3 i6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November t, 1889. 
Other two varieties of Q. barbadenxe are " Sea Island" 
and " Uplan Is "■ — the former long and the latter short 
stapled. The peculiar and very superior qualities of the 
Sea Island are attributed to its growing in a soil 
highly calcareous and highly impregnated with salt. 
"All attempts," says Dr. Wight, " so far as I have 
been able to learn, to introduce this variety into India 
have failed ; the pods are said to be blighted in. the 
bud, and the few that attain maturity are generally 
more or leBS injured by the attacks of caterpillars : 
such, I have invariably found to be tho case in all 
my attempts to raise it. The Egyptian, which, in that 
country, partakes of the valuable properties of this kind, 
is supposed to have been derived from the Sea Island 
stock : however, judging from some that I had sown 
in my garden, it has either got mixed with the Sea 
Islund sort, oris in course of transition into it. The 
latter I rather suspect to be the case, but whether 
oruot, it is most certain that, from a quantity of 
E jvptnin seed sown in Madras, both 'Sea Island ' and 
'Uplands ' were produced, and having the distinctive 
character of each strongly marked, even to liability 
to attack of insects." [The clothing of a seed with down 
is said to be a mark of very minor importance, as, it 
i? now known, a single generation may chauge the seed 
f com smooth to downy.] The "Uplands " or short- 
s apled vjriety of G. barbadense is reported as having 
t irived well in India, producing ripe pods in less than 
3 mooths. It is added that the most advantageous 
ti ue for sowing this is towards the end of the rains in 
December, or with the fir.st of those in April and May, 
when they happen to fall frtely. 
The Q. acuminatum, brought to India under the 
various names ot Pernambuco, Peruvian, Bahia and 
Ava, is described as a very strong. growing plant stand- 
ing high temperatures. It is probable, says Wight, 
that it merits, and will receive more attention, than 
has hitherto been extended to it. In the light sandy 
soil of the coast it seems to thrive remarkably well. 
Both the Bourbon and short-stapled American cot- 
tons (as Sea Island) may, says, Dr, Wight, be success, 
fully cultivated in our common alluvial soils, but more 
profitably in the red ones which are largely charged 
with the red oxide of iron : the long-stapled or Sea 
Island cotton has not succeeded in India, not because 
the plants are more delicate or less adapted to the cli- 
mate than others, but because it is subject to the at- 
tacks of an insect, which deposits its eggs in the 
young fruit, causing blight. 
The experimental farms for trial of imported varie- 
ties of cotton, principally American, established in the 
Bombay Presidency in 1829, proved to be an utter fail- 
ure ; but the cause of this is attributed to delay, 
spoiled seed, improper soils and bad seasons. There 
was moreover, no superintendence of any sort ; no 
facilities offered, no encouragement held out; every- 
thing was left in the hands of the natives with all risks. 
From the above quotations and epitomes of the ex- 
perience of a botanist and experimentalist such as Dr. 
Wight, there is much to be got. His classification 
is certainly a desirable one. considering that both 
staple and appearance of seed are so apt to vary, 
and that the distinctive characters (first noticed by 
Roxburgh) are of a tolerably permanent nature. 
Th re are moreover some wrinkles as to suitable soils, 
an i varieties worth cultivating. It will be observed 
th it Dr. Wight favours the short-stapled Ameri- 
can cotton, since he found that it matured its first 
crop with great rapidity, and produced a large pro- 
portion of staple as compared with other varieties; 
the only objection being that the seed had a lower 
nutritive value for feeding purposes.* 
While seeking to introduce new varieties, the im- 
provement of the indigenous cotton ought not to be 
neglected. Tht-re is always a price for it and a de- 
mand fur mixing into American kinds- To this end 
soils should be niHnu-ed. wdl plnuirhnd or t«iit"f tin. 
* The tenacity witii which the d-jwn chugs to tb.^ 
seed of " New Orleans " has ever been a great ob- 
jection with natives of India, who sell the indigenous 
cotton and use the seed as food for their cattle. The 
objection can, no doubt, be overcome, by careful giu- 
iug.— -Ed. 
seed should be changed and that from other 6tock 
resown, and sowing should be systematically done and 
not carelessly, so that the pUnts may not choke 
each other in their growth, the young shoots should 
be topped when advisable, frequent weeding should 
be carried on, and the pods should be allowed to ripen 
on the stalk and not be plucked before they are ready. 
Tinnivelly is said to have fallen into disrepute duriDg 
1833-4 owing to cultivators plucking their pods green 
and then drying them in the sun. 
These are considerations which intending cultivators 
would do well to take to heart. 0. D. 
'^TIMEHRI " 
Rice and Oacao in Beitish Guiana, 
is the Journal of the g Royal Agricultural 
and Commercial Society of British Guiana, 
which we always find full of interesting 
matter, including accounts of explorations of the 
colony and beyond its borders into Venezuela and 
Brazil. The number for June is enriched with a 
specially valuable paper by J. Rodway, f.l.s., on 
"The Sehomburgks in Guiana," in which we have 
a romantically interesting account of the journeys 
and discoveries of the great man who connected 
the British colony with Humboldt's observations in 
other portions of South America, and whose name 
will ever be famous in connection with the great 
Victoria lily which he was the first to see, describe 
and introduce to Europe. Sir Robert Herman 
Schomburgk, honoured and pensioned by Britain, 
died many years ago, but of the two brothers 
who assisted him in his researches, one, Richard, 
lives as the able and still active botanist of 
South Australia, although in his 78th year. 
A valuable article on " opening up the country," by 
J. E. Tinne, mentions the fact that gold has 
superseded timber as the export next in importance 
to sugar and its allied products, and it is evident 
that Demerara is likely to contribute very appreci- 
ably to the gold stores of the world. Inconsequence 
of improvements in manufacture and in other 
directions, it is asserted; that sugar for direct 
consumption at 17s and 18s pays better today than 
it did ten years ago at 23s to 253. The cultivation 
of rice and cacao is progressing, and a trade in 
fruit to the United States was likely to spring 
up. We quote as follows : — 
The available land for settlement is already large 
but access to it is uncertain ; and nowhere in the 
world is combined action more necessary or more 
difficult for small settlers, as regards drainage, water- 
supply, and sea defences, than in this extensive mud 
flat of British Guiana, with its land four feet below 
high spring tides, its very capricious rainfall of 70 
to°100 inches, and its lazy but pleasant climate. 
To us in Ceylon it seems strange that even 
coffee was grown successfully in the mud flats 
referred to as being in some parts absolutely under 
sea level. In an article on the rocks and 
minerals of this curiously fertile land, the 
geological characteristics of the alluvial depo- 
sits are thus described : — 
The alluvial deposits consist of a recent alluvium 
in swampy districts and bordering small streams all 
over the colony, apparently of a very productive nature ; 
of the fluvio-marine or coast deposit ; of river loam 
along the courses of the rivers, and beyond the coast 
deposit ; and of the valley gravel and the sand and 
clay deposit. Of these the coast deposit is the most 
important, since here are established the various plan- 
tations of the great indu^ry of the colony. It ex- 
tends along the whole Sda-boird, a few feet below the 
level of spring tides, inwards to a varying width of 
from 5 to 35 miles, where it attiius a height of about 
12 feet. Its depth is about 100 feel, aud it consists 
of varying layers of fine sand aud bluish clay, with 
portions uf decayed vegetable matter. The surface soil 
of this deposit consists of a fertile dark-coloured loam 
on the estates; and beyond them, of a dark earth 
