1847-] VIEWS OF THE MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE. 169 



Cotton, efforts should be directed towards the improvement CHAP, 

 of the Cotton already cultivated in the country. ! 



2nd, To establish small model fields, under a prac- 219 

 tical Agency, amongst the Native cultivators. With Marquis of 

 these views, the Marquis of Tweeddale advocated the esta- J^e >e s d ~Mi- 

 blishment of an Agency, confined to practical Planters. He i) U / c e ; ilif 

 would not place large Farms in their hands, but a few small um 

 patches of land, as model fields, in the midst of the Native P ' 

 cultivation. He believed that it was not the soil, nor the 

 plant, nor the land tax, which shut the Indian Cotton out of 

 the European markets ; but that it was want of skill, and 

 ignorance of practical causes. Accordingly, he would urge 

 on the Collectors and their Assistants, the expediency of 

 acquiring from the American Planter a practical knowledge 

 of Cotton culture. He would also urge on the Agents them- 

 selves, the importance of improving all the species of Cotton 

 which were already cultivated in India, and of inducing 

 Native agriculturists gradually to adopt those approved and 

 inexpensive modes of culture, which could easily be engraft- 

 ed on his own.* 



3rd, To set up small gin establishments, and to 220 

 keep up good roads to the Forts. These efforts to im- 

 prove the culture of Native Cotton ought to be accompanied 

 by more economical and experienced methods of gathering 

 and cleaning the crop, and in preparing it for the market. 



* The Marquis of Tweeddale's proposition for the improvement of Native 

 Cotton, was communicated to his Excellency Sir William Denison, who 

 thus describes the process suggested, in a Minute dated 29th October 1861. 

 " From the seed pods of this year's crop take out those seeds to which the 

 longest fibres are attached, establishing a minimum length of fibre, and 

 throwing away all those seeds the Cotton of which does not reach this 

 standard ; these selected seeds will be used for the next crop, and a simi- 

 lar process will be followed with this, the minimum length being increased 

 every year. In this way, in the course of a few years, it is probable that a 

 permanent addition will be made to the length and possibly to the fineness 

 of the fibre, and it will then be easy to spread the se^d of the improved 

 kind over the whole of the Indigenous Cotton fields of India." 



