132
APPROXIMATE STATEMENT OF COTTON CULTIYATION IN INDIA.
Political Divisions.
Cultivation
in Acres.
Average
Produce
per Acre
in lbs.
Total
Produce in
Bales of
400 lbs.
("Bombay Presidency and Sindh -
§ ^ Bombay Feudatories
2 .c Central Proyinces and the f
«8 , Berars - - -f
i Nizam’s Territories - -1
g Central India - - - »
o ^ Bajpootana, &c. - - -J
ü fPunjab sends to Kurachee
Total Bombay Drained Country -
, f Madras -
Madras I Mysore
Total Madras -
f Lower Bengal - - -1
Be ^ al ]oul p - : : :}
f Punjab (see above)
Total Bengal -
British Burmah (total) -
Sundry Cultivation in the Interior in T
Native States (produce not exported) J
Grand total -
2,200,000
2,000,000
750,000
1,250,000
2,000,000
800,000
80
80
80
80
50
50
440,000
400,000
150,000
250,000
250,000
100,000
9,000,000
80
1,590,000
1,320,000
30,000
1,350,000
80
80
264,000
6,000
270,000
r 400,000
■1 1,600,000
(. 80,000
50
80
50
50,000
320,000
10,000
2,080,000
—
380,000
60,000
..
50
7,500
400,000
50
50,000
12,890,000
75
2,297,500
approximately the area sown with cotton in the several provinces and presidencies of
India, with the yield roughly calculated in bales of 400 lbs.
The Chief Sorts.
It will be seen from the foregoing table that the average quantity of cotton produced
on an acre of land varies in different parts of India. This of course depends very vnueh
on the soil ; and this brings us to the Collection of the chief cotton growing soils of India,
which forms the first division of the annexe devoted to Indian cotton. The collection
is very large, and includes a great variety of specimens sent by Messrs. FitzGerald and
Terry, the honorary secretaries of the Bombay Committee, illustrating the chief soils of
the Bombay Presidency, and by Mr. Dunlop, the honorary secretary of the Berars Committee,
showing the dass of land on which cotton is grown in these provinces. These
specimens are preserved in air-tight, glass-stoppered bottles, and a large nurnber of
them will hereafter be analysed, with a view to ascertain the dass of nourishment which
ought to be returned to the land in the shape of manure, with a view to an increase in
the produce. The sort most common throughout the cotton-growing tracts of Western
India, and on which the best cotton is produced, is the “ regur,” or “ black cotton soil,” of
the Deccan, which Stretches from the Western coast to the centre of India, near Nagpore,
where it meets the lighter soil which covers the sandstone formation. The “regur” is
thus described in Ansted’s “ Geology,” page 343 “ Its colour is bluish black, greenish,
“ or dark grey. It forms into a paste with water, and gives a clayey odour. It absorbs
“ moisture rapidly, and parts with it in dry and hot weather. Its thickness varies from
“ three to about 20 feet. It is cultivated very easily, yielding a rotation of crops, consisting
“ of cotton and two kinds of corn. It rarely requires to be leffc fallow, and demands but
little husbandry, although for the last 2,000 years this soil has continued in cultivation
without manure, retaining the utmost fertility.”
