All this country round Coimbatore produces much cotton, and cloths are manufactured in great quantities, which supply garments, such as they are, for the people of the plains, as well as for the hill tribes of the Neilgherries. The native cotton is of two kinds, called _oopum-parati_ and _nadum parati_.[427] The seed of the latter is sown broadcast, in the same field with _cholum_ and _cumboo_.[428] After the grain is cut, the ground is ploughed between the plants four times, and in the next year the cotton yields a small crop in July, and a larger one in the following January. After the third year the field is manured and cultivated with grain for two years, cotton being again sown when the third crop of grain has been reaped. This _nadum_ cotton is very little cultivated in the Coimbatore district. The chief product is the _oopum_, the best indigenous cotton, raised, in rotations of two years, with _cumboo_ and _cholum_. The _oopum_ cotton is raised on the black soil,[429] an adhesive black clay, while the little Bourbon cotton that is cultivated is grown on red soil. It is picked very carelessly, and the bales are so badly pressed that those which I passed in carts on the road looked as if they would sink in like a feather-bed, if any one sat upon them. Much pains have been taken by the Government for a series of years to improve the method of cultivating cotton in India, and to introduce American and other species; and very large sums of money have been spent on experiments. Bourbon cotton was cultivated in Coimbatore as early as 1824; and in 1842 Government cotton-farms were established for the growth of New Orleans and Indian plants, both in the black and red soils, under the able superintendence of Dr. Wight, the eminent botanist. In 1849 these experiments were abandoned. The great importance of the question of cotton supply from India has been long felt, and never more so than at the present time. To meet the requirements of the English markets numerous and costly attempts have been made during a course of years to introduce the American species, which produces a much longer staple than the indigenous Indian kind. Yet American cotton has not hitherto been raised so as to yield a profitable return, excepting in the province of Dharwar, in the Bombay Presidency. The success in this instance is chiefly to be attributed to a suitable soil and climate; but also, in no small degree, to the energy of Mr. Shaw, a former Collector.