79 



be .ultimately found that, as far as the matter I am advo- 

 cating is concerned, this is the only method of procedure 

 which will lead to success. 



As regards the 15 tons of Calotropis fibre, which I re- 

 commended should be sent to England for experiment (vide 

 p. 50), it appears from a Memorandum by the Collector of Shi- 

 karpore which reached me through Col. Sir W. Mere wether 

 that although the Calotropis grows wild in prolific 

 abundance throughout Sind, the cost of producing the fibre 

 far exceeds its market value. With a view, then, to reduce 

 the cost of the preparation of the fibre (by substituting ma- 

 chinery for manual labour), I applied at once for one cwt. of 

 the dried stems of the plant to experiment upon, undertaking 

 to meet all costs if the Acting Commissioner did not feel war- 

 ranted in supplying me at Government expense. This appli- 

 cation, however, was rejected by the Acting Commissioner, Mr. 

 Melvill, and I was directed to apply to the Bombay Govern- 

 ment or the Government of India for what I required. The 

 balance of my leave in England is too short for me to adopt 

 this course ; it must therefore remain with the authorities 

 here to decide upon the action to be taken. 



Inasmuch as the same opinion prevails in some quarters 

 regarding the relative merits of the fibre obtained from the 

 green and from the dry stems of the Calotropis, which once 

 existed with respect to the comparative merit of fibre 

 obtained from the green and dried stems of the rheea, I was 

 induced to apply to the Commissioner for one cwt. of the 

 dried stems of the former for. experiment with certain 

 different machines I know of, for I see no reason why the 

 general opinion may not prove as incorrect in this instance 

 as it was in the case of rheea. Dr. Forbes Watson, in his 

 Report on Rheea, to which I have had already constantly to 

 refer, writes : " With regard to the last point, referring to 

 the best mode of preparing the fibre, there is evidence that 

 the process of separating the fibre need not be restricted to 



