TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 149 



1831. Value of 23,400,000 square yards, annual produce! , on^ rt i 



or bobbin net J 



1833. Amount of South Sea cotton, 2,387,000 lbs., raw 224,000/. 



,, The same in yarn fit for the bobbin net makers . . 766,000/.* 



„ Value of 30,771,000 square yards of English bob- 

 bin net 1,850.650/. 



1835. Amount of South Sea cotton, 1,850,000 lbs., worth 185,000/. 



„ Amount of raw silk 25,000/. 



,, The same when fit to be used in the bobbin trade 664,330/. 



„ Value of the bobbin net 2,212,000/. 



Mr. Felkin also communicated some observations on the difficulties 

 which impede the collecting of accurate statistical information. 



On the Utility of Co-operating Committees of Trade and Agriculture in 

 the Commercial and Manufacturing Towns of Great Britain, SiC. as 

 projected by Mr. Holt Mackenzie and Mr, Forbes Royle, and advocated 

 by Sir Alexander Johnston and Sir C. Forbes, for investigating more 

 exclusively the Natural and Artificial Products of India. • By Colonel 

 Sykes. 



The object of the paper was to invite the formation of committees, as 

 suggested in the above title, in our principal manufacturing and com- 

 mercial towns, either in co-operation with the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 or independently, for the following purposes : — 



1. To ascertain what articles, the produce of India, now imported 

 into England, are of inferior quality to those produced in other coun- 

 tries ; to investigate the causes of the inferiority, and to explain and 

 suggest means for removing them. 



2. To ascertain what articles now in demand in England, or likely 

 to be used if furnished, but not yet generally forming part of our com- 

 merce with India, could be profitably provided in that country, or their 

 place advantageously supplied by other things belonging to it ; to take 

 measures for making known in India the wants of England, and in En- 

 gland the capabilities of India ; and to suggest and facilitate such ex- 

 periments as may be necessary to determine the practicability of ren- 

 dering the resources of the one country subsendent to the exigencies of 

 the other. 



3. To ascertain what useful articles are produced in countries pos- 

 sessing climates resembling those of the different parts of India which 

 are not known to that country, and vice versd. To consider the means 

 of transplanting the productions, and transferring the processes of one 

 country to another ; and to encourage and facilitate all useful inter- 

 changes of that nature. 



4. With the above views, and for the sake of general knowledge and 

 improvement, to consider how the statistics of Indian agriculture and 

 arts (including climate, meteorology, geology, botany, and zoology) may 



* Above 100,000^. worth of this yarn was sent abroad (262,000 lbs.). 



