Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/144

 To me it appears that much might be done towards the attainment of this object. According to the system usually pursued in native husbandry, the soil is rarely, if ever, manured, is but indifferently ploughed, the seed are never changed, but that from the same stock constantly resown, and that too broad cast usually, so thick that the plants choak each other in their growth, the young shoots are never topped, in short nothing is done having a tendency to improve the quality or increase the quantity of the produce by invigorating the plant while the land is still farther exhausted and the plants still more choaked, by crops of other grain being taken off, while the cotton is advancing to maturity, and when the crop is at length ready to gather, no care is taken in the gathering to keep it clean and free from dry and broken leaves, and what is much worse, when a great demand for the article exists, the ryots have even been known to gather the green pods and ripen them in the sun, in place of allowing them to ripen and open on the stalk, much to the injury ot the good name of Indian cotton, more especially of that of Tinnevelly, which used to be in high esteem, but has, I am told, recently fallen into disrepute owing to that cheat having being practised in 1833-4. Ought we not then to endeavour, to the utmost, to elevate the culture of the indigenous cotton, and by ascertaining its intrinsic value and cost of production, determine by comparative returns the respective value to the country of the two kinds ; for it may be found that our cottons make a better return to the country at 6d. than the American ones do at 8d. per pound, owing to the much smaller cost of production and larger amount of produce from the same extent of land.

These however are points which I am certain will never be ascertained while the culture is left entirely in the hands of natives, as they have not the means of securing a regular succession of new seed, or of bestowing extra expense on the cultivation, and gathering in of the crop, neither have they the intelligence or means of going in search of better markets, supposing them to have bestowed the requisite care to improve the produce, but must sell it on the spot, possibly at a rate but little higher than their neighbours get for an article of very inferior value, thus incurring a loss in place of a gain for the extra labour and care devoted to its production.

In thus urging greater attention to our native produce, I am far from wishing to discourage the cultivation of the exotic kinds. On the contrary, I feel quite convinced that the country would derive immense advantage from their more general culture, on the simple principle of their enabling us to bring extensive tracks of country under cultivation, that are now either waste, or of comparatively little value, since, on such the American cottons can be cultivated, while the Indian would altogether fail, it requiring a soil both rich and retentive of moisture for the attainment of its highest degree of perfection. Another, and in native practice not the least important, recommendation of the American short stapled cottons is the rapidity with which they mature their first crop, (the time required being even shorter, than that for our native cotton) and their larger produce of wool in proportion to the quantity of seed ; but then, the seed are considered less wholesome for feeding cattle, which, should such be found to be the case, will prove a very heavy drawback if not an almost insurmountable obstacle to its general introduction as an article of native agriculture,

I shall conclude this article with a few remarks appertaining to the history of the species, and varieties figured in the accompanying plates. Gossypium Barbadense is one of the oldest species of the genus, having been established by Linnaeus on the authority of a figure of Plucknet (TAB. 188, Fig. 1,) published 1691 — Mr. Royle remarks of it, "but this figure may answer equally well for some other species" a remark, in which I do not concur, for, with the exception of the leaves being a little narrower, than we usually find them in the plant as cultivated in this country, they are most characteristic, and the figure altogether a very passable one, of our Bourbon cotton plant. This species we are informed by Swartz is most extensively cultivated in the West Indies, and thence, according to Roxburgh, it was brought to the Islands of Bourbon and the Mauritius, whence again, it was introduced into India under the name by which it is known here, Bourbon cotton. On its first introduction into these Islands the plant seems to have found a soil and climate in every respect suitable, and rapidly became an article of great commercial importance, both on account of the fine quality and of its wool, and of its extreme productiveness ; in both of which respects, however, it has recently fallen off so much, that the lands which were formerly appropriated almost entirely to its culture, are now more profitably employed in the culture of sugar. This deterioration may be owing to two causes, first neglecting to renew the stock from time to time by fresh importations of seed, and secondly to the soil itself, having been injured