PREFACE. 



IN submitting the present Hand-Book to the public, but 

 few observations are necessary. The compiler has simply 

 reduced a mass of matter to a convenient form for peru- 

 sal and reference. The necessity for such a condensation, 

 will he trusts, prove a sufficient apology to the many distin- 

 guished writers, whose minutes, reports, and correspondence 

 have been thus abridged and arranged in a continuous nar- 

 rative. In the last Chapter however, which exhibits the 

 present condition of the Cotton culture in the Madras Presi- 

 dency, it has been deemed expedient to present the reader 

 with full extracts from the letters of the Collectors of the 

 several Districts, rather than with abstracts ; as the subject 

 matter appears to be of greater importance, inasmuch as it 

 refers to the present condition and prospects of the country. 



The large Cotton Map of the Madras Presidency, which 

 was to have accompanied the present volume, is very nearly 

 ready, and will be published in the course of two or three 

 weeks. It is being executed on the same scale as Major 

 Scott's Map (24 miles to the inch), and will comprise a full 

 and complete delineation of all the Cotton districts, marts, 

 roads, canals, rivers and ports in the Madras Presidency, 

 together with a coloured representation of localities capable 

 of producing Cotton. This Map has been prepared in the De- 

 partment of Public Works, and the writer cannot but express 

 his sense of the intelligence and zeal displayed by Mr. DAVID 



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