FARMERS' REGISTER 



5S3 



been all their lives engaged upon cotton planta- 

 tions in the United Slates, iiave arrived in this 

 eounfry wiihin the lust Ibrlnigiit, and are about 

 proceeding (or India, to superiiuend [ilantations, 

 eiiher formed, or about to be formed, in the presi- 

 dencies of Bombay and Bengal. 



Very recently a special meeting of the JMan- 

 chester Chamber of Commerce was convened for 

 liie express purpose o( entertaining this interesting 

 question, and as the doings on that occasion are so 

 important to your merchants and southern friends, 

 1 will endeavor to give you a sketch of the pro- 

 ceedings. On the table were three specimens of 

 India grown cotton, li-om tiie same piece of land, 

 and they Iiad all undergone " one of the first ope- 

 rations of manuliicture." Two of these speci- 

 mens had been ginned in the usual wa)', and the 

 third had been operated upon by a machine for 

 ' ginning,' the invention of Messrs. Fawcett & Co. 

 of Liverpool, and owing lo its superior appearance 

 and cleardiness, was admitted to be worth " a far- 

 lliing to three-eighths of a penny" more than 

 those specimens which had been prepared in the 

 ordinary manner adopted in the United Stales. 



The chairman of the Chamber, Mr. J. B. 

 Smith, expressed himself in very sanguine terms. 

 " There was nothing," he observed, " in the 

 course which the Chamber had pursued, thai 

 could afford the least ground of jealousy on the 

 part of our brethren in the United Slates. The 

 Chamber, he had no doubt, were all wishlul that 

 we should deal wilh our colonies in their produce, 

 rather than wilh other and independent countries. 

 They had no wish to put down the growth of cot- 

 ton in any country. On the contrary, it was their 

 wish that it should be cultivated wherever it was 

 possible." 



It appears that the East India directors finding 

 that a number of spirited individuals had resolved 

 upon the cultivation of cotton in India, made 

 a virtue of necessity, and set about inquiring into 

 the possibility of the thing for themselves. The 

 consequence of their researches was a report 

 which Mr. Smith, at the conclusion of his address, 

 introduced, and which was read to the Chamber. 



'i'hat report, framed evidently with great care 

 and the result of the minutest investigation, is a 

 document almost too important lor condcnsaiion, 

 but as it is more than probable that you will give 

 it at some future day, entire, I will merely run 

 over its contents. It begins by staling that " The 

 question of obtaining cotton from various countries 

 must necessarily be intercsiing to a manufacturing 

 ccmmunily whose prosperity Lneatly depends upon 

 a plentiful and steady supj)!y of the ravv material, 

 since it must be obvious that security against the 

 contingencies of liiiling crops, political disagree- 

 ments, or unsteadiness of price, arising from spe- 

 culative combinations, must be in proportion to the 

 number of channels from whence we derive our 

 Eupplies." The chamber is then congratulated on 

 the progress made lor obtaining "an increased 

 supply and improved quality of East India cotton," 

 and a description is given of the successful man- 

 ner in which cotton has been cleaned in Bombay. 

 The mode of perlbrming it, however, is declared 

 to be both slow and expensive, requiring some ! 

 mechanical skill to meet the otherwise "insupera- { 

 ble obstacles to a irreatly extended production of; 

 cotton in the colonies." To aid in the enterprise, ! 

 all transit dulics hdvc been aboiithed iu Botiiba}-, | 



and the same policy is about being adopted in Ma- 

 dras. The Governor General of India has offered 

 three prizes for the growth of a certain quantity 

 and quality of cotton. The first 20,000 rupees — 

 the second 10,000 rupees — and the third 5,000 ru- 

 pees. Captain Baylis was despatched by the In- 

 dia government to the United Stales for the pur- 

 |)ose of engaging competent persons to superin- 

 tend the culture, and has succeeded in his mission. 

 lie is on the point of returning lo India vviih a 

 collection of a considerable quantity of seeds, and 

 also with several American saw gins for cleaning 

 cotton. 



The several gentlemen who had consented la 

 accompany Captain Baylis from the United States 

 to the East Indies, had been introduced lo the 

 Committee of the Chamber, and iiad pointed ouS 

 to them the deficiencies of Indian cotton, " parti- 

 cularly in reference to i's cleanness and irregularity 

 ol sia|)le, boili of which they expressed confidence 

 in being able lo improve." The same mills have 

 been set up in Liverpool, and on the 17ih of July 

 last, some mendiers of the Court of Directors of 

 the East India Company, with several gentlemen' 

 of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, as- 

 sembled al the former place " to witness the expe- 

 riment to be made in the machinery for cleaning 

 cotton. A repetiiion of these experiments was 

 also made at Manchester, and the result was that 

 the directors of both bodies " consider those expe- 

 riments lo be, on the whole, highly satisfactory, as 

 proving, beyond a doubt, the practicability of 

 cleaning India cotton wilh the American saw-gin ; 

 although it is evitlent, at the same lime, that per- 

 sonal skill and experience will be requisite to adapt 

 the machine to the parlicular species of cotton it is 

 intended to operate upon." 



The special report of the directors of the Cham- 

 ber then goes on to stale that "it appears to be a 

 very judicious arrangement which the Hon. East 

 India Company has adopted, viz : to send over lo 

 India, with the machines, several talented and 

 experienced gentlemen, natives of the United 

 Stales of America, and brought up as cotton plant- 

 ers, who will be able to give a new imjjulse lo the 

 growth of cotton in India, and to devise and carry 

 into eHect the best methods of driving the saw-gin 

 and applying that machine to the very important 

 purpose of cleaning the cotton so produced." 



The vital importance of the American saw- 

 gins will be seen at once when you remember 

 iliat with one of these machines 1100 lbs. to 1200^ 

 lbs. weight of clean cotton can be produced per 

 day, whilst the machine used in India, the Chinka, 

 can only prepare from 3S lbs. to 40 lbs. per day. 

 The machine, also, that has been invented Ly 

 Messrs. Fawcett & Co. is stated to be even a 

 decided improvement upon the American saw-gin, 

 so that every opportunity is now given to the 

 growers of cotton in India to compete with the 

 American market. The planters who have been 

 engaged from the United Stales, are so engaged 

 (or five years, and their experimenls are to be car- 

 ried out on a most extensive scale. There can be 

 no doubt that wilh such a wealthy body as the 

 Lords of Leadcnhall street — the Eist India Com- 

 pany — to back and support them through all their 

 endeavors, sometiiing will now be done. 



Bearing upon this sulijeci, though partially, is 

 the meeting held on the 27lli at Manchester for 

 eslabliihing the "Norihern Ccii'.ral Briiish India 



