Cullivation of Cotton in liidiu. 



170 



its growth when mixed with the cah>areous tufa, known in India by the 

 name of Kankar. 



It was in soil of this kind, which occurs abundantly in Coimba- 

 tore, that my experiments were made : I made an abridgment of Mr» 

 Hughes's paper, and had it translated into Tamul ; a copy of this was 

 given to each farmer who agreed to make trial of the seed, and I had a 

 person whose duty it was to go round and inspect the progress of the 

 cultivation, and to make monthly reports to me upon it ; at the proper 

 season for pruning the plants, I went myself and showed how the opera- 

 tion should be performed, and I believe that the success of the experi- 

 ment was, in a great measure, owing to this step. I have never observed 

 that the process of pruning bars been adopted by the natives in any branch 

 of their husbandry ; and I believe it is quite indispensable for the sue 

 cessful cultivation of the Bourbon cotton. 



In the districts on the Coromandel coast, south of Madras, the 

 light soil above described is more abundant than any other ; and there 

 is no doubt that the Bourbon cotton plant might be successfully cul- 

 tivated wherever it occurs: the only point on which my experience 

 differs from that of Mr. Hughes is, as to the influence of vicinity 

 to the sea, upon the cultivation of this plant. He seems to think that 

 situations near the sea are necessary to bring the plant to perfection \ 

 my experience goes to show that it will come to perfection at 150 miles 

 from the sea. 



At the time I commenced my experiments, the price of cotton 

 (Oopum), was about per pound in the district ; this was a high 

 price comparatively, and had been caused by the unprecedented de- 

 mand for cotlon in 1818: the usual prices had ranged from 2d. to 2|c?. 

 To induce the farmers to make trial of the Bourbon seed, I offered 

 them a price for their uncleaned cotton, which would have made the 

 cost of clean cotton about A^d. per pound; the value of the Bourbon 

 cotton in the English market was fully 50 per cent, more than that of 

 the country cotton ; and in some instances where proper attention was 

 given to the cleaning, the value of the Bourbon was more than double 

 that of the country cotton. 



Before I quitted India, in the year 1825, the situation of Commercial 

 Resident of Salem and Coimbatore was abolished, and the Company 

 discontinued their encouragement of the cultivation of Bourbon cotton in 

 that quarter. The natives not requiring so fine a material for their own 

 use, and not finding a market for it, on the part of European merchants, 

 discontinued the cultivation: and a great proportion of the land which 

 i left under cultivation with Bourbon cotton, was cleared to make room 



