262 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [185362. 



\ 



CHAP. 2nd. Indian Cotton may be improved, but only 

 ' to a degree. This inference, though it amounts to a con- 



viction, is not so distinctly proved as the previous proposi- 

 tion. It has been stated that at one time the Cotton of 

 India was of a finer quality than it is in the present 

 day. This may be readily believed. In the olden time 

 when Indian manufactured goods were in large demand, 

 the Native manufacturers purchased the raw material upon 

 the spot, and the prices varied according to quality. Thus 

 the profit of the grower depended upon the quality of the 

 wool, and more attention was naturally paid to the cultiva- 

 tion of the plant anfl cleanliness of the staple. Up to this 

 point, and by means of a similar stimulus, the Indigenous 

 Cotton may be improved in the present day, but no fur- 

 ther. As a recent writer in a London paper has remark- 

 ?5 C thJau 8 a-' e ^ ^ e Indigenous Cotton is the product of an Indian 

 ry 1862. so ^ an( j c ii ma te } just as New Orleans is the product of 

 an American soil and climate. The same writer also states 

 that New Orleans Cotton grown in India has a tendency to 

 degenerate, and to approximate year by year to the Indige- 

 nous article. To this it may be added that the Bourbon 

 Cotton of the present day can scarcely be of the same 

 quality as it was forty years ago, when " Hughes Tinnevelly 

 Cotton" was quoted at high prices in the Liverpool market. 

 Indeed it might be inferred that the crop is more or less 

 precarious in proportion to the difference between the exotic 

 plant and the Indigenous article. Accordingly it seems to be 

 very nearly proved, that whilst an improved quality of the 

 Indigenous Cotton can be produced with profit to the Ryot 

 by a little more care in the selection of seed, in the cultiva- 

 tion of the plant, and in the cleanliness of the staple, the 

 soil, and climate of Southern India will never produce a re- 

 liable and permanent crop of Cotton equal to the New 

 Orleans variety. 



