22 
of seed might easily improve the Indian crop of any district by 50 per 
cent. 
For many years past the Indian cotton trade has been drifting into a 
restricted groove. Our produce goes to mills that do not wish fora 
superior or long staple, but only a pure one (that is, not a mixture of 
several lengths of staple), so that it may fairly be said many of our 
largest buyers discourage improvement. The angers of a one-sided 
rade of this nature need scarcely be mentioned. India is thus destroyed 
as a possible country of supply for the English mills. The Indian mills 
are at the same time compelled to look to foreign countries for their 
present or future supplies of S ae and are thus more or less 
confined in their operations to one class of goods. It might almost be 
said that gied is par pans stultified, the labours of centuries 
ruthlessly thrown away, and a large and impo ortant industry practically 
cornered or cnet in its possible development by interested parties, 
who advance the plausible axiom that demand is the controlling power 
of production. Hence improvement of the staple may be emphatically 
affirmed as the rational direction in which an extension of our produc- 
tion of cotton should be looked for, since the sats traffic is aimed at 
the destruction of all the good features of the indigenous fibre, if not of 
the morality of both grower and trader. It is essentially a retrograde 
traffic, as at present constituted, and one in which the aims and objects 
of most of those concerned are directed towards the attainment of a high 
yield of a worthless staple. 
What is true of cotton is, however, equally applicable to sugar, wheat, 
wool—in fact, to almost all the articles of Indian trade. Little or no 
effort has been put forward towards palena on scientific | Sr ag 
the quality of the articles of Indian comm Past endeavou 
for the most part been concerned with sanae the ri of 
other countries, with the result, as already shown, that India has 
obtained many of her most st widely men crops from fore en sources. 
The cottons of India may be referred approximately to two great 
sections, the early and the get crops. The former comes into market 
fr nuary. 
The latter does not commence to come into market much before February, 
and is, as a rule, over by April, oe exceptional crops are not ripe 
before June. The early crops are represented by the “ Bengals” (such 
as the cottons of the Punjab, the North-West Provinces, Oudh, and 
Bengal), the ““Oomras” (the chief cottons of Khandesh, Berar, e) 
the “ Hinganghats ” (of the Central Provinces, &c.), and many of the 
Sind cottons. The late crops are represented by the “ Dholeras”’ 
Gappopient crops of Kathiawar, neh, and Guzerat), by the “ Heonels 
d. Surats,” by the “ Coompta ” (indigen ous cottons of Dhar 
a Aen pa hA &c.), and by the * Cocondas”’ and e * Tinnevellys? ” 
This purposely leaven one m. S ms American cottons, 
such as “the saw-ghinn arwar,” “Verawal,” “ P Salone.” and 
“ Ooimbatores,” whic are ee poe ever, all late crops. While we have 
thus a comparative y easy classification according to-season, this is at 
once revealed as more or less the expression of meteorological conditions, 
since within almost any of the regions of these crops widely different 
forms are separately classed in the trade under the names of the districts 
vey an i 
PASE than a tour through Guzerat during the months of January, 
ou 
sei > Se ei waka MOE SEIE Gas da een hy CO ae tale N z ee VERASE EN o D A ae mae ele i eT ei ana er oa he OAT A tab EREE N oP de rene RB Pee E AE A i lok Sa 1 EN AE el ys oh lene a a a 
