18 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 



CHAP. Indian, Bourbon, and New Orleans Cotton compa- 



'. red. Besides the differences between the staple of the Indi- 



** an and New Orleans Cotton, there are some other peculiarities 

 which are well worthy of notice. The Indian is a stunted 

 plant, which seems as though it formed a degenerate species. 

 It rarely rises above three feet from the ground, and some- 

 times scarcely a foot ; and its branches in the same way 

 spread out only from one foot to three. The Bourbon, which 

 was originally brought from the Mauritius, about the latter 

 Letter* end of the last century, rises to about the same height as 



Collators the Indian, but then it spreads out its branches much more. 



pah, Bei- The New Orleans however rises to a far greater height 



lary, Madu- 

 ra, Tinne- than either the Bourbon or the Indian, and spreads out 



velly ana 



tore* 11 lup- i* s branches a great deal more than either. But the 

 fdr,Sion n ~ r ot of the New Orleans does not strike so deeply into 

 "* F Maii 8 et the ground as either the Bourbon or the Indian ; and conse- 



18 ! >8 MS 



records.' ' quently it is less able to bear a protracted drought than either 

 one or the other. This fact may be found useful in ex- 

 plaining some of the results attendant upon the experimen- 

 tal culture which we shall presently have to record. 



23 2nd, Better system of Cultivation : Indian and 

 American agriculture compared. The differences be- 

 tween American and Indian culture will be largely illus- 

 trated in the present volume ; but it may be as well 

 to state here generally that they chiefly lie in the 



from a consideration of the different manufactured goods in which, they 

 are employed. Thus the finest qualities of Cotton, or those of the Sea 

 Island class, are worked into lace and muslin of the most beautiful tex- 

 ture. Other qualities, Egyptian, New Orleans, and Boweds, are made 

 into cambrics and calicoes for printing, as well as into shirtings, sheetings, 

 and fustians ; and, when mixed with the better kinds of waste, into bed 

 dovers and heavy fabrics. But East Indian Cotton is rarely at present 

 used alone, except for the lowest purposes, because of its general inferi- 

 ority ; and it is generally disposed of in adulteration. Bazley's Lecture 

 upon Cotton, p. ^9. "We might however remind Mr. Bazley that very 

 beautiful muslins are still manufactured by the Native weavers at Dacca 

 and Arnee 



