of cleaning as to be very inferior to the American produce of the same kind. Major Napleton shared in the distribution made by the Agricultural Society of Mexican Cotton Seed acclimated by Dr. Wight, at his Coimbatore farm, and sent to Calcutta in 1847. * He states that it reached him very late in the season, and had hardly a fair trial; he sowed it in a poor red sandy soil, and he sent samples to the Society of his first and second crop from the same plants. The Society's Cotton Committee pronounced the former to be very poor, and worth only 34d. per lb.: the latter they thought a little better, but not worth more than 4d. per lb. In 1848 the Collector stated that "there might be said to be no "Cotton cultivation in his district, but that there appeared to be 66 a fair quantity of soil adapted to the growth of the plant." The land was, however, otherwise occupied, and he did not think an increase of the Cotton crop probable. Some Cotton was, however, grown for local consumption, but no estimates of price, of yield per acre, or of area were given. In 1860 Mr. Commissioner Yule states that the villagers had been discouraged through the failure of some exotic seed distributed by him in 1859, but that if a further supply could be sent in time for the next sowing season, he will again have it tried: he states also his conviction that experimental cultivation on a small scale, and at Government expense, would be productive of no valuable results. SONTAL PERGUNNAHS. This district consists of a tract of hilly country stretching southwards from the Ganges near Rajmahal, to the Barrakur, and almost as far as Parisnauth Hill: it belongs to the upland area, but parts of its surface are very fertile, and although much is covered by * Agricultural Journal, Vol VII., page 202. jungle, a fair proportion of this is stated to consist of reclaimable arable land. Our information on the subject of its Cotton producing capabilities is confined to its northern parts, namely, the country known as the Damun-i-koh, or Rajmahal Hills: so far as analogy may be taken as a guide, the southern portion possesses equal natural advantages, and a much wider area: in the important matter of carriage, however, the Damun-i-koh is certainly very exceptionally fortunate: the railway from Synthia Station to Rajmahal passes for many miles parallel and close to its boundary, and then turning west, runs within or close to the district nearly as far as Colgong; even the Southern Pergunnahs are more favorably situated than most parts of the uplands of Bengal as to means of transport, for their boundaries approach the Grand Trunk Road and the Raneegunge branch of the railway. The soil is stated to be in many places very fertile, and great facilities are believed to exist for irrigation by bunded tanks.* Mr. Pontet obtained from the Agricultural Society a supply of Dr. Wight's Mexican seed, acclimated at Coimbatore, and imported in 1847-48 he sowed it in the district (the Damun-i-koh, now the most northern of the Sontal Pergunnahs): it succeeded remarkably well, grew vigorously, bore largely, and all the seed obtained from the first crop was taken up and sowed by the Sontals. The sample which Mr. Pontet sent to the Agricultural Society was greatly praised by the Cotton Committee, who valued it at 5d. to 5 d. per lb.† In 1850 a fresh supply of the same kind of seed, which is stated to have grown at Coimbatore for nine generations, was sent to Mr. Pontet and sown by the Sontals. * That is, by damming up the mouth of a gorge, so as to form a tank whence the water can be drawn off at will. † It is noticeable that some of this same batch of seed sown by Major Napleton in the adjoining district did not produce nearly so favorable a result. A sample of this growth was, in June 1851, submitted, among many others of Indian-grown Cotton, to Messrs. J. Cook and Co., London brokers: it was pronounced to be a fine specimen of good long staple, and if clean, equal to fair New Orleans, and worth 61d. per lb. In 1859 Mr. P. Burke sent to the Society* samples of Cotton from Koosma, in the Damun-i-koh; they were of two distinct kinds: the plants from which they were gathered were of different varieties, one being the common country Cotton, and the other descended from seeds distributed by Mr. Pontet: some of the Sontals thought that the latter had been brought from Chota Nagpore fifteen years before: it was probably the Mexican seed, which at that time had grown for eighteen years in India. Mr. Burke states that it is most carelessly cultivated, and that some of the