1849.] VIEWS OF SIR HENRY POTTINGER. 175 



Experimental Farms the fairest, fullest, and most liberal trial ; CHAP. 



and I am therefore satisfied, not only that they should be ! 



discontinued, but that their further continuance would prove 

 injurious to the cause they were intended to promote ; inas- 

 much as it would lead the Ryots to believe that Govern- 

 ment alone possessed the means and faculty of either raising 

 the American Cotton, or of improving the culture and 

 quality of the Cotton of the country. 



American Cotton in any part of the Madras Pre- 227 

 sidency liable to failure. The Experimental Farms have 

 undeniably established the fact that American Cotton can 

 be grown in the Madras Presidency, and that it will occa- 

 sionally produce remunerative crops ; but I am strongly 

 impressed with the view that it will in all cases be liable to 

 failure from the unsuitableness of climate and soil. The 

 American Planters indeed have gone farther, and have 

 pronounced that the experiment in this Presidency is 

 altogether hopeless ; and not one of them has ever supported 

 the sanguine hopes and predictions of Dr. Wight or Mr. 

 Wroughton. However, the period for predictions and pros- 

 pects has passed away ; and the Farms themselves have 

 merged into a mere mercantile speculation. 



Causes of the failure of American Cotton : climate 228 

 and soil. It would be useless, and indeed I am not quali- 

 fied, to discuss at length the causes of the failure. I believe 

 that the failure is to be ascribed to the natural defects of 

 climate and soil, and especially to the former. I appeal to 

 all persons, who have practically studied the subject for any 

 length of time in India, to say whether such defects are not 

 often unaccountably insurmountable ; and whether, even 

 when they CQ overcome, the success is not to be attributed 

 to some secret working of nature which it is impossible to 

 fathom. I have never attempted the cultivation of Cotton, 

 but I have been a very successful practical gardener in 



