148 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [4 TH . SEASON. 



CHAP, be separated from the seed Cotton ; and this, as Mr. Finnie 



! had previously indicated, could be best carried out by the 



thresher. Then again, after the Cotton had passed through 

 the churka, a subsequent process was necessary to separate 

 the remaining small particles. This process consisted in 

 beating the Cotton on cots, so as to allow the impurities to 

 fall below it ; and this gave a lively and fine appearance to 

 the Cotton, and rendered it really clean and beautiful, as 

 clean indeed as the Cotton generally produced in America. 

 This work was performed by hand, and was certainly tedi- 

 ous ; but in a country where there were so many people whose 

 time was of little value, the work could be performed much 

 cheaper by hand than by machinery. 



207 Erection of Mr. Finnie's Gin house and Driving 

 Machinery at Sevacausey, Up to the early part of 

 1849, Mr. Finnie's ginning operations appear to have been 

 on a very limited scale. Dr. Wight continually urged the 

 importance of completing the order of the Court of Directors 

 for 6000 bales of East India Cotton, but still little or 

 nothing was done by Mr. Finnie. He had, as we have 

 seen, three gins occasionally at work in a small house 

 Mr. Fin- which he had hired at Aroopoocottah : but during the second 



nie's letter, 



1848 ?arl' season ne on ty ginned nine candies of Cotton, and during 



U857) a P the third season only thirty-six candies ; thus making forty - 



198> five candies in all, each candy being equivalent to about 



a bale. But early in 1849, the new Gin house, which 



had been commenced at Sevacausey for the reception of 



the Driving Machinery purchased at Jaffna, was fast ap- 



Jette? M z4th P roacn i n g completion. The delay had arisen from the dif- 



pS! 1 18 Rel Acuity of procuring timber, which had become scarce and 



p!soo ( . 1857) dear in Tinnevelly, and which moreover had to be carried 



a considerable distance from the hills. In February 1849, 



Mr. Finnie began to take the necessary steps for procuring 



two large sixty saw gins from Dr. Wight, and the Driving 



Machinery from Tuticorin, where it had been lodged ever 