plants always die for want of water during the dry weather: the soil best suited to the crop is that just above the alluvial flat, but it will not grow in any very moist soil, nor on flooded land near a stream: its superiority to the ordinary country Cotton is universally recognized. The Cotton Committee valued the sample at 6d. per lb. Again, in 1860, Mr. Burket exhibited samples of Cotton grown from Mexican seed in this district; he also sent some of the common country Cotton: the Cotton Committee pronounced the former to be of good color, fair, strong staple, and a useful marketable article, worth 7d. per lb.: the latter quite unsaleable in ordinary times, coarse and harsh, though strong and well colored, would now fetch 4d. to 4 d. per lb. In 1861 Mr. Assistant Commissioner Wood recommends the Rajmahal Hills as a promising country for trying exotic Cotton: irrigation by bunded tanks could every where be cheaply effected labor abounds, considerable areas of Khass lands are available, many fair-weather * Agricultural Journal, Vol. XI., page 179. † Ibid, Vol. XI., page 418. Lands where no proprietory right has been created between the cultivator and the Government. L roads intersect the country, and the railway affords great facilities. He sent samples of an exotic Cotton now very common throughout the district, and the produce of seeds distributed many years since by Mr. Pontet.* Mr. P. Saunders reported on these samples: he describes the Cotton as of fair staple and strong fibre, well colored, and fully equal to middling New Orleans of American growth: he affirms that no sign of degeneracy is to be found, and this, although it has been long acclimatized and notoriously ill treated during the successive years, that it has been cultivated in the Damun-i-koh: he could not determine whether this was descended from the Coimbatore Mexican seed of 1847-50, or from some Upland Georgia distributed by Mr. Pontet in the latter year: he believes the sample to be equal to either, and anticipates valuable results when it gets a fair chance under careful cultivation. Districts. DINAGEPORE. MOORSHEDABAD. RAJSHAYE DIVISION. The northern portion of this division touches the Darjeeling Terai on the west, and stretches to the south of the Cooch Behar territory and the Bhootan Doars on the east it reaches to the Bramaputra and the Moorshedabad, and part of the Pubna districts lie south of the Ganges. Its soil is composed to a great extent of the older alluvium, but it includes considerable tracts of the delta alluvium also it nowhere takes in any of the upland area its general fertility is great, * See ante.-Mr. Pontet has, it is evident, succeeded in effecting what so many have attempted in vain: I have met with no other instance within the Bengal Provinces, of the introduction of an exotic Cotton, and its complete establishment as a regular staple of native agricultural produce. A list of those who, after devoting much time and money to effect this long desired object, have signally failed, would contain many a well known name. and its facilities for water-carriage very considerable; besides many minor streams, navigable during a portion of each year, it commands for many a mile the banks of the Ganges and Bramaputra. In 1848 the Commissioner merely recorded his opinion that, save parts of Rungpore, no district in his division could grow Cotton. In 1861 the Commissioner states that in 1857 it had been ascertained that only four of the districts of the division grew Cotton at all, and that the out-turn in that had been : year The Commissioner doubts if even, with a prospect of a demand, the cultivation of Cotton will expand very considerably in his division, except, perhaps, in the districts of Dinagepore and Rungpore: "even there "the very large crops of rice, sugar-cane, tobacco, and of other equally " valuable products now raised, yield a very remunerative, and, generally speaking, very safe return, and unless the soil of the two districts is " peculiarly adapted for Cotton, it is not likely that staple crops will be superseded to any extent for the mere chance that Cotton may prove more remunerative still." RUNGPORE. This district lies between the Morung and the Darjeeling Terai, on which it abuts on the northwest; and the bank of the Bramaputra, which bounds it on the south-east; its soil is of great fertility, formed for the most part of the older alluvium; it is stated to be one of the richest and best cultivated districts in Bengal: its soil retains the moisture throughout the year, and even in March and April, |