824 On the Nurma Cotton of Bundelcund. (^No. 118. 



dispatched overland from Moorshedabad, principally to Dacca and the 

 adjacent districts, for the manufacture of the muslins. Notwithstand- 

 ing it was so foul, it realized a better price, when I was concerned in 

 the cotton trade, than the Banda produce. 



Omrawuttee is a large trading mart, situated on the Poorna river, in 

 the Nizam's country, bordering on Nagpore. Owing to the immense 

 distance Omrawuttee was by land from Calpee, this cotton never 

 formed part of the Company's investment. I was given to under- 

 stand it was black-seeded, and originally of foreign importation. 



I have tried, at various times, the Sea- Island and Upland American, 

 the Egyptian, the Bourbon, and the Pernambuco cottons several years, 

 on my own account, to the extent of fifteen and twenty beegahs at a 

 time ; and lastly, on a scale of four hundred beegahs, in partnership 

 with two of the Calcutta mercantile houses in 1 837, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Calpee, with, and without irrigation ; but never at a remunera- 

 ting price. My last experiment of four hundred beegahs happened to 

 be made when the famine raged with so much severity in the North- 

 western Provinces ; and I attributed the drying up of the plants, 

 notwithstanding they had the benefit of being irrigated during the pre- 

 valence of the hot winds, to the unfavourableness of the season. The 

 seed was put into the ground in March and April, and watered from 

 wells, until the periodical rains commenced ; but as soon as there was 

 a cessation of rain, the plants began to wither, and although watered 

 afterwards, became brown, and the leaves had the appearance of being 

 scorched, and ultimately fell off, leaving a few capsules on the leafless 

 plants, the produce of which, unfortunately, did not cover a tithe of our 

 outlay. 



I ascribed, as I have already stated, our want of success, solely to 

 the untowardness of the times ; but from what I have observed in the 

 present season, with respect to the experiment now carrying on under 

 the superintendence of Captain Bayles, and the American planters, I 

 am inclined to believe that my failure was not entirely owing to 

 drought : for the plantations at the four localities in Bundelcund 

 and the Dooab, bear the same appearance, as mine of 1837 did, and 

 the result is likely to be as unfavourable. 



The American planters at the Farms commenced their cultivation of 

 the cotton with the first showers of rain that fell at the end of June, and 



