Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/133

1837.] conveniences of the rest of mankind, by supplying the means of providing cheap cotton fabrics of every kind and description.

I shall conclude these supplementary observations by extracting from the Transactions of the Agri-Horticultural Society of India, vol. 3, page 132—the following brief account of the mode of cultivating cotton in Egypt, drawn up by Mr. Waghorn.

"Maho cotton is sown in trenches about five feet apart, and four or five seeds in every eighteen inches. If they all spring up, they take out all but one, which they conceive the most healthy.

"It must be sown in a fat soil, a sandy soil will not do. The cotton grounds are situated near the banks of the Nile, or some canal near it, where there is water the whole year. It must be watered every three or four day 8 when it first begins to sprout, and afterwards every ten days. The crop is gathered from June to January, two crops each year from each plant; the plants should be renewed every three years."

It has long been earnestly desired by the Government of Madras, as well as by the public at large, that the obstructions to the navigation, which extend across the gulf of Manar, should be removed, or, at any rate, a clear passage opened for the coasting vessels both of Ceylon and India, to enable them to convey the produce of Malabar, Travancore, and some other most fertile districts to Madras, the great point of export, without the delay, risk and expense to which they are at present exposed.

Inconsequence of the representations made to the Court of Directors by the Bight Hon. S. R. Lushington, then governor of Madras, a survey of the generally used passage between the island of Ramisseram and the peninsula of Ramnad was made by the joint efforts of the officers of the Royal Engineers from Ceylon, and Major Sim with a party from Madras. During the year 1828, some experiments were made as to the practicability of improving this channel, and some of the most prominent rocks were removed. The passage was also rendered more direct and easy of access.

The work was, however, discontinued, and orders were received not to renew the attempt, strong doubts having been expressed of ultimate success. The officers' reports were published in 1833, and public at-