Great attention has been paid to the nature of the soils, while less importance than it really deserves has been attached to climate, though climate, and mainly one element of climate--the moisture of the atmosphere--is an essential condition in the successful culture of American cotton. In travelling southward from the latitude of Bombay the climate becomes gradually moister, and at 300 miles there is a very decided change. The American cotton-plant has a very different constitution from the Indian; it cannot stand so much drought, and the conditions required for its culture are an equable and moderate supply of moisture through all the stages of its growth. These conditions are fulfilled in the Dharwar country, which retains a considerable quantity of moisture in the air during the cold season, when other parts of the Bombay Presidency are intensely dry. Wherever this is the case, as in Sind, Guzerat, Broach, and Ahmednuggur, the American plant will not yield a remunerative crop. The indigenous plant is able to endure this dry season well, because it is a native, not of the peninsula, but of the arid country of Sind and part of the Punjab, where it grows wild. If careful hygrometrical observations were taken throughout the year in the various cotton districts, the results might be compared with similar observations taken in Dharwar; and thus the localities may be ascertained where the American cotton can be advantageously cultivated, so far at least as this depends on the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. The supply of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere, at any period of the year, diminishes as we recede from the coast; but, having once found a centre where the American plant can be profitably raised, in Dharwar, it is advisable to work from that centre, especially in a south-eastern and southerly direction. This spread of the growth of American cotton has already taken place to the eastward of Dharwar, to a considerable extent. The people in the Bellary district, and in neighbouring parts of the Nizam's territory, have for some years grown cotton from American seeds, and value it more highly than their native species.