80 



Remarks on the Cultivation of Cotton. 



[Jult 



In the cultivation of Sea Island considerable attention to the soil and 

 situation seems indispensable. Mr, Piddington in his paper on soils, 

 has shown that a large percentage of calcarious matter is nearly essen- 

 tial to a good cotton soil, a result that corresponds exactly with the fol- 

 lowing account of the soil of the Sea islands, extracted from Dr. Ure's 

 work on the Cotton Manufacture, vol. 1, page 101. " There is a long 

 range of Islands lying between George Town in South Carolina, and St. 

 Mary's in Georgia which extends from 32° 30' to 30 o of north latitude, 

 through a space of 200 miles. These Islands were originally covered 

 with live oak, and the other evergreens of a southern climate ; they had 

 been the abode of a particular tribe of the red men of the west, who were 

 fishermen rather than hunters : the accumulatian of oysters, clambs, and 

 other kinds of shells, mingled with the remains of the bones and pottery 

 of the ancient Aborigines, is so vast as to fill every stranger with asto- 

 nishment j and these calcarious matters had become intimately mixed 

 with the sandy soil and decayed vegetables into a peculiar loam, of a 

 light and fertile nature. A former colony of English settlers had made 

 the shores of these islands the seat of some indigo plantations. It was 

 upon two of these islets, separated from the continent by a few miles 

 of grassy salt marsh, that the Sea-island cotton was first made to grow."' 

 Again, page 102 " It is within the district from St. Mary's in Georgia 

 to George Town in South Carolina, extending not more than 15 miles 

 inland, that the Sea-island cotton is still confined. Whenever its culti- 

 vation has been attempted, to the North, South or West, beyond these 

 limits, a certain decline in its quality has been observed to take place." 

 From this it would appear that the light coast soils are the most appro- 

 priate for this sort, and will be still better, when, from the vicinity of 

 deposits of shells, copious supplies of calcarious matter can be had for 

 manure. 



The Upland Georgia, or short staple cotton, is not so exclusive in 

 the selection of its soil, but it also prefers a loose grey or reddish, 

 somewhat sandy loam, not liable to crack and gape during the hot 

 season. This I consider of consequence, as I esteem it essential to 

 success, in the cultivation of this variety in India, that we change the 

 constitution of the plant from an annual to a perennial, or at least to a 

 biennial, a change which the frosts of its native country prevent, but 

 which we can have no difficulty in accomplishing, all that is required 

 being, to cut down the plants after the crop is gathered, and allow the 

 roots to lie dormant, until the setting in of the next rains revive them, 

 when fresh ploughing and manuring will secure a second, and probably 

 much better, crop than the first ; such at least from analogy I judgejvill 

 be the case. Some further remarks will be found on this subject in a 

 subsequent page. Similar treatment I feel assured will convert our 



