in 



Notices of Books. 



(July 



equally well on the gray loamy soils of the coast. The American 

 kinds have been found to thrive in similar soils, but the staple is infe- 

 rior ; it answers well on alluvial soils adapted to the cultivation of rice, 

 but does not require irrigation. It has not we believe been sufficiently 

 tried on sandy saline coast soils, but may be expected to succeed well 

 when tried. The success which has attended trials in such situations, 

 the equal facility of culture with the original country cotton, and the 

 great additional value of the product, bid fair to ensure a rapid spread 

 of this kind of cultivation. Have similar soils been tried on the Ma- 

 labar coast, and been found equally unsuitable there with the black 

 ones ? On this side of the ghauts wc believe we may with safety state 

 that irrigation is never employed, unless perhaps occasionally when 

 disappointed of the usual supplies of rain immediately after the sowing 

 season, and before the young plants have acquired substance enough to 

 resist the protracted drought ; but, generally, the lands employed are 

 so situated as to preclude the possibility of watering. 



Dr. Lush estimates the cost of cultivating perennial cotton at from 

 twenty-five to thirty per cent, more than the annual kinds. It is desir- 

 able to know how he arrives at this conclusion, since, on this side of 

 India, the perennial system is usually preferred, as the cheaper mode of 

 cultivation, owing to the great saving of labour and seed which is there- 

 by effected, and still more from the larger crops reaped in the second 

 and third years than the first. Has it been sufficiently tried in Malabar, 

 especially with reference to those sources of profit ? 



These are a few of many points which still remain to be inquired into, 

 and on which we should wish Br. Lush to favour us with the results of 

 his experience ; and should he think this periodical a suitable channel 

 for making them known, the Society, we feel sure, will gladly receive 

 them. We make this request with a view to elicit information, and there- 

 fore trust that all particulars relating to experiments may be as detailed 

 as possible — general results, unaccompanied by a full exposition of the 

 steps by which they were arrived at, we consider insufficient ; for the 

 soil, climate, and other contingencies affecting the result of experiments 

 undertaken in Coromandel, in imitation of those made in Malabar, are 

 so different, that unless they can be modified, according to some fixed 

 principle, they may lead to most opposite conclusions. 



Tobacco.— The next most important series of papers on commercial 

 agriculture are those on tobacco, but these will not detain us long, as 

 two principal ones have been already re-published in our Journal — 

 that, namely, of Mr. Piddington on soils, and of Mr. Royle on the cul- 

 tivation of tobacco in India. The others consist of a report on tobacco 



