102 



Remarks on the Cultivation of Cotton. 



[July 



packet to tell me if it is so.* If this is Egyptian cotton, it is one of the 

 largest staple I know ; the cotton itself is dingy and not very fine, but 

 that may have arisen from my having planted it out of season. We 

 shall see how this year's produce is — I do not know where I got the seed. 

 The plant you may remember is not so shaggy or shrubby as the Bour- 

 bon. Finally, my argument is, that, if the Sea Island seed answer with 

 us, as I have ascertained it does,, why take the same trouble to intro- 

 duce an inferior sort, that will introduce a superior one ?" 



" We do practise the Persian plan you recommend, more or less, ac- 

 cording to the zeal and industry of the cultivator, but they all know its 

 value, indeed in most cases it is absolutely necessary." 



I the more readily introduce the above extracts, as they afford satis- 

 factory evidence of a progressive improvement in the Salem and Coim- 

 batore districts, in the method of cultivating this valuable plant; as 

 may be seen by contrasting them with the following extracts from some 

 directions drawn up by Mr. Fischer in 1828, and communicated to the 

 then Principal Collector of Coimbatore : a copy of which he gave me 

 some months ago while in Salem. 



" The seed should be committed to the ground in the month of Au- 

 gust"-—" the plants bear in the month of May of the succeeding year, 

 and do not require to be removed for two or three years or more" — " I 

 have endeavoured in vain to prevail upon the natives to prune the plant 

 when a month or two old, and again after the cotton seasons, which I 

 am convinced would be of infinite service to their growth and ferti- 

 lity." 



From these extracts it will be perceived that, ten years ago, August 

 was esteemed the best time for sowing. In the interval it has been as- 

 certained that, unless the sowing be completed by August, it will ensure 

 failure, and that the most advantageous season is immediately after the 

 rains, in April and May. This is certainly a point of importance to 

 know, since it appears that much of the failure of the Calcutta Akra 

 farm experiments, was attributed to ignorance of the proper time of 

 sowing. 



It does not appear that, in the earlier attempts, more than one crop 

 was gathered annually: three are now currently taken. At that pe- 

 riod nothing would induce the ryots to prune after the cotton season ; 

 but now it appears they have discovered that the rough, but economi- 

 cal, method of pruning, practised in Persia, is an improvement, and. 



* The sample sent is not Egyptian ; it looks more like Pernambuco. The true Egyp- 

 tian is scarcely, if at all, distinguishable from Sea Island ; and is supposed to have been 

 imported from America. R, W. * 



