1837.] 



Remarks on the Cultivation of Cotton. 



83 



vious outlay and labour bestowed on their culture. Could not the 

 interference of art effect a beneficial alteration by so modifying the 

 growth, as to allow the plants to attain greater maturity previous to 

 flowering, thus fitting them longer to resist the drought and heat of 

 the bearing season, and in an equal ratio increase the produce ? 



If the opinion stated above be found correct in practice, the plan I 

 am about to propose for the attainment of this object will fail, but not 

 believing it well founded, or rather indeed knowing it to be erroneous, 

 at the same time esteeming it a duty incumbent on us to endeavour 

 by every means in our power to augment the produce of the soil, 

 more especially by teaching the natives improved modes of agricul- 

 ture, 1 can have no hesitation in recommending the method for trial ; 

 the more so, as the requisite, trials to determine its value, may be 

 made at a very small expense, and, if successfully, may with an in- 

 considerable increase of cost and labour lead to greatly augmented 

 returns. 



The prevalent practice in the cultivation of cotton is to prepare the 

 ground by repeated ploughings after the first rains have loosened the 

 surface, and wait for sowing, in some districts until the setting in of 

 the petty monsoon in July, in others till October or November, when 

 the first burst of the North East monsoon is past. From five to seven 

 months after, the harvest begins, and lasts from one to two months. 



With the view of ascertaining the relative advantages of late and 

 early sowing, I constructed from the district reports the second column 

 of the accompanying table, from which however no very satisfactory 

 conclusion can be drawn, as the differences of seed-time seemingly de- 

 pend on local variations of season in the different districts. In all, 

 with the exception of Vizagapatam and perhaps Ganjam, the, in my 

 opinion, objectionable system prevails, of allowing the plants to flower 

 without a check before they have obtained sufficient maturity, or their 

 roots have acquired that strength and diffusion, requisite to enable them 

 to resist the drought of the dry season. 



The method by which I propose to obviate this objection is the in- 

 troduction of transplanting, a system so generally prevalent in native 

 agriculture, and its advantages so well known, that it is not likely to 

 meet frivolous or unsubstantial opposition. 



In herbaceous vegetables " transplanting has the effect of increasing 

 the proportion of fibrous relatively to their ramose roots, by which it 

 is found to increase the size and succulency of their leaves, flowers and 

 fruit." I anticipate other advantages. I think it will produce hardier 

 and stronger plants by the check to vegetation which it will cause, 

 allowing time for the first layer of wood to harden, and by conferring 

 on the plants a somewhat biennial character, cause a larger formation 

 of new shoots, on which the crop depends, and with them the produc- 



