Abstract

It will be noticed at once that the staple variety of the Dindigul region is Cambodia unirrigated. Dry Cambodia is rather a speciality for Dindigul; for except in the Avanasi Taluq, it is raised everywhere as an irrigated crop. The hills that encircle the entire region are the cause for this peculiarity. The water that falls on the hills percolates through the soil and provides the necessary moisture for plant growth, and hence the raising of dry Cambodia Cotton. Another peculiarity of this cotton is that the area fluctuates very widely according to the state of rainfall. If the rainfall is poor, the acreage, perforce, is reduced and vice-versa. The area under the other varieties remains more or less constant, unless price changes are sufficiently high or low to cause either an expansion or a contraction. The yield again is poor-that of the dry Cambodia is only about 200 lbs., but the irrigated variety gives about 900 lbs., per acre. Low yield is accounted for by late sowing which the ryots adopt and by heavy rainfall at the close of October, when the growth of the plants is affected.

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