SECTION II: DACCA COTTON 107 



machine-spinners something worthy of their attention. Whatever Hand 

 explanation can be given of the fact, a fact it remains, that the hand vers . 

 spinners of Dacca use a short-staple annual cotton (not a long-staple spinners, 

 tree cotton) in the production of their exceedingly fine muslin yarns. 

 And, moreover, Dr. Taylor tells us that when given the very finest 

 imported American long-staple cotton, the Dacca spinners failed to 

 produce from that as fine a yarn as they could from their own 

 short-staple floss. 



An American acclimatised long-staple cotton has, it would seem, Tree 

 been recently discovered in Bengal. But the inference has been a ^ tton m 

 little too precipitately drawn that that plant was the far-famed Dacca 

 muslin cotton. Its discoverer speaks of it as a long-staple tree 

 cotton, while from the above extracts it will be seen all the early 

 writers, such as Eohr, Buchanan-Hamilton, Bebb, Tucker, Eoxburgh 

 and Taylor, allude to the muslin (or bairati) cotton as having been a 

 short-staple annual plant. 



But the question may be asked, ' Is it or is it not a fact that with 

 an exceedingly short staple the Dacca manufacturers are still 

 producing (or until very recently were producing) muslins which, if 

 not up to the old standards, are certainly far finer than could be 

 manufactured from the staples they use by any process or machine 

 known to-day in Europe or America ? ' Dr. Taylor says, ' The 

 material of which the fine Dacca muslins are made is entirely the 

 produce of the district. The plant is an annual one, and attains a 

 height of about five feet.' 



Lastly, Mr. A. C. Sen (' Kept, on Agri. and Agri. Stat. Dacca,' Present- 

 1889, p. 52) observes : ' The cultivation is not now done half so carefully va tion. 

 as was the case at the time of Dr. Taylor. The field is prepared by 

 two to four ploughings and as many harrowings. Furrows are then 

 drawn a cubit apart and in these furrows cotton seeds previously 

 moistened with dung water are dropped in thickly. When the plants 

 come out they are thinned to a distance of a foot from one another.' 



It thus seems probable that the interest in the Dacca muslin Future 

 cottons may turn on a more careful investigation of the methods of tions. 

 spinning pursued by the hand workers. And it is just possible this 

 may prove suggestive of new developments. My experience of the 

 Indian craftsmen would lead me at all events to study critically their 

 methods and theories, especially regarding the hygroscopic properties 

 of certain cottons and the chemical composition of the well waters 

 used by them, rather than to speculate whether or not the botanists 



