PRODUCT Or OB A M K 1UCA. 



little effort made to obtain the best cotton from India, or 

 even the middling qualities in a clean .state. Mr. M-T 

 cer and Mr. Finnie, American planters, state " that an 

 inferior and dirty cotton is the most profitable article to 

 the native trader, and even to the European merchants 

 and Mr. Petrie, before the cotton committe stated 

 " Cotton that would be sold in England at 4^ pence per 

 lb., and cotton that would only bring 3 pence, will sell 

 in India within 3 to 4 per cent of the same value. The 

 cultivators know this, and therefore they have no object 

 in bestowing more care and labor." Mr. Read, commis- 

 sioner of Benares division, wrote 16th August, 1848 : 

 " In this division, the cultivation of cotton is little more 

 than nominal, it is most commonly mixed up with other 

 crops, it is nowhere carefully attended to ; in many 

 places it is an object of superstitious aversion, and often 

 when the plant contrives to struggle to maturity it is 

 i'ter being stripped of a portion of the bolls, enough 

 to supply domestic purposes, to be devoured by cattle." 

 Evidence to this effect might be produced ad infinitum. 



Mr. Bruce, in a letter dated loth March, 1848, says : 

 If the associations and manufacturers who have been 

 memorializing and soliciting the authorities in England, 

 ling the increase of cultivation of cotton in India, 

 i v wi>li for it, and will guarantee that all that may 

 be produced through my exertions- in this country will be 

 taken by them, and paid for here, and will send out re- 

 sponsible agents to receive charge of the cotton, either 

 here or at Calcutta, I will engage and undertake to pro- 

 duce for them as much real good marketable cotton as 

 they lire, and not cost them, when landed in 



England, more than about 3* pence per lb., which I 



