SECTION II: VAR. NEGLECT A 105 



sufficiently high to escape inundation and by having a considerable 

 portion of strong clay in its composition.' . . . ' I have no doubt that 

 the fine cotton produced near Dacca is one cause of the superiority 

 of the manufacture, nor do I think that any American cotton is so 

 fine, but then there can be no doubt that the American kinds have a 

 longer filament and on that account are more fitted for European 

 machinery. I think, however, that if the good Dacca cotton were 

 sent home, which I do not suppose has ever been done, that our 

 people would contrive to spin it and find it superior to any other ; 

 and the first experiments to be tried on the subject should, I think, 

 be directed to that quarter ' (I.e. p. xxxv). 



In support of Dr. Buchanan-Hamilton's opinion of the Dacca Taylor's 

 cotton, mention may be here made of Dr. James Taylor's pertinent 

 remarks, fifty years later (' Descriptive and Historical Account of the 

 Cotton Manufactures of Dacca,' published by John Mortimer in 1851). 

 Speaking of the fineness of the thread, Dr. Taylor says that ' a skein 

 which a native weaver measured in my presence in 1846, and which 

 was afterwards carefully weighed, proved to be in the proportion of 

 upwards of 250 miles to the pound of cotton.' Dr. Taylor then goes 

 on to explain that the shortness of the Dacca cotton renders it 

 unsuited to machine spinning, but nevertheless the local muslin 

 spinners were unable to use the American cotton, which was given 

 them for experiment, and claim that the local fibre is superior for 

 that purpose. (Cf. pp. 29 and 37.) 



' Formerly, when this article was more extensively cultivated 

 than at present, there were different shades of quality observable inferior. 

 in the staple, which either cannot now be distinguished or have 

 degenerated into one of an inferior degree. They were known by the 

 names of phootee, nurmdh and bairaite. The cotton of the present 

 day, it is affirmed by the natives, is inferior to what it formerly was. 

 The crops are less abundant, and it is said that the fibres, though 

 apparently equally fine and soft, are shorter and more firmly adherent 

 to the seed than the produce of former years. The Dacca cotton, 

 however, notwithstanding the deterioration imputed to it, still ranks 

 as an article of finer quality than the produce of other parts of Seed 

 Bengal or of the western provinces ' . . . ' The seeds, which are used 

 for sowing, are carefully picked, and after having been dried in the 

 sun are preserved in an earthen pot in which oil or ghee has been 

 kept, and the vessel with its mouth stopped up, so as to exclude the 

 external air, is hung up to the roof of the hut, and over the spot where 



