6 CULTURE OF FIBROUS PLAN'S IN INDIA 
strength, are also divisible to any extent of fineness. Most of 
them exist in sufficient quantities, or are so easily cultivated, 
as to be of great commercial and manufacturing value. Because 
it has been ascertained that they can be brought to the markets 
of Europe even from these distant fields, so as to contend in 
price, even in ordinary times, with the favoured products of the 
nearest countries. 
Though India possesses so large a number of fibre-yielding 
plants, but few of them are objects of Kuropean commerce, or 
are known to the manufacturers of cordage or of textile fabrics 
in Europe. This is not because no efforts have been made to 
make them known; for Dr. Roxburgh, in consequence of 
orders from the Court of Directors of the East India Com- 
pany, so long since as the beginning of this century, grew many 
of the plants in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, separated 
their fibres, twisted them into twine, and tried their strength, 
as well when plain as when tanned or tarred. He also sent 
specimens to the India House, where some of them are still in 
existence, and also to the Society of Arts, in whose ‘ Transac- 
tions’ for the year 1804 many of them are described. The 
Court of Directors, indeed, must have made inquiries for sub- 
stitutes for hemp in the latter part of the last century, for, in 
some of the publications quoted below,' references are made to 
the Board of Trade Consultations in Bengal of the date of 
1792, which relate to the Reports of the Collectors of Districts. 
These give much valuable information respecting the culture of 
' «A Treatise on Hemp, including a comprehensive account of the best Modes of 
Cultivation and Preparation as practised in Europe, Asia, and America; with Obser- 
vations on the Sunn Plant of India, which may be introduced as a Substitute for 
many of the purposes to which Hemp is now exclusively employed.’ By Robert 
Wisset, Esq., F.R. and A.S., London, Clerk to the Committee of Warehouses of the 
East India Company. The first edition in 1804, the second in 1808. 
‘Observations on the Sunn Hemp of Bengal; with statements of Experiments 
made from 1802 to 1806 to ascertain its comparative Strength with Russian Hemp, 
and the advantages of encouraging its Culture and Importation.’ London: 1806. 
‘Observations of the late Dr. William Roxburgh, Botanical Superintendent of the 
Honourable East India Company’s Garden at Calcutta, on the various Specimens of 
Fibrous Vegetables, the produce of India, which may prove valuable Substitutes for 
Hemp and Flax, on some future day, in Europe.’ Edited by a Friend, and published 
at the expense of the East India Company, for the information of the Residents 
and the benefit that may arise therefrom throughout the Settlements in Tada, 
London: 1815. 
