18454)6.] MR. FINNIE ON COTTON CULTIVATION. Ill 



But the mode of procedure in America is so different CHAP. 



from that in India, that the most exact estimate in de- L, 



tail of a gin-house and the necessary machinery, would 

 afford no criterion for the arrangements which would 

 prove most beneficial in the latter country. Here in India 

 it will be necessary to give the people something more simple 

 than the gin and large gin houses for their own use in clean- 

 ing their own Cotton. In fact the seeds of the Indian 

 Cotton are so small, that if the grates of the gin are placed 

 close enough together to prevent the seed from passing 

 through, the saws bring the Cotton so much in contact 

 with the bars, as to cut it to a degree that much injures 

 the staple. Accordingly, Mr. Finnie considered that the Ame- 

 rican gin was only suited to the American Cotton ; that 

 the two must go hand in hand ; and where the American 

 Cotton failed, the gin would prove useless. 



Price of Land: fluctuates with the price of Cotton. 157 



The rent of land in southern America, as part of the cost of 

 producing Cotton, could not be estimated by Mr. Finnie. In 

 the Southern States, he said, every Planter is a Landlord, 

 from the squatter with his small section, to the capitalist 

 with his twenty-thousand acres. Land rent is thus un- 

 known, and the value of an estate is never calculated so 

 closely. A Planter who is compelled to sell, takes what 

 his neighbours are disposed to give him. Sometimes 

 a wealthy neighbour will offer a very high price for a 

 good plantation in his immediate neighbourhood, because 

 he wants it for an especial object. Again, it is very 

 often the case that three-fourths, and sometimes seven- 

 eighths of an estate, are uncleared forest ; and consequently 

 the whole value cannot be estimated according to the pro- 

 duce of that which is under culture. In a word, land in 

 the Southern States has no fixed value, but seems to fluc- 

 tuate with the price of Cotton. 



