158 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [184749. 



CHAP, accordingly he had only planted a little American Cotton 



' at Courtallum, and engaged a few Ryots to plant a little 



fas** 8 l27 ' m <> re at Sevacausey and Aroopoocottah, but from almost the 

 very first had regarded the latter experiment as a failure. 

 Again, Mr. Finnic considered that the American gin, how- 

 ever well adapted to American Cotton, was wholly unsuited 

 to the Indigenous Cotton ; first, because its working was 

 too expensive in a country where labour was so cheap ; and 

 Para 204. secondly, because it cut the fibre of the Native Cotton. Ac- 

 cordingly, instead of cultivating " an exotic like American 

 gnnpare^ Cotton, in an oasis like Courtallum," and " looking after the 

 23r' d s le De C r ; working of three miserable gins " at Aroopoocottah, he had 

 hi* 7 ' lette?, devoted himself to the extension of the cultivation of Native 

 1848. Pari! grown Cotton, and to the improvement of its quality by 

 (i857jp.276, methods already available to the Ryots. The point how- 

 ever in which Dr. Wight and Mr. Finnie came into direct 

 collision, was the order of the Court of Directors for the 6000 

 bales of ginned East India Cotton. Mr. Finnie bought very 

 little Cotton for ginning, on the ground that the price 

 demanded by the Ryots was too high ; and he excused him- 

 self from ginning to any great extent, on the ground that 

 his three hand gins at Aroopoocottah would not work pro- 

 perly, and that he had not got his gin house and driving 

 machinery erected at Sevacausey. These matters, together 

 with some others, are worthy of being briefly narrated. 



211 Mr. Finnie convinced of the folly of cultivating 

 American Cotton in India : Br. Wight recommends 



pr. wilt's his removal. In 1847, Dr. Wight was informed that two of 



letter, 26th 



Pai' l R I' ^ e American Planters, who had returned to England fromlndia, 

 had reported that American Cotton could only be grown in 

 peculiar climates, such as those of Dharwar and Coiinbatore. 

 Accordingly, he represented this facfc to the Madras Govern- 

 ment, declaring it to be a mere hypothetical deduction, 

 based on an imperfect acquaintance with the climates of India ; 



