184748.] MR. FINNIE'S FOUR YEARS IN TINNEVELLY. 143 



encourage the production of the article, Dr. Wight explained 

 that the dispatch from the Court of Directors ordering the 

 6000 bales, limited the investment to gin cleaned Cotton. 

 Subsequently however, during the discussion as to whether 

 or no the saw gin cut and injured the staple, he, Dr. Wight, 

 had obtained permission to purchase about 500 bales of 

 churkaed Cotton to be sent along with the ginned, in order 

 to enable the spinner to ascertain the relative advantages of 

 the two modes of separating and cleaning. The Directors 

 had approved of this suggestion, but had modified it by 

 ordering that sufficient seed Cotton for a thousand bales 

 should be purchased ; and that 500 bales should then be 

 cleaned by the gin and 500 by the churka, and the whole 

 be sent home at the same time. If Mr. Finnie could there- 

 fore purchase the seed Cotton for this experiment, and would 

 clean one half with the gin and the other half with the 

 churka, his aid would be of considerable service. 



Dr. Wight's system of purchase compared with 200 

 that of Mr. Finnic. Dr. Wight took this opportunity of 

 explaining his own system of purchase, as compared with 

 the organised system darkly alluded to by Mr. Finnie. He 

 had ascertained that carefully picked Cotton is never dirtied 

 or mixed with trash in passing through the churka or gin. 

 Accordingly he had systematically rejected every load of ill 

 picked Cotton, and thus was saved from the necessity, 

 common amongst Native merchants, of mixing the good with 

 inferior qualities. By so doing he was compelled to give 

 from half a rupee to a rupee per candy more than the Na- 

 tive merchants ; but then he secured the pick of the market ; 

 and in all probability his Cotton would fetch higher prices 

 in England than the generality of Native Cotton. 



Madras Chamber of Commerce confirm Dr. Wight's 201 

 valuation of Mr. Finnie's Cotton. The opinion ex- 

 pressed by Dr. Wight on Mr, Finnie's sample of Tinnevelly 



