244 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [1853 G 2. 



CHAP, is ever placed on a cart or bandy at the most favourable 

 ' season of the year, ninety Rupees, or 9 per ton of the price 

 obtainable at Madras, has to be deducted for the cost 

 of transit. The Cotton itself is of a most worthless de- 

 scription, and its intrinsic value is not therefore sufficient 

 to enable it to bear a costly land carriage. I am not 

 myself of opinion that the staple is likely to be im- 

 proved in any way by Native Agriculturists. The modes 

 of cultivation, picking, and preparation, are all too slovenly to 

 permit any reasonable hope of material improvement being 

 effected by untaught Native efforts, even should the Ryots 

 be willing to make any efforts of the kind. There is no 

 doubt however, that when the ordinary Cotton of this 

 country reaches a price sufficient to pay the cost of the ex- 

 pensive land journey to the coast, it can be produced in 

 this district to a large extent, and the limit to its cultiva- 

 tion is simply its proportionate remuneration to the pro- 

 ducer, as compared with that of grains. It appears certain, 

 therefore, that the completion of the canal to Madras, and 

 the cheap means of communication that will then be offered, 

 will enable traders to pay a much larger price for the ordi- 

 nary Cotton of this District than they can now afford to do ; 

 and should the present demand for the article continue, its 

 production in this part of the country will be increased. 



341 Improvements in the quality must be effected by 

 the Merchants themselves. " Should the exigencies of 

 the English market induce English capitalists to settle in 

 the District, under their guidance some improvement would 

 doubtless be effected in the picking and preparation of the 

 article. I doubt, however, the practicability of any real im- 

 provement being made in the staple ; and believe that if 

 England looks to India for her Cotton supply, our manufac- 

 turers must learn to make use of the present inferior descrip- 

 tion, which alone the country appears capable of producing." 



