time to attain nearly their 

 full size, before the hot dry season set in. This is of consequence ? 

 because it is the check which it then receives, that determines to the 

 formation of flower buds, which by being delayed till this more ad- 

 vanced stage, would probably be productive of larger crops and better 

 cotton. Cropping the ends of the young shoots, at this time, w ould still 

 further lead to the same effect; by stopping the too rapid flow of the 

 sap, and favouring the concentration of the secretions, and thereby the 

 formation of flowers and fruit. I mentioned, at the conclusion of my 

 last paper, the tendency of extreme luxuriancy of vegetation to cause 

 sterility. This is frequently the case with cotton ; hence the almost con- 



