1836.] 



Sugar, and the Tea plant. 



485 



and in this respect, it probably resembles the black cotton soils of 

 Southern India. No wonder that the Bourbon cotton, though it grows 

 well in many of our gardens near town, where it meets with plenty of 

 calcarious matter amongst the lime-rubbish with which most of them 

 are filled, is said to degenerate when cultivated in the open fields, 

 which do not contain 2 per cent of lime. I know, from the experience 

 of several years, that it does not degenerate if it is duly supplied with 

 calcarious matter ; but that it will produce most abundantly, and for 

 years, cotton worth from lOd. to lid. per lb. in a proper soil. If the 

 soil does not suit it, it will produce little else than leaves and wood, 

 and the staple will deteriorate. Samples of American cotton soils are 

 wanting now to make our theory on this head perfect ; but I would ad- 

 vise no man to attempt foreign cottons in a soil containing less than 15 

 per cent, of lime, and its iron mostly in the state of protoxide or black 

 oxide. 



Tobacco. — Tobacco soils are the next, and here we are more fortu- 

 nate, for there are on the table soils from Arracan (Sandoway) ; a soil 

 from Singour in Burdwan, near Chandernagore, the tobacco of which, 

 though of the same species as that of the surrounding country, sells at 

 the price of the Arracan sort ! and the soil of the best Bengal tobacco, 

 which is grown at and about Hinglee, in the Kishnagar district, near 

 factories formerly held by me. Colonel Hazeta and Dr. Casanova are 

 our authorities for saying, that the tobacco soils of the Havanna are red 

 soils, and those of Manilla, I know, are also red soil. Now the red and 

 reddish brown soils contain most of their iron in the state of peroxide, 

 or the reddish brown oxide of iron ; while the light-grey soils contain 

 it only in the state of protoxide, or the black oxide of iron. I believe 

 the quality of the tobacco to depend mainly on the state and quantity of 

 the iron in the soil ; while it is indifferent about the lime, which we 

 have seen is so essential to cotton. None of these tobacco soils contain 

 any lime. Their analysis shows them to contain : — 



Arracan soil. Singour soil. Hinglee soil. 





15.65 



10.60 



6.00* 





1.00 



0.75 



1.50 



Vegetable matter and fibres.. 



3.75 



1.10 



.75 





76.90 



80.65 



87.25 





2.00 



4,50 



1.50 





99.40 



97.69 



97-00 



Water and Loss 



.60 



2.40 



3.00 





100.0 



100.00 



100.0 



* Mostly protoxide. 



