97 



profitable tea culture in India, and it will be one 

 fortunate consequence of the state of our Chinese 

 relations if, in respect to the production for the 

 European market of two such valuable articles as 

 tea arid cottony it should give, as seems probable, 

 an active stimulus to the agriculture and commerce 

 of this country. In no other channel can the capi- 

 tal and enterprize which have at Bombay been, 

 heretofore employed on the trade in opium, be now 

 turned with better prospect of advantage than to 

 the amelioration of the cotton produce of that Pre- 

 sidency, which already commands some partial sale 

 among the English manufacturers, and affords a very 

 promising encouragement to further persevering 

 experiment/* 



Both experiments were carried on simultaneous- 

 ly. Government established experimental Farms 

 for the cultivation of Cotton, as well as Gardens 

 for the cultivation of the Tea plant, in many parts of 

 India. Those for cotton, moreover, at the outset, 

 received the most careful attention. Pecuniary 

 advances were made to individuals, and rewards 

 granted to such natives as evinced zeal and ingenui- 

 ty in the prosecution of the object; seed, in consi- 

 derable quantites, was procured from Egypt, 

 Bourbon, the Brazils, and from North America; saw- 

 gins, used with so much success in the latter country 



* Minute by the Governor General of India, on the improved 

 tion of cotton in India, dated j5th March 1839 



