1845 46.] MB. FINNIE'S FOUR YEARS IN TINNEVELLY. 9 



lose the whole four rupees ; and even if he did get work else- CHAP. 



where, he would still be the loser of one rupee. Again, 



when the Cotton was separated from the seed, the seed was 

 still useful to the people as food for cattle, but it could be of 

 no value to an Agency. If however an Agency were esta- 

 blished in the Cotton districts for the purchase of the Cotton 

 seed ; and if the Natives agreed to give a fair price for the 

 seed after it had been separated from the Cotton ; then it 

 might be worth the Agent's while to employ the gin, for the 

 sake of the superior cleanness of the ginned Cotton. But it 

 must be borne in mind that the carriage of the seed and 

 staple to the Agent's gin house, would be infinitely more 

 expensive than the carriage of the staple alone ; and that 

 the carriage of the seed back again after the ginning^ 

 would prevent the people from giving much for it. If there- 

 fore from the increased cost of carriage, the price of the 

 staple and seed, before separation by the Agent's gin, was 

 equal to the price of the staple and seed after separation by 

 the Native churka, it was clearly impossible that the extra 

 outlay for ginning could be made to pay. 



The Thresher recommended. Under such circum- 

 stances, Mr. Finnie considered it best to leave the people to 

 separate the staple from the seed by the churka ; and to 

 employ some machine which could clean the dust and trash, 

 out of the wool. For this purpose he recommended the 

 "thresher" already described in para. 27, as cleaning the 

 Cotton prior to its separation by the churka, as effectually as 

 the brush wheel cleaned the Cotton after it had been sepa- 

 rated by the saw gin. But notwithstanding this expression 

 of opinion, Mr. Finnie was prepared to set up saw gins 

 worked by cattle, and to exhibit their working to the peo- 

 ple. He was indeed expecting the arrival of a thresher 

 from Calcutta ; but this he proposed to set up together with 

 the gins, as both gins and thresher could be worked by the 



