34 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [2ND SEASON. 



tered into agreements with the Eyots. On the one 

 hand, he was to pay their rent and part of their agri- 

 cultural charges. On the other hand, they were to 

 cultivate their own Indian and Bourbon Cottons ac- 

 cording to the American system, and also to grow any 

 American Cotton seed which he might give them; 

 and at the same time they were to give him one half 

 of the crop, and the refusal of the other half at mar- 

 ket price. To c'arry these arrangements into effect, 

 he proposed to station the three Planters at three dis- 

 tinct and pretty distant points, in order that they 

 might supervise the cultivation of the rented lands. 

 These propositions were approved by the Madras 

 Groverument, and at the commencement of the second 

 season we shall see them in full operation.* 



45 Early trials of the American saw gin. — Before the 

 close of the first season, the American saw gin, sent 

 out by the Court of Directors, had arrived in Madras, 

 and been used in Coimbatore instead of the churka, 



but had not turned out perfectly satisfac- 

 tetteT'fsth^ tory. It cleaned the Cotton far more 

 June,'i842. thoroughly than the churka ; but not- 

 aM7J?p'm withstanding the favourable report of 



Messrs. Tetley and Earle, it certainly so 

 far injured the staple, as to render it less suitable to 

 the Native spinning. Again, the working of the gin 

 was nearly as expensive and infinitely more laborious 

 than that of the churka ; as eight strong men turning 

 the gin could scarcely clean as much daily as ten or 

 twelve feeble old women or children could clean with 

 the churka. 



46 Second Season, 1842-43 : arrangement of the four 



Experimental Farms. — The arrangements 

 Dr. Wight's already indicated are carried out at the 

 American close of the first season. Mr. Hawley the 

 Agriculture, Planter was transferred to the Bombay 

 7tti Pebru- ' Government, but his place was filled by 



* This plan, as regarded the extension of the American Cotton 

 and cultivation amongst the Ryots, proved a failure. See Dr. "Wight's 

 ■ remarks upon this point at the close of the first period of four years' 

 cultivation in Coimbatore, para. 84. 



