1836.] 



of the Southern Mahratta Country. 



477 



very little produced in Mysore, Malabar, and the other parts of the pe- 

 ninsula, which are to the south of this district ; and in the few places 

 where it is met with in these countries, it is found to be of an inferior 

 quality.* Is this owing to the absence of the regur or cotton ground 

 in these parts ? I am indebted for the following account of the mode 

 of cultivating cotton in the Darwar district to J. R. Stevenson, Esq. 

 sub-collector in the Southern Mahratta country : 



" The black regur land on which cotton is sown is never manured ; 

 but cotton crops are only raised from it once in three years. If raised 

 two j^ears in succession, the crop of the second year is always bad. 

 In the two intervening seasons juwaryf is generally cultivated, and the 

 crops of juwary produced the year after the cotton are very abundant ; 

 so much so, that the ryuts have a long story of a farmer, who, when 

 he felt himself dying, only regretted that he was not spared to reap 

 the crops of the year succeeding the cotton season ; and he bitterly 

 upbraided fate for its injustice in depriving him of what he had been 

 looking forward to for three years. 



" The cotton seed is sown with a drill plough, in drills about ten or 

 twelve inches asunder, in the end of August, or beginning of Septem- 

 ber, or as soon after the middle of August as the land is sufficiently 

 saturated to receive the seed.J In about eight days the plant makes 

 its appearance ; and when it is nearly five or six inches high (about 

 November), the weeding commences. The weeding implement is 

 called Yedee. It is a double hoe, the blades being about three or four 

 inches apart ; is drawn by bullocks, and guided by a handle projecting 

 backwards. The blades of the hoe, which turn rather inwards, cut out 

 the weeds, and at the same time throw earth on the roots of the plants., 

 This process of weeding is henceforward repeated once in eight or ten 

 days, or oftener, if required. The cotton should be ready for gather- 

 ing in the beginning of January. The first gathering is not considered 

 good. The second and third are the most plentiful ; and the harvest 

 continues so long as the plants continue to bear, which they generally 

 cease to do in the end of March. The labourers employed in gather- 

 ing are paid in kind. They receive a fourth of the first picking, a 

 sixth or an eighth of the second and third, and a fourth or a fifth of the 

 remaining. When the period of ploughing arrives, the stems are 

 picked up, and are used as fire-wood, or for making baskets, &c. 



" "When the cotton is brought to the cultivator's house, it is spread 

 out in the sun, and thrashed with rods to cleanse it of the husks. It is 



* Vide Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, &c. 

 t Andropogon Sorghum, Flor. Ind. 



% The time of sowing necessarily differs in different parts of the district, for the rain* 

 are later as we proceed eastward. 



