22 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 



CHAP, through a door at the side, and placed in the hopper of the 



' saw gin. The question to be decided is, whether the thresher 



would not be found useful in clearing off the trash from 

 Indian seed Cotton, prior to submitting it to the action of the 

 churka. This point will be discussed in the fifth chapter. 



28 Division of the subject matter of the present Hand 

 Book. Having thus glanced generally at the specialities of 

 the Madras Presidency, and the nature of the objects which 

 the late Company have sought to accomplish, it is advisable, 

 for the sake of clearness, to notice those salient points in 

 the following narrative, which form the ground-work of the 

 division of the subject matter. The early efforts of the 

 East India Company for the extension and improvement of 

 the Cotton culture in India, are chiefly interesting in an 

 antiquarian point of view. Accordingly they occupy but 

 a very small portion of the present volume. The bulk of 

 the work consists of a detail of facts and opinions elicited 

 during the experiments which were carried out in this Pre- 

 sidency, between the years 1841 and 1853, partly by practi- 

 cal American Planters, and partly by the eminent scientific 

 botanist Dr. Wight, who throughout the greater part of these 

 twelve years held the post of Superintendent. After a few 

 preliminaries, the Experimental Farms were fairly establish- 

 ed in this Presidency in 1841, during the Governorship of Lord 

 Elphinstone ; and the cultivation of American Cotton, and em- 

 ployment of American saw gins, were carried on during four 

 years by three Planters and an Engineer, under the superin- 

 tendence of Dr. Wight in the district of Coimbatore. At 

 the expiration of that period, that is in 1845 when the 

 Marquis of Tweeddale was Governor, some modifications 

 ^ T ere made in the experiment. One of the Planters died, 

 and the two others were transferred to Bombay ; but another 

 Planter named Finnie, who had been originally deputed to 

 Bengal, was engaged for four years longer by the Madras Go- 



