274 Agricultural and Land produce of Shoa. [No. 148. 



palm and naked thigh, whilst the right hand is carried high in the 

 air, for the operation of roving. 



63. Where time is not of value, and where the labour of women is 

 held exceedingly cheap, the want of machinery is in a manner supplied 

 by these enduring and hard-working creatures ; and although the 

 utmost efforts of a female can but prepare the small quantity of three 

 or four pounds during the day, still the crop is all cleaned in due 

 season, and the manufacture of cloth, though coarse, is exceedingly 

 durable, and at present forms the great staple of exportation from 

 Shoa. At this present juncture when the Government are expend- 

 ing so much treasure to enable the East India merchant to compete 

 with the American in the British market, an extended experiment 

 of the qualities and properties of the Abyssinian cotton might be ad- 

 vantageously made, and it is natural to be supposed, that the result 

 will prove satisfactory, when we consider the greater attention paid to 

 preparing and manuring the soil, the great assimilation of climate, 

 and the mode of gathering in and cleaning the crop at present practis- 

 ed in India. 



64. The following is the description of the two cotton plants found 

 in Abyssinia, Gossypium Gondarense, seeds sprinkled with short 

 hairs, cotton white; capsules three-celled, three- valved ; flowers large, 

 yellow, leaves three-five lobed ; lobes commonly obtuse. " Efatense," 

 seeds completely covered with a close down; cotton white, capsules 

 three-celled, three-valved ; flowers, small with a red fundus. Leaves 

 three-five lobed. Lobes accuminated. 



65. There are two prime sorts of wheat, the white called " azazee," 

 and the red " zohoon goombar" (elephant tusk,) which is also the 

 denomination of a species common in Syria; the white is the more 

 prized of the two, possessing the ingredients of a finer flour, easier of 

 digestion, and from its color, being entirely used in the bread of the 

 more wealthy classes. 



The red species, however, possesses an exceeding sweet flavor, is the 

 more hardy plant, and grows generally in situations where the white 

 wheat cannot thrive. A third, but inferior species, called " abolsee" is 

 cultivated only by the poorer classes of people ; of barley also there exists 

 three kinds, but this grain, together with oats, is raised rather for the 

 use of the slaves and farm stock, than as food for the farmer, all other 



