Cotton Hand-book, for Bengal: Being a Digest of All Information Available from Offcial Records and Other Sources on the Subject of the Production of Cotton in the Bengal Provinces, Volume 105

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J. G. Medlicott
Savielle & Cranenburgh, 1862 - Cotton growing - 484 pages

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Page 424 - ... been long out of cultivation so much the better." The black cotton soil in which so much of the cotton of India is grown, and which is generally considered the best for the purpose, is remarkable for its power of retaining moisture ; while of the red soil he says...
Page 421 - Mr. Solly observes, that these were all of a similar nature, their difference being merely in the relative quantity of their constituents ; the structure of all was light, porous and friable, of such a nature as to possess a considerable retentive power for water, and yet, from its openness, to allow of sufficient degree of drainage. They consist mostly of sand, the poorest of little else. They also all contain alumina, oxide of iron, and manganese, but with hardly any lime. The organic matters consist...
Page 425 - The mechanical state of a soil, its greater or less degree of porosity or of tenacity, enabling the roots to spread with more or less facility, so as to fix the plant steadily in the earth, at the same time that they supply it with a large portion of its nutriment, is necessarily of great importance. But as a con.
Page 462 - To pick 501b. of Cotton in a day is considered as a fair task for one person. The plants should be cut down every year within three or four inches of the ground. The time for doing 'this, which must be in the rainy season, ought to be regulated by the same...
Page 451 - Madras mean temperature at the beginning of September is 84°, and that at the end of October it is still as high as 81°. If the sowing is effected between the middle of August and middle of September, the plant will be well grown and sufficiently strong to bear the cold weather of November and December ; while there is reason to believe the cold of these months will only so far retard the maturation of the crop as to prevent its coming to perfect maturity before the middle of January, when, though...
Page 423 - ... for the neighbourhood of the sea, as this supplies plentifully the saline substances requisite to the perfect development and constitution of its woolly fruit, and that it enables us to infer, that the compost or manure best fitted for cotton plantations should contain neutro-saline matter, with alkaline, calcareous, and magnesian bases, and that the presence of magnesia deserves notice, as it indicates marine food. But with respect to the absence of soda salts from the ashes of cotton, he observes,...
Page 13 - Mr. Vibart, the Revenue-Commissioner of Bombay, (Return, p. 66,) writes, that " the cultivators find that as ready a sale is obtained for cotton in a dirty and adulterated state as when brought to the market in a clean and first-rate condition, while the difference of price between the two articles does not repay them for the additional time and labour.
Page 283 - ... transmission to the Manchester Cotton Supply Association, on which the following opinion was given by them:— "' The sample arrived this morning, and has been examined by two other parties of experience in the cotton trade, as well as by ourselves, and the conclusion come to is, that this sample is all that could be desired by those interested in promoting the cultivation of GOOD cotton in this country, and it is believed that any quantity of this quality would find a ready sale in Liverpool...
Page 426 - When two conditions are equally necessary for producing the effect at all, it is unmeaning to say that so much of it is produced by one and so much by the other ; it is like attempting to decide which half of a pair of scissors has most to do in the act of cutting ; or which of the factors, five and six, contributes most to the production of thirty.
Page 426 - ... by drainage. Again, if in another situation the air is more dry, and evaporation necessarily greater, both from the surface of the earth and from that of the leaves, a soil more retentive of moisture will be more suitable than one which is more open, and which thus allows moisture to escape, not only by evaporation but by drainage. These varieties may be observed not only in the soil and climate of different localities, but even in the same locality at different seasons of the year, especially...

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