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 iri 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, 1 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 Linnmus on the authority of a figure of Plucknet (T ab.
188, F ig. 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 iuformed 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
by a too constant repetition of the same kind of crop. A similar deterioration formerly took
place in the West Indies, and to so great an extent, as to lead to the almost total discontinuance
of the cultivation of cotton, which, as in the instance of the African islands, was succeeded
by sugar, much to the profit of the cultivators. It seems probable, that if the cultivation
of cotton was resumed in the West Indies from seed carried either from this country or the
Mauritius, that those islands in which the produce of the sugar cane is beginning, from long
culture, to deteriorate, might be much more profitably devoted to the cultivation of cotton. In
Malta, Spain and Sicily, in all of which places cotton is cultivated to a considerable extent:
much attention is given to frequent changes of seed, each supplying itself from one or other, of
the other two. If similar attention was bestowed in India to such interchange of seed between
remote districts, there can scarcely be a doubt, it appears to me, that all would benefit. The
cultivators of Bourbon and American cottons will do well to bear in mind the examples of the
West Indies and the Mauritius, and not only attend to the occasional renewal of their stock of
seed from the original source, but also to refresh the lands under cultivation every few years,
by taking not one, but a succession of crops of different kinds off those tracts which have been
long under cotton cultivation with only short intervals of rest. The other two varieties of
G. Barbadense here figured, the long and short stapled kinds, or “ Sea Islands” and “ Uplands,”
as they are called, are derived from the same stock as the Bourbon, and were with much
difficulty introduced into North America owing to the shortness of the summer season. The
former indeed could not be established until the fortunate occurrence of a very mild winter
permitted the roots to live through it, and produce an early crop of fresh shoots in the spring.
These bore and ripened a crop, the seed of which was found sufficiently hardy to resist the cold
of spring, and matured a crop of excellent cotton in^he course of the succeeding autumn.
The produce was a variety intermediate between the Pernambuco and Barbadoes, or Bourbon,
cottons ; having the long staple, smooth black seed, and 5-lobed leaves of the former, with
the free or detached seed of the latter. The peculiar and very superior qualities of this kind,
are attributed to its growing in a soil highly calcarious, and strongly impregnated with
salt, aided by the influence of a “ saline atmosphere.” To this last, though much dwelt upon
by American writers, I feel disposed to attribute much less importance than to the character of
the soil in which it grows. All attempts, so far as I have yet been able to learn, to introduce
this kind into India have failed, the pods are said to be blighted in the bud, and the few that
attain maturity are generally more or less injured by the attacks of caterpillars, such I have
invariably found to be the case in all my attempts to raise it. The Egyptian cotton which in
that country partakes largely of the valuable properties of this kind, is supposed to have been
derived from the Sea Island stock; however, judging from some that I had sown in my garden, it
has either got mixed with the short stapled'sort, or is in course of transition into it. The latter I
rather suspect to be the case, but whether or not, it is most certain that, from a quantity of
Egyptian seed sown in Madras both kinds were produced, and having the distinctive characters
of each strongly marked; that produced from smooth seeds according in every particular with the
produce of Sea Island seed received direct from America, ev en to its liability to attacks of insects
and consequent blight of the young pods; while that from rough downy seed equally corresponded
with the green seed, or “ Uplands” growing on the same plot of ground. The fact
here stated is an interesting one, and one which it is my intention still further to investigate
so soon as I can procure a fresh supply of seed direct from Egypt, for that from which my
plants were raised was not such, but saved in Madras, from plants however, raised from
seed received direct from that country.
Respecting the origin of the Uplands variety, and the period of its introduction into
North America, I am not so well informed, but I have no hesitation in considering it another
variety of G. Barbadense, from which in fact it scarcely differs except in the much greater
size of the pods, the shorter and stronger staple of its wool, the usually 5-lobed leaves, and the
seeds more or less clothed with down. This last is a mark of very minor importance, as it is now
known, a single generation may change the character of the seed from smooth to downy : those
of the Bourbon cotton, are generally described as black and smooth, yet I havé scarcely ever
roet with one that was not more or less downy, and often not less so, than the American
green seed. This (Uplands) variety thrives well in India, producing abundance of very
large pods, so large indeed that of a number I weighed, the contents rarely fell short
of 70 grains, and some, picked ones, even exceeded 100, while those from the indigenous