101 



long stapled cotton slightly stained in color, yet 

 still worth about 24c?. per lb.' 



But I need not multiply evidence of this kind, 

 or further enlarge on this portion of the subject* 

 Abundant and convincing testimony to the fact 

 that exotic cotton of superior quality can be grown, 

 in parts of India, is to be found in the experience 

 of the past, as admirably digested and laid before 

 the public, in the Cotton Hand-Book prepared in 

 accordance with the Resolution of His Excellency the 

 Governor General of India in Council dated 22nd 

 July 1861, by Mr. J. G. Medlicott of the Geological 

 Survey of Bengal.* Here, also, will be found data to 

 show that leaving altogether out of the account the 

 great districts of Western India from whence the pre- 

 sent supply of Indian Cotton reaches the English 

 Markets, the area of land suitable for the growth of 

 cotton on the Bengal side is enormous. Col. Phayre, 

 the Chief Commissioner of British Birmah, in a report 

 to Government on this subject in 1860, states, that 

 Birmah annually exports 250,000 worth of cotton, 

 to China. He adds that ' there are in the Upper 

 portion of the Province of Pegu many millions of 

 acres of ground now lying waste, where it is believed 

 that cotton of a quality far superior to any now 

 known in Birmah could, under European superin- 

 tendence, be raised/ f It is a crop ' he continues c to 



* The Cotton Hand- Books of the Bombay and Madras Presiden- 

 cies I have not seen. 



