Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/113

1837.] —The cultivation here is the same as that generally pursued elsewhere. The ground is repeatedly ploughed, and manured, in the usual way, by penning sheep on it, and at the setting in of the rains in September and October the sowings commence. The gathering season of the earlier sown is from January until the middle of April, and of the latter from February to May. The produce varies exceedingly in different talooks. In the northern parts of Ramnad it is only about 176 lbs. per acre. In Pallemuddum, another division, it is about 226; while in Terumungalum, the best cotton country of the district, it amounts to 391 lbs. and is of the finest quality, much of it being exported under the denomination of "Fine Tinnevelly," and, as I have been informed by a trader, is among the best exported under that name. Much of the light calcarious soils along the gulph of Manar will probably be found well adapted for the cultivation of American cotton, in which case the facility of export will give it a very decided advantage in bringing it into foreign markets.

—In this, as in all the other districts, the black soils enjoy the preference for annual country cotton; the lighter loamy ones for triennial. The sowing commences at different seasons. In the north western talooks, between July and September, according to the weather; in the eastern from October to December. Both the Bourbon and American cottons are now cultivated to a considerable extent in this district, in light alluvial, and red, soils, apparently with much success, but the comparative advantages resulting from the foreign and indigenous sorts are only known to the cultivators. There appears, so far as I could discover, no peculiarity in the method of culture of either. It is probable much advantage will be found to result from the introduction of the Sea Island and New Orleans varieties on the coast, as there is every facility in procuring calcarious manure from the abundance of shells and madrepores to be found there. The latter are now sometimes used as a building stone, or burned for mortar, but, pounded, they would perhaps prove even more useful as a manure. Both these kinds may also, I believe, be introduced with success on the Islands off the coast, and thus render these barren wastes profitable farms. I would recommend this hint to the attention of those who have the opportunity of trying the experiment.

P. S.—After the preceding observations were in the printer's hands, I fortunately met with a report of a special committee of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, detailing a series of experiments, undertaken under its direction to determine