9i Remarks on the Cultivation of Cotton, [July 



the best methods of cultivating the American cottons, and the kind 

 best suited for India. The results are upon the whole unsatisfactory, 

 owing principally, the committee believe, " to our ignorance of the 

 proper seasons for sowing; bad seed ; and from the selection of land, 

 rather forced upon the society and wholly unsuited to the growth 

 of cotton, being too rich in most places, and too salt in others." The 

 committee observe " This fact is so palpable that it hardly requires re- 

 mark. It has shown itself in every progressive step from sowing the 

 seed, to the last stage of cropping the cotton. 



" 1st. It has shown itself by the rapidity and luxuriance of vegeta- 

 tion in the production of abundance of wood, leaf, and flower, but little 

 produce. 



2d. By an almost unceasing process of blossoming, thereby ex- 

 hausting the plant before it had attained maturity, and consequently 

 deteriorating the staple in the ratio of excessive bearing. 



3d. By the general result of short produce, an invariable sign of 

 too rich and moist a soil. 



4th. To another cause your Committee are disposed to ascribe 

 failure, viz. an improper mode of planting." 



The Committee also point out that broadcast sowing will not answer 

 with the American plant. That the soil requires to be dug to a great 

 depth, about 18 inches, the tap root extending nearly that length, and, 

 if obstructed, checking its growth. This precaution cannot be so 

 necessary in the light sandy soils I have recommended, as in the clay 

 one of Akra, but, when cotton is cultivated in the best manner, must 

 always be attended to. Transplanting was tried on one occasion, but 

 without any beneficial result. The following paragraph I quote entire, 

 as affording so pointed a confirmation from experience, of the plan I 

 had advocated from analogy, and which will I trust be frequently tried, 

 so as to leave no doubt of the advantages likely to flow from a syste- 

 matic adoption of it in all kinds of cotton cultivation, to which experi- 

 ence may prove it applicable. 



" Your Committee would beg your special attention to the following 

 paragraph from Mr. De Verinne's letter to the officiating Secretary, 

 dated Surdah, 5th August, 1835: "The out-turn of the last sea- 

 son 1832-33, shows a more favourable result, as 60 maunds of clean 

 cotton and 180 maunds of cotton-seed, were gathered at the farm from 

 December 1832, to May 1833. It must be recollected that the greater 

 part of this cotton and seed was produced from 90 beegahs and 0| 

 cottahs of Upland Georgia cotton cultivation, sown the previous sea- 

 son, the stumps of which only were left after the severe hail storm of 

 the 25th and 26th March, 1832 ; these stumps threw out fresh shoots 

 during the rainy season of that year ; were partially pruned, and well 

 hoed up at the conclusion of the rains, and yielded from December to 



