Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/109

1837.]

—Method of cultivation not mentioned. Very little cotton is raised in this district, and would have been supposed of inferior quality, had it not produced much of the thread from which the Chicacole muslins are fabricated. The nature of the soil is said to be inferior for this kind of culture, and therefore that it would not be advisable to encourage the growth of cotton. This opinion is not borne out by the tabular return, and it seems probable, from the greatness of the produce (46 maunds of seed-cotton per acre), that, though the country cotton may be somewhat inferior, the American cottons may be profitably introduced.

—Three kinds of cotton are cultivated in tin's district, namely, annual early white, triennial white, and red cotton. After the usual ploughing and manuring, the first is sown in June when the rains set in—when three feet high the tops of the branches are cropped—in the third month pods are produced, and in the fourth gathering commences and continues about forty days. 2d. The triennial white. This is esteemed the best, it is sown in alluvial soils near hills in June—the gathering commences in December and continues four months. The plants are afterwards cut down nearly to the ground, and when the petty monsoon begins the ground is well ploughed and manured, and sometimes a crop of light grain reaped before the cotton harvest begins. This process is repeated the second and third year, during both of which the plants are in full bearing. It is not stated whether, as in Coimbatore, two crops are gathered annually. 3d. The red cotton is sown on ravutty soil (described as sweetish), previously well ploughed, from September to the middle of October, in rows about a foot distant When the plants are about a foot high, the ground is harrowed two or three times a week, and afterwards ploughed with a peculiar plough, called goontroakah, between the rows. They begin to bear in the sixth month, and continue bearing three months.

The peculiarity of culture in this district is the system of pruning, which, if the following statement is correct, is most advantageous. Of white cotton, a veesum of land, consisting of four coontahs, each forty-two feet square (=7056 square feet or somewhat less than 1-6th of an acre), is said to produce 30, and, if on well manured gooraopah soil, even 40 maunds of seed-cotton. There must surely be some error here, as the district table gives 46 in place of 180 maunds to the acre, which this statement if correctly calculated implies. Some Sea Island and Upland Georgia seed, sown in gardens, succeeded well and produced fine cotton—these ought to be encouraged, especially the former, for coast culture, being easily cleaned and the method of cultivating triennial cotton being, there is reason to believe, equally applicable to it