COTTON CULTURE. 151 



these, from which we should hardly expect a fair article 

 of gunny bagging, he makes those fine muslins which the 

 Greeks called " Gangetekoi," or Ganges goods, some of 

 which were plain, some ornamental, and some dyed with 

 exquisite colors. 



Tavernier, a French traveler, speaks of some muslins 

 and calicoes which he saw at Surat, "so fine that you 

 could hardly feel them in your hand ; and the thread, when 

 span, is scarcely discernible." 



The late Rev. William Ward, Missionary at Serampore, 

 speaks of muslins made in Bengal, so fine, that a piece re- 

 quires four months to make it, and is worth five hundred 

 rupees ; this fabric, when spread upon grass and moistened 

 with de\v, is so extremely thin as to be imperceptible 

 without careful examination. A single pound of this 

 thread was spun out to the length of a hundred and fifteen 

 miles, and it is only of late that this hand spinning of 

 Hindostan has been surpassed by English machines, which 

 produced, for the Great Exhibition of 1851 thread so fine 

 that a pound of it would reach over a thousand miles. 



There is a small district forty miles long and about three 

 broad, lying northeast of Calcutta, which produces a sta- 

 ple of great fineness, but too short to be spun by Euro- 

 peans, or woven by any machinery. From this cotton is 

 manufactured, in the rude way above described, the famous 

 Decca muslins, sometimes called webs of woven wind. 

 On account of the wonderful fineness of these Indian fab- 

 rics, it was supposed that a very superior quality, and per- 

 haps large amounts of cotton, might be grown in India, 

 and thus a source opened to the English spinner from 

 which he could supply himself, and feel a dependence less 

 absolute upon American cotton. The experiment was a 

 very faithful one. Several southern gentlemen, and five 

 or six experienced overseers, men practically familiar with 

 every detail of cotton growing, went out to India, taking 

 with them a large assortment of improved seed, the best 



