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 Com 
mittee, 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.”