1849-62.] MK. LEES' CTOTrEE IS TIlfirETEI.I,T. 177 



ble through an European Agency. Government also 

 might aid the effort by a very slight and temporary re- 

 duction of the assessment on all lands under foreign 

 Cotton ; but still Mr. Thomas believed that a sure and 

 permanent market on the spot would be a sufficient 

 encouragement ; and that if the crops of Native Cotton 

 could pay the land-tax, the crops of American Cotton 

 would be able to do the same. 



Cotton cultivation by Sir. David Lees in Tinnevelly : 259 

 discussion concerning the right of Ghayroot Eenters. — > 

 The experiments of Mr. David Lees ia the correspond- 

 cultivation of American Cotton in Tinne- ence and 

 velly, and their failure on the score of cost parif Betura 

 of cultivation, will be found noticed in Dr. (i|57),p.si9, 

 Wight's final report, but a few additional 

 particulars wiU. find a fitting place here. Mr. David 

 Lees had originally proceeded to Southern India, under 

 the sanction of the Manchester Commercial Associa- 

 tion, to make experiments and ascertain facts in con- 

 nection with the cultivation of American Cotton. The 

 success of those experiments subsequently induced him 

 to establish his nephew, Mr. Arthur Lees, in Tinnevelly, 

 as a Cotton planter and merchant ; iu order that he 

 might continue and extend the cultivation, and at the 

 same time purchase all the American Cotton that the 

 Eyots were disposed to cultivate upon his own im- 

 proved system. An obstacle, however, arose to his own 

 cultivation from the claims of the Chayroot renters. 

 These men paid a considerable sum to Government for 

 the right to dig up all the Chayroot * produced in the 

 Tinnevelly district, whether on waste land, or on land 

 occupied with dry cultivation. This right had been 

 farmed out from time immemorial ; and accordingly in 

 December, 1850, nearly a whole year after the com- 

 mencement of the Cotton culture, the Chayroot renters 

 claimed the privilege of entering the fields under cxd- 

 ture by Mr. Lees, and of their digging up the Chay- 

 roots with a kind of spear about a foot and a half long. 

 Mr. Lees of course resisted this claim, especially as the 

 digging for the roots was injurious to the cultivation of 

 * A root from which a certain dye is extracted. 



