73° 
THE TR0P10M. AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1889. 
method, he believed that during the second year, the 
roots would penetrate much deeper into the ground, 
than they did the first. The roots would thus pass 
to an unexhausted soil, and would therefore be better 
nourished ; whilst a considerable saving would be 
effected in the expenses of cultivation during the 
second year. This experiment however ultimately turned 
out a failure." — Wheeler. It remains to be seen, 
whether the Bourbon fared better in intelligent hands, 
Mr. Hughes of Tinnevelly has been referred to already. 
His cultivation of the Bourbon cotton is mentioned 
as a triumph. " For more than twenty years, Hughes's 
cotton continued to be quoted in the Liverpool market, 
as the best in India." 
Mr. Hughes had ascertained that the plant would 
continue many years, that is, that the plant might be 
cultivated as a perennial. Here is his method \ — " The 
plants should be sown 8 feet apartin rows which shosld 
he again 8 feet asunder, in order to afford facility for 
ploughing and hoeiog, and for a free circulation of air. 
Pruning should be practised twice in the year ; 
the first and most important pruning should take 
place between the loth and 3lst December, when 
the shrub is cut down to 2 feet high and 2 feet 
wide, only the free firm wood being left with a 
strong white and brown bark. In January, during 
the five days, the plantation should he ploughed 
three or four times. In less than two months, the 
wh-.de of the plants will be again in the finest foliase 
and full blossom, and continue in full bearing through- 
out the months of March, April and May. Early in 
June, a good many pods still remain, and a second 
pruning should be practised of the long, straggling, 
twisted, soft shoots with dinvnutive pods. Subse- 
quently, from July to September, good produce may 
be obtained unless the plants are damaged by rain. 
Cleaning was practised on Mr. Hughes's plantation 
in a most careful manner, the wool being cleaned 
by hand." 
The foregoing mode of cultivation as practised by 
Mr. Hughes cannot fail to be of value to those who 
may hereafter cultivate cotton as a perennial in 
suitable districts. But whether it would pay at the 
present prices to adopt this mode of cultivation, or 
whether the native cultivator, who has any com- 
mand of land, would prefer his time-honoured prac- 
tice of taking all he can get out of a clearing, and 
then abandoning it for fresh fields and patures new, 
is yet to be seen. At any rate, the Assistant Govern- 
m ent Agents in the future cotton-growing distriats, will 
no doubt see to it, that the cotton industry of Ceylon, 
after it has been properly developed, will carry with 
it the conditions necessary for its permanence ; and 
not merely what is comprehended in the three words, 
clearing, harvesting and abandoning : the Alpha, and 
the Omega of the chena cultivator's creed. 
I must not dismiss this subject without a further 
reference to the Sea Island variety, which, being the 
most oostly, would naturally create some inquiry. I 
could do no better than refer to a speech made on 
the 13th day of August 1862 by Mr. J. Cheetham, 
President of the Cotton Supply Association of Man- 
chester, at a Conference in the Council room of the 
Horticultural Society, South Kensington. London, 
between a deputation from the Cotton Supply Associa- 
tion of Manchester and the Commissioners and other 
representatives of oountries showing cotton samples, 
in the International Exhibition of that year. Refer- 
ring to Australia, he said, " There is an immense 
opening for our colonists in Australia. There is one 
hint I wish to give them. Probably influenced by 
the high rate of labour they have to pay, they have 
■elected at their commencement the very finest 
qnafitv— the Sea Island quality. They should remem- 
ber, though they have been successful in producing 
it, the consumption is only one per cent of the 
whole cotton consumed in the world, so that if they 
moan to employ their energies upon that quality, 
th v will very soon overdo the market. Of course 
we nbull not object as consumers to tako in their 
fine Sea Inland qualities at 6d. per lb.; but I am 
quite conviucod from what they havo achioved in the 
cultivation in the Sou Island quality, if they would only 
take American »ced and produce the ordinary American 
quality, probably, though it is sold at a less price, the 
increased quantity per acre would make it quite as 
profitable." 
Report of proceedings published by the committee, 
Cotton Association, Manchester : — 
The cottons of 35 different countries of the globe 
were exhibited on this occasion, and the discussion 
in which the growers took their full share of res- 
ponsibility, is full of instruction on matters pertaining 
to cotton culture generally, and which canDot fail to 
be of value to Ceylon growers. In conclusion, it 
may be added, if the question be asked, whethe 
cotton would pay in Ceylon, that the area under cul- 
tivation in America, as reported by the Commissioner 
of Agriculture, was at the beginning of 1886 in excess 
of eighteen millions of acres, and that active extension 
was then going 011 beyond the Mississippi, so that 
there can be no reason why, with the cheap labour 
at command of Ceylon, it should not become an 
established industry here at no distant date. We 
have not thought of it because of the more paying 
products which we grew. The European planter, who 
betook himself to the hills with a climate that suited 
him best, kept to coffee, cinchona, and tea, with a 
little cocoa and cardamom as well ; the native, 
meanwhile, stuck to the lowcountry, which suited 
bim best, with coconut and cinnamon. But cinehoua 
and coffee are all but gone, and tea alone remains, 
though with a downward tendency, and occasionally 
threatening us with the maximum of anxiety and 
the minimum of profits ; while cinnamon with a 
limited consumption, aud with slender returns, is not 
the "fine thing" it was once upon a time. 
Cotton is the very thing suited for the country 
about and beyond Matale, Kuruuegala, and Anuradha- 
pura, if taken in hand energetically and intelligently 
Not the perfunctory cultivation by a few headmen 
to satisfy their immediate superiors, but a 
systematic cultivation, such as was done in India, 
in the Madras Presidency, under the Government of 
Lord Blphinstone and his successors during the infancy 
of the enterprise. Yours truly, JAMES H. BARBER. 
Coffee in South India. — It is stated that the 
quality of last year's plantation coffee, sent to the 
London market, with " Coonoor" and " Nilgiri" 
marks, is spoken of as having been superior to 
the generality o£ Wynaad coffee ; the compara- 
tively inferior quality of the latter being attributed 
to exceptional circumstances, such as unfavourable 
weather for picking, and the setting in of the 
monsoon on the Malabar coast, before many of the 
crops could be shipped. Fortunately the demand 
for coffee at home, has been good for almost all 
kinds, and high prices have been realised. — South of 
India Observer, Feb. 28th. 
The Aloe and its Uses. — A few years ago 
the discovery was reported in these columns of the 
singular property which the juice of the Mexican 
Agave plant has of half-digesting meat, or of convert- 
ing it into peptone, and it was pointed out at the time 
how valuable from a commercial point of view would 
be this cheap and cleanly method of peptonizing, 
compared to the ordinary methods of extracting the 
peptonizing ferment from the stomachs of pigs and 
other animals. The discoverer, M. Marcano, announces 
that the method has been in industrial use in Vene- 
zuela by pharmacists for three years, during which 
it has worked perfectly. He finds now that if the 
crushed tissue of the leaves is added, as well as the 
juice, the whole process can be completed at blood 
heat in six hours, insisted of 36, as it takes with 
the juice alone. The discovery is a very singular 
one, and one which ought to have received more 
attention from physiologists and physicians thau it 
has so far. It is quite remarkable that the cells 
of the clumsy Mexican plant should be able to per- 
form so easily the most important function of the 
human stomach. — Australasian. 
