1837.] Transactions of the J gri- Horticultural Society of India, 163 



XIV. — Notices of Books. 



Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, 

 Vol. 3d.— Printed at the Serampore Press, 1837— pp. 320, 8vo. 



(Second Notice). 



At the conclusion of our last notice of this work, we promised to ex- 

 amine the commercial section in this number, and consider, somewhat 

 in detail, the numerous papers connected with the cultivation of Cotton 

 and Tobacco, as objects, in a commercial point of view, of primary im- 

 portance. 



The papers in the volume, more or less exclusively devoted to the 

 consideration of these two plants, amount in all to twenty-one. Of these 

 twelve make no reference to tobacco ; five none to cotton, and four re- 

 fer to both. We shall first consider 



Cotton. — The first paper is a letter transmitting a bag of " Vine cot- 

 ton seeds," said to be a very superior description of cotton, but of rather 

 too long a staple ! which from tending to weaken the fibre, lessens in 

 some decree its value. The seeds were sent to Gowhatty in Assam, and 

 to Mirzapore. It is to be hoped, should this first supply succeed, that 

 we shall soon have an opportunity of trying it in Madras from seeds of 

 Indian produce. 



The next two papers on cotton, are letters from Colonels Colvin and 

 Skinner, communicating the results of experiments for the introduction 

 into the upper provinces of Upland Georgia cotton ; the exertions of 

 both of whom seemed to promise a very favourable result, but the mat- 

 ter was still doubtful at the period of writing. It seems strange on this 

 side of India, in the inland districts of which the Bourbon cotton plant 

 almost every where thrives, that it has not been more generally intro- 

 duced in the upper provinces of Bengal. Here it is found a hardier 

 and more productive variety than the Upland Georgian, and the produce 

 higher priced in the English market by some pence, than the Georgian 

 raised on the same lands, or in varying soils in the same tract of coun- 

 try. The fourth notice is a letter intimating the dispatch of a case of 

 Peruvian cotton seed from Liverpool. The cotton is said to be very- 

 fine, referable to the long staple class of cottons, and worth about one 

 shilling the pound at the time of dispatch ; none of that kind, we be- 

 lieve, has yet reached Madras. 



At Allahabad trials of Sea Island had failed, apparently from the 

 seed being bad, but, in the neighbourhood, some Pernambuco seed had 

 been sown and was most thriving. Transplanting had been tried to 



