Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/102

82 besides a good crop of grain to be reaped annually from the same ground.

With respect to cleaning, it may be observed that the long staple cottons are easily separated from the seeds usually, and it is best done by the roller machine, which does not injure its delicate fibres. The short staples, on the contrary, are very difficult to clean, and for them the saw gin will be found by far the most economical method of proceeding, their fibres being so strong as not to suffer, or but slightly, from its rough operation. Our country white cottons, especially the finer sorts, are allied to the long staples, and like them are seriously injured by the saw. The nankin or red cotton, a short staple, and perhaps some of the coarser whites, will bear it well. For freeing fine Bourbon I would recommend caution in its application, as I think there is much reason to fear its doing harm, and if used at all, should have a slower motion than in cleaning short staples.

The following suggestions for an experimental enquiry having been written before these memoranda were even thought of, will account for the occasional repetitions which I have not thought necessary to change.

An opinion has long prevailed among cotton cultivators, that the plant must not be removed from the spot on which the seed germinated, nor even the soil be hoed or loosened to such a depth as to injure or interfere with its delicate fibrous roots, under the supposition that such removal or injury will certainly destroy the plant. This opinion being contrary to all analogy with the rest of the vegetable kingdom, and at variance with some well known facts, such as the ploughing of cotton fields when the plant is a month old, to clean the ground and thin out the superfluous plants, currently practised in this country, it is desirable to ascertain whether or not it is altogether founded on speculation. As a question of vegetable physiology it is interesting, but, in an agricultural point of view, it becomes one of great importance, especially to this country, where the cotton cultivation is so dependent on the regular periodical changes of the monsoons, as materially to interfere with any deviations from the usual routine of culture we may wish to adopt not having reference to these changes.

For example, the seed is usually sown after the first burst of the monsoon is over, and long before the plants are full grown the dry weather has commenced, and is far advanced when the crop time arrives, whence, owing to the previous operation of protracted drought and heat, vegetation is arrested previous to the plants attaining their full size and strength, to resist the united influence of these agents. In this comparatively stationary condition they begin to blossom, and, there being no regular succession of new shoots to keep up the supply of flowers, soon cease bearing, and give but a small return for the pre-