The varieties of cotton known in the commercial world may be referred to three distinct species, each having several sub-varieties. The Gossypium Barbadense is the species cultivated in the 1Vest Indies, North America, and in one or two parts of the Peninsula of India. Gossypium Peruvianum yields the cotton of Brazil, Pernambuco, Peru, etc. Gossypium Indic= is the species which, in a number of varieties, produces the great bulk of the cotton of India, and China. The Gossypium arboreum, or tree-cotton of India, and peculiar to India alone, is unfitted for manufacturing purposes, and is unknown to commerce, though yielding a beautifully soft and silky fibre, admirably adapted for padding cushions, pillows, etc. In commerce, Indian cotton has usually been known under the names of the locality of its growth or place of shipment. The staple of these sorts appears to range from 0'85 to 1.1 of an inch in length ; the staple of the celebrated Sea Island cotton being usually 1.5 in length.
The three qualities by which the value of cottons are determined are, length of staple, strength of fibre, and cleanness of sample. Colour, which at one time was thought much of, is no longer looked upon as a matter of moment. The respective lengths of the different kinds of cottons are given by Mr. Clements Markham as under Minimum. Max. Mean.
Sea Island, . . . . P41 in. 1'80 in. 1'61 in.
Egyptian, . . . . 1'30 1'52 1'41 Peruvian, . . . . 1'10 P50 l'30 Brazilian, . . . . 1 '03 1'31 1 '17 New Orleans or Uplands, . 0'88 1'16 1'02 Uplands grown in . 0'95 1'21 1'08 Indigenous Indian cotton, . 0'77 1'02 0'89 The cotton of India is allowed to be inferior as regards its staple and purity, but in durability it at least equals the produce of any part of America, and of this fact the Hindus are themselves per fectly aware. Dr. Royle gives 3 distinct varieties of cotton, all indigenous to Hindustan. The common description is found scattered more or fess through out India, reared as a triennial or annual. Itreaches the height of 5 or 6 feet in warm, moist climate.s. The seeds are five in number, clothed with a short greyish down. In the Peninsula there are two distinct varieties of this sort, known amongst the natives Oopum and Nadum. The first thrives only oil the richest black soil, and is an annual, producing a fine staple ; tho latter is a triennial plant, and grows on the poorer red soil, yielding small crops of inferior quality.
Seroad.—Dacca cotton is a distinct variety ol the Gossypium Indicum. It differs from the previous variety in the plant being more erect, with fewer branches, and tinged with a reddish hue, whilst the cotton is finer, softer, and longer. This variety is reared more or less extensively throughout Bengal, especislly in the Dacca dis trict, where it is employed in the manufacture of the exquisitely fine mu,slin cloths known over a great part of the world as Dacca muslins, and whose delicacy of texture so long defied the imita tion of the art-manufacturers of the West.
A third variety is the cotton grown in Berar, in the northern provinces of the Madras Pre,sidency, and in Surat and Broach. This plant attains a greater size than the preceding, bears for a longer period, and produces a fibre of a finer quality than the former. It appears to thrive best on a light black soil.
Soll.—The soil in which all these Indian varieties thrive may be classed under two distinct heads, the black cotton soil and the red soil. The former of these, as its name indicates, is of a black or deep brown colour, absorbs and retains much rain, forming in the rains a heavy tenacious mass, and drying into solid lumps in the hot months. An analysis of this gives 74 per cent. of silex, 12 of carbonate of lime, 71 protoxide of iron, 3 of alumina, 2 of vegetable matter, and salts, with a trace of magnesia. The red soil of India bas been found in some localities better suited to the growth of cotton than the black earth. It is a rather coarse yellowish red soil, commingled with particles of the granitic rocks,—silex, felspar, and aluininous earth. It mainly differs in composition from the preceding in the iron existing in the state of peroxide or red oxide, whilst the carbonate of lime is found present in greater abundance. Analyses of thc best cotton soils of America prove that they differ from those of India chiefly in the large proportion of peaty matter which they contain.
Cotton-troo/ bears value according to its colour, length, strength, and fineness of fibre. Pure whiteness is generally held to denote a secondary quality ; whiLst a yellowish tinge, provided it be not the result of casual exposure to damp, or the natural effect of an unfavourable season, is in dicative of superior fineness. Many varieties of raw cotton are seen in commerce, each sort being distinguished by the name of the locality where it is produced. American, Bourbon, Egyptian, Aniraoti, Dacca, Oopum, Nadum, Orleans, Sea Island, etc. etc. ; but the main distinction re cognised is that between the long and short stapled qualities ; though of these, again, there are different degrees of excellence. The Sea Island ' cotton of Georgia (so named from being raised on certain narrow stuady islets lying along the coast of that province) is esteemed the best of the long-stapled kind ; and the upland produce of the same state excels amongst the short - stapled classes. The indigenous Asiatic cotton is ex clusively of the latter class.