62 REPORT— 1842. 



that some were sold for double and treble the price of others. The Indian cottons 

 were stated to be usually low in price from inferiority in length of staple and de- 

 fective cleaning ; but that they had some useful properties, such as a good colour, 

 taking dyes easily, and swelling in the process of bleaching, by which the cloth looked 

 more substantial. This property the weavers of Dacca objected to as unsuited to their 

 " webs of woven air," and therefore preferred the cotton grown near their town. Dr. 

 R. inquired whether this variety grown in a moist soil and climate might be less dis- 

 posed to absorb moisture than cotton grown in the drier soil and climate of the north- 

 western provinces of India, which having the property of swelling, was esteemed by 

 the weavers of Benares as well as by those of Manchester. Dr. Royle then contrasted 

 the culture in America with that in India, and found that they differed in every re- 

 spect; the American being more of the nature of garden culture, that is, where each 

 plant was individually attended to, in the processes of ploughing, hoeing, weeding, 

 heaping earth round it, and sometimes in pruning, besides great attention in picking, 

 drying, and cleaning the cotton from its seeds ; in all which the Indian processes dif- 

 fered in being exactly the reverse. In the American method, the spreading of the 

 roots in the soil, the exposure of the leaves to the air, and the due influence on both 

 of the stimuli of heat and light in a soil and climate not too dry nor over moist, were 

 all well calculated to restrain the inordinate growth of leaves, and to favour the due 

 production and perfection of flowers and fruit, and necessarily of cotton. There was 

 nothing, however, in the culture, soil, or climate that could not be imitated in India, 

 though it might no doubt require modification in degree from differences of soil and 

 climate. 



It would be remarkable if attempts had not been made to improve the culture of 

 cotton in India. In fact the Directors of the East India Company called the attention 

 of their government in India to this subject as early as 1788. They sent out seeds, 

 instructions, machines, and even an American, Mr. Metcalf, to teach the use of these, 

 and established farms for the improved culture of cotton in 1811, 1818, and lastly in 

 1829. These are usually stated to have been failures. This the Professor denied, as 

 good cotton had been produced and the culture was considered profitable, and only 

 required planters to take it up on their own account. The American cotton is also 

 said to degenerate in India. This also he considered incorrect. The Bourbon cotton, 

 which is the same kind as the Sea Island, had been introduced into Tinnevelly, in 1 1° 

 of north latitude, and Mr. Hughes continued to send it to the Liverpool market for a 

 series of years of good quality, and always obtained for it a higher price than any other 

 cotton from India ever sold for. It has fallen off of late, but it has lost Mr. Hughes's 

 skill, which was displayed in the growing of senna as well as in the culture of 

 cotton ; Hughes's Tinnevelly senna selling for three and four shillings a pound, when 

 the best Alexandrian senna does not bring more tlian one shilling and sixpence. The 

 imports of Bourbon cotton from the Tinnevelly district have however increased in 

 quantity, as the natives have taken up the culture. That all the cotton introduced into 

 India has not deteriorated, is also proved by Mr. Elphinstone, Collector of Rutna- 

 gherry, and Dr. Burn at Kaira having produced cotton which has been pronounced 

 nearly, if not quite equal to the best New Orleans, and some not much inferior to Sea 

 Island, both from what appears to be acclimated Bourbon seed. Dr. Burn, in 18o8, 

 collected his seed from hedges where Dr. Gilders had made his experiments in 1817. 

 Without careful culture cotton will deteriorate in America quite as readily as in 

 India. 



Notwithstanding these repeated experiments and apparent failures, the Court of 

 Directors of the East India Company determined upon making another great experi- 

 ment, which should be sufficiently complete to set the question at rest. As is well 

 known in Manchester, Captain Bayles was deputed to and brought with him ten ex- 

 perienced planters of cotton, of whom three were sent to the Madras, three to the 

 Bombay, and four to the Bengal Presidency, taking with them American seed, ploughs 

 and hoes, gins and machines for cleaning cotton, and presses for packing it in a state 

 fit for transmission to market. The results of their experiments in the first year 

 Dr. Royle then proceeded to relate, chiefly from letters addressed to himseU, and the 

 proceedings of the Agricultural Society of India. The Bombay experiment, he was 

 sorry to say, had been a failure ; but, in fact, it had not received a fair trial, and for 

 the causes he referred to a letter lately published by the Hon. W. Baring to Mr. M. 



