1837.] 



Remarks on the Cultivation of Cotton* 



89 



ABSTRACT OP DISTRICT REPORTS. 



Ganjam.— Method of cultivation not mentioned. Very little cotton 

 is raised in this district, and would have been supposed of inferior qua- 

 lity, had it not produced much of the thread from which the Chicacole 

 muslins are fabricated. The nature of the soil is said to be inferior for 

 this kind of culture, and therefore that it would not be advisable to en- 

 courage the growth of cotton. This opinion is not borne out by the 

 tabular return, and it seems probable, from the greatness of the pro- 

 duce (46 maunds of seed-cotton per acre), that, though the country cot- 

 ton may be somewhat inferior, the American cottons may be profit- 

 ably introduced. 



Vizagapatam.— Three kinds of cotton are cultivated in this district, 

 namely, annual early white, triennial white, and red cotton. After the 

 usual ploughing and manuring, the first is sown in June when the rains 

 set in— when three feet high the tops of the branches are cropped— in the 

 third month pods are produced, and in the fourth gathering commences 

 and continues about forty days. 2d. The triennial white. This is esteem- 

 ed the best, it is sown in alluvial soils near hills in June — the gathering 

 commences in December and continues four months. The plants are 

 afterwards cut down nearly to the ground, and when the petty monsoon 

 begins the ground is well ploughed and manured, and sometimes a crop 

 of light grain reaped before the cotton harvest begins. This process is 

 repeated the second and third year, during both of which the plants are 

 in full bearing. It is not stated whether, as in Coimbatore, two crops are 

 gathered annually. 3d. The red cotton is sown on ravutty soil (de- 

 scribed as sweetish), previously well ploughed, from September to the 

 middle of October, in rows about a foot distant. When the plants are 

 about a foot high, the ground is harrowed two or three times a week, and 

 afterwards ploughed with a peculiar plough, called goontroakah, be- 

 tween the rows. They begin to bear in the sixth month, and continue 

 bearing three months. 



The peculiarity of culture in this district is the system of pruning, 

 which, if the following statement is correct, is most advantageous. Of 

 white cotton, a veesum of land, consisting of four coontahs, each forty-two 

 feet square (= 7056 square feet or somewhat less than l-6th of an acre), 

 is said to produce 30, and, if on well manured gooraopah soil, even 40 

 maunds of seed-cotton. There must surely be some error here, as the 

 district table gives 46 in place of 180 maunds to the acre, which this 

 statement if correctly calculated implies. Some Sea Island and Up- 

 land Georgia seed, sown in gardens, succeeded well and produced fine 

 cotton— these ought to be encouraged, especially the former, for coast 

 culture, being easily cleaned and the method of cultivating triennial 

 cotton being, there is reason to believe, equally applicable to it. 



