266 



growing districts, and thus coming into closer com- 

 munication with the cultivator. This system will 

 doubtless, in course of time, obviate the intervention 

 of the obnoxious middleman, while effecting a per* 

 manent improvement in the staple. 



The cotton industry of England has, during the 

 present century, assumed enormous proportions, 

 and millions of sterling are paid annually to America 

 for the raw material consumed in Manchester. It 

 is therefore simply a matter of State policy and self- 

 interest for England and its Indian Dependency to 

 make all possible exertions and suffer any outlay 

 to enable the produce of India not only to compete 

 with, but to supplant, American cotton in the Euro- 

 pean markets. The sudden but continuous fall of 

 silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the 

 heavy loss in exchange that India suffers by the 

 drawings of the Secretary of State, afford to the 

 Government of India more powerful reasons than 

 ever to develop the culture of this most important 

 staple. 



On account of the greater length of fibre and 

 the general superiority of the American cotton, it 

 was but natural that the Indian Government 

 should have concentrated its attention in the 

 attempt to introduce and acclimatize in India the 

 American variety of the cotton-plant. These 

 attempts dating from the year 1788, when the 

 Court of Directors called the attention of the 



