4 COTTOlf IN THE MADRAS PEESIDENCT. [CHAP. I. 



Three objects sought by the East India Company 

 with reference to Cotton.— The improvements which 

 the East India Company have desired from an early 

 period to introduce into India are three in number, 

 viz. : — ■ 



1st, A better variety of Cotton. 



2nd, A better system of cultivation. 



3rd, A better method of separating the staple from the 

 seed, and of cleaning it for the European markets. 



One or other of these objects will appear in almost 

 every paragraph of the present Hand-book. Before, 

 however, endeavouring to exhibit the experiments which 

 have been made and the results which have been 

 achieved in the Madras Presidency, it will be necessary, 

 first, to glance at the specialities of the country; and, 

 secondly, to unfold more minutely the nature of the 

 objects which the late Company have sought to attain. 



Boundaries of the Madras Presidency. — The Madras 

 Presidency may be described as an irregular triangle, 

 occupying the whole southern quarter of the great In- 

 dian peninsula. Its western side is formed by the 

 coast of Malabar ; its eastern side by the coast of 

 Coromandel ; its apex by Cape Comorin ; whilst its 

 base may be indicated by the river Kristna. In ad- 

 dition to this triangle, however, the Presidency stretches 

 out a long narrow arm on its north-eastern corner along 

 the coast of the Bay of Bengal. This arm is known 

 as the Northern Circars, and connects the Presidency 

 of Madras with that of Bengal. Its existence on the 

 map occasions that large blank to the northward of the 

 Kristna, which is partly occupied by the dominions of 

 the Nizam, and partly by the wild inhabitants of an 

 unhealthy tract of hill country which is still only half 

 explored. 



, Physical features of the country. — The Madras Pre- 

 sidency may be said to consist of a table-land sloping 

 from west to east and from south to north, and sup- 

 ported on either side by a chain of mountains, known 

 respectively as the Eastern and Western Ghauts. Each 

 chain runs parallel with the coast on either side. The 

 Eastern Gliiauta rise at a distance of fronj 30 to 60 



