In America. for the cultivation of cotton, the ground is well ploughed, and cast into ridges about 10 inches in height, and from 5 to 6 or 7 feet apart, according to the richness of the soil or the kind of cotton to be cultivated. In poorer soils the ridges are narrower, so that the plants, which do not grow so large, may yet be able to cover the ground. The ridges allow superfluous moisture to be carried off by the water furrow, wbich in low situations is made into a trench. The soil is allowed to settle for a few days before solving, as the young plants take root more vigorously than when they spring up in freshly ploughed and loose earth. Sometimes the ground is manured by running a deep furrow early in the spring between the old rows of cotton stalks, which are beaten down into it by women and children, who follow the ploughman ; or well rotted cotton seed is added as manure, and well covered up by forrning a slight ridge over it. When the ground is quite prepa-red, a one-hole drill makes a slight furrow, from to 2 inches deep, along the centre of the ridge. The sower follows, and drops in the seeds pretty thickly. These are immediately covered by a light harrow, which also smooths the ridge. Sometimes five or six seeds are dropped into holes, which are made at intervals of about 15 inches cat the top of the ridge. In favourable weather the plants make their appearance in five or six days, and are thinned out as soon as they put forth the third or fourth leaf. This operation is performed by scraping out with the hoe all the superfluous plants and weeds, leaving three or four to gether, with space,s of 12 or 14 inches between them. When the plants are sufficiently established, they are reduced to a single one, and care is taken to remove every particle of grass or weed. A light furrow is then run with a one-horse plough within 5 or 6 inches of the plants, turning the earth inwards towards the roots, and even drawing it around them with the hoe, in order to supply the place of that previously removed by scraping. Hoeing and ploughing are frequently repeated, so as to keep the ground free from weeds ; and this is considered essential towards obtaining a good crop. The above pro cesses, besides loosening the soil and keeping it clean, must assist in drying it, at the same time that they prevent much lateral extension of the roots. Lopping or pinching off au inch or two of the top of the plant is not always necessary, but is useful when there is a tendency to the production of wood and leaves, to the detriment of flowers and buds.
In S. India the land should be well ploughed two or three times, and the deeper the better. All the weeds should be collected into heaps on the ploughed land and burnt, as the ashes make the best manure for cotton, and burning the soil im proves its quality. Salt and lime are also good additions to a soil, as cotton requires chiefly alkalies and silicates for its nourishment. Animal and vegetable manures are injurious, as they breod insects, which destroy the roots, leaves, and young pods of the cotton. After the land luta been a ell and deeply ploughed, it should be left for three or four days to get well aired ; it may again be ploughed into long ridges four to five feet apart. The seed is to be planted on tho tops of these ridges carefully, at the depth of an inch or two, and at the distance of five feet between each seed, for Ooptun, Nadurn, or religious cotton ; six to seven feet apart for Bourbon, New Orleans, or Havanna ; ten feet apart for Sea Island, PC1111,1311, Egyptian, or Queensland ; and fifteen feet apart for Brazil or Pernambuco cotton. Cotton seed
may be sown in any month of the year, but if there is no rain, it requires to be watered about three times; it germinates about the fifth day. If sown during the monsoon, the ridges must be eight inches high, and the water must be led away from the young plants, or they rot ; the seed must be sown on the top of the ridges. If the leaves begin to get pale or to shrivel up, the remedy is to dig trenches between the plants so as to let air in about the roots, but must not in jure them. The uncultivated cotton plant lives for three or four years; but it becomes dwarfed, and produces smaller leaves and smaller pods each year till it dies. In clay or cotton soils the plants do not attain nearly the size, nor do they produce such fine leaves or pods, Els on sandy or loose soils. The cotton plants require sun, air, and moisture, but not so much of the last as of sun, light, and air at the roots ; the lighter and looser the soil, the more healthy is the plant. The best soil for cotton is a sandy soil with iron and salt ; or, if far from the sea, ashes of plants or of firewood niay be used as a substitute for salt. When the cotton plants have attained the height. of a foot, they do not require to be much watered ; once in ten days will be sufficient. Oopum or common country cotton varies from one to six feet in height, and covers from two to five feet of ground ; on cotton soils it seldom grows to more than two feet in height. The Pernambuco and Brazil cottons attain a height of thirty feet on favourable loose soils, and the stein grows to ten inches in diatneter. They yield crops for twelve or fourteen years, but hardly any produce the first year. They bend over in the second year, and do not after wards stand higher than eight or nine feet.
Irrigation, in Assam, is generally unnecessary, though it may be found partially beneficial in dry and sandy soils, if judiciously applied. Irrigation is not resorted to in the Bemires, Allahabad, and Jubbulpur divisions, and the feeling is against its employment. ,In the N.W. Provinces the cotton crop is invariably irrigated, where a want of rain is likely to prove detri mental to the plant, and the process is not sup posed to be in any way injurious to the fibre.
In most parts of the Madras Presidency arti ficial irrig,ation is not carried on ; this reniark applies more particularly to Coimbatore, Madura, South Arcot, Bellary, Western Mysore, and Nellore. In Vizagapatam, on the other hand, the opinion is that irrigation would prove beneficial rather than injurious in seasons when rains fail or vary in their supply.
Artificial irrigation is almost unknown in the Bombay Presidency, Berar, and British Burma. In some parts of the Punjab, cotton is irrigated N.oni wells, and well water is considered better kir tho purpocio than river or canal water. In )ther parts, moreespeciallyin the Julluntlhur Doab, ;he best cotton 18 produced upon miirrigated ands, irrigation being very sparingly resortel to n tracts; where water ia abundant.