An abstract, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, of J. W. Mallet's study of the soil conditions for growing cotton, based on the 'canebrake' prairie soils of Marengo County, Alabama. It covers physical tests (heat absorption, water retention, capillarity, gas and salt absorption, particle size) and chemical analyses of the soils. It ends with general deductions on cotton's needs for heat and moisture and an appendix on how cotton land was ploughed, planted, tended, picked and ginned in Alabama.

A physical-chemistry paper reporting experiments on the heat generated when dry cotton wool is wetted by water or exposed to air saturated with water vapour (the Pouillet effect). Masson measures the temperature rise of cotton wrapped on a thermometer bulb and the moisture absorbed over time, and concludes that the heat comes from condensation of water vapour on the fibres. He gives empirical relations for the temperature-time curve and discusses the fate of the absorbed moisture, favouring a solid-solution view. The paper includes experimental tables and curve diagrams.