184849.] MR. FINNIE'S FOUR YEARS IN TINNEVELLY. 147 



ka, as would accomplish for India what never would be in- CHAP. 



sured by either the exotic plant or the foreign machinery ; 



namely, the extension and improvement of the Cotton of 

 her soil, and the consequent prosperity of her " poor Ryots." 

 He did not indeed believe that any degree of culture would 

 materially improve the staple in an Indian climate ; but he 

 considered that the Indigenous Cotton was capable of exten- 

 sion, that better culture would ensure more ample returns, 

 and that due attention to qualities would secure a large 

 quantity of a most useful and valuable article. Already he 

 believed that more attention was paid to the quality than 

 formerly ; for the Agents at Tuticorin had informed him, 

 that more good Cotton had been received there from the 

 crop of 1847-48, than had ever been known before ; a result 

 which he attributed in some measure to his own humble 

 efforts to convince the people of the importance of cleaning 

 their Cotton. The perseverance of the Natives in this course 

 would of course depend upon the encouragement they 

 received, and the inducements offered them to keep the dif- 

 ferent qualities separate, and the best clean Cotton unadul- 

 terated with inferior sorts. If the Natives could make 

 more money by selling the quantities separate, than they 

 could by selling them mixed, then of course they would keep 

 them separate, and much unadulterated Cotton would be 

 exported from India. 



Native Cotton should be first threshed, next chur- 200 

 kaed, and finally cleaned by hand, As regarded the 

 separation of the staple from the seed, Mr. Finnie was satis- 

 fied that the time honoured churka was a much more 

 efficient instrument than was generally supposed ; and he 

 did not believe that abetter substitute would easily be found. 

 Two other processes were however necessary, one before and 

 the other after the churkaing. Before the Cotton passed 

 through the churka, the dirt, trash, and rotten locks, should 



