318 
subjects, it may be said, have engaged the attention of the Agri- 
Hortieultural Societies of India, of the Superintendents of Botanie 
ator: s 
Departments of Agriculture, for many years past. To enumerate the 
many useful trees, ornamental shrubs, and valuable crops that have been 
introduced into to india or y dum Mm and improved, would fill many 
page only need therefore be mentioned. The grece 
industry of a panog in Tadia and Ceylon may be said to hav 
n e Botanic Gardens of Caloutte, i to have wr: 
direct aid Mom hee cath until private enterprise was prepared * 
undertake its further development. To the same institution has to 
ed the honour of having brought cinchona cultivation to its 
present state of perfection, thus not only giving to the fever stricken 
people of s but to the whole world quinine at a price within the 
means of all. The Forest Department has taken up the question of the 
conservation of forests, the re-afforestation of denuded tracts, and the ex- 
tended cultivation of such useful trees as mahogany,india-rubber, &c., 
The Agri-Horticultural Societies, like the Government Agricultural 
Depariments, have taken an active interest in the introduction of new 
crops cr superior races of existing crops. Such subjects as indigo, ps 
cotton, sugar, wheat, sorghum, silk, cattle, sheep, &e., &c., have fro 
time to time been PY considered and extensive experiments con- 
of the successful development of the trade 
in these produets is pec due to the societies and departments 
named. 
CorroN. 
Little more than a century ago it was felt in England that the time 
might arrive when India would have to be reg garded, from political 
reasons, as the chief source of supply for cotton, A "Polish botanist 
[Dr. Anthony Pantaleon Hove, employed as a collector for Kew ia the 
last century], was sent out by the then British Government to study the 
indigenous cotton plants of India. His report, though not published 
until many yea rs after his death, is full of nere st. It shows that the 
own in "Weit ndia a century ago were very different from 
those of the present day, and that "hs eystems of cultivation pursued, 
somewhat unfortunate opinion that the true way to enable India to par- 
ticipate in the greatly expanding British traffic in raw cotton would be 
to acclimatise the most highly prized forms of America. Large sums of 
money were ipga spent in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay that 
might (as we now learn) have been used to better advantage in an effort 
to improve and develop the indigenous crops. Year by year America 
steadily bid cb the quality and increased the length of her staple, and 
the demand for Indian cotton accordingly declined. Ultimately, however, 
India mieeouded f in producing New Orleans cotton at Dharwar—a staple 
of a far superior quality to the Indian. The high pre paid for this, 
unfortunately induced adulteration instead of enc uraging greater 
effort. In July 1863 a law had accordingly to be nse to repress the 
frauds perpetrated, but this, while being “wholly ineffectual in its main 
object, very frequently punished the wrong persons, and accordingly did 
great harm to the industry. It was in consequence repealed, and the 
Indian cotton trade was thus left to take care of itself. The effort to 
participate in the British traffic had practically to be abandoned, and not 
