old. There is not the slightest doubt
that the Cotton plant is indigenous to Peru.

Thirty-five years ago Liverpool received no less than 300,000 pounds
weight of cotton from Peru, and three years later over 4,000,000 pounds.
During the last decade of the century it exceeded 6,000,000 pounds to
England alone. Two kinds of Peruvian cotton are grown--smooth and rough.
This latter is a rough, strong fibre, and is exceptionally well adapted
for mixing with wool in the manufacture of hosiery, and a greater part
of this cotton coming in England is used in the hosiery trade. The
plant from which it is produced is a perennial, and for six or seven
years is said to give two crops a year. Owing to the peculiarly
favourable climate of Peru and the suitability of the soil, it is
exceedingly improbable that any strong competitor will come to divert
the Peruvian trade, so that for some time yet we may look to this
country supplying the hosiery trade with rough Peruvian cotton. The
importations of Peruvian cotton into the United States for 1894-95 were
24,000 bales; for 1895-96, 24,603 bales; for 1896-97, 16,604 bales.

=The Cultivation of Cotton in India.=--There are other Asiatic cotton
fields besides those of India, viz., China, Corea, Japan, the Levant,
and Russia in Asia. The term "India" will be used in a somewhat
restricted sense in this section, and will cover only that huge
triangular-shaped peninsula lying to the south of Thibet in Asia. It is
1800 miles in width and nearly 2000 miles in length. The total area, not
including Assam and Burmah, is about 1,300,000 square miles, the native
states alone covering 595,000 square miles.

Out of the 28 deg. of North Latitude through which India stretches, no less
than 15-1/2 deg. are in the tropics, the remainder being in the Temperate
Zone. The climate, owing to a number of circumstances, such as different
altitudes and uneven distribution of moisture, is exceedingly varied.

During the months April to September the sun, during the day or some
part of it, is overhead. Consequently the heat received will be greater
than over the ocean at the south, taking a similar area. A direct cause
of this is the starting of winds which receive the name of monsoons.
These blow from the S.W., and bring vast quantities of moisture with
them. This moisture-laden wind is partially robbed of its load as it
strikes the Western Ghats and consequently much moisture is deposited
here, giving rise to