40 



COTTON-WOOL. 



No, 24. 



Extract Letter from the Court of Directors to 

 the Governor in Council at Bombay, dated the 

 27th November 1811. 



Letter Par. 2. There is a consideration connected with 



to Bombay, ptt ii-i 



27 Nov. 1811. the subject of Indian cotton-wool which ma}' lead 

 to an important result, by enabling us to import 

 for the use of the British manufacturers cotton- 

 wool of an improved fineness and of longer staple, 

 and of course more suited to their wants. 



3. It is our intention to request that His Ma- 

 jesty's Ministers will issue instructions to the 

 Governor of the Isles of France and Bourbon to 

 consign to our respective presidencies such a suffi- 

 cient quantity of the seed of the cotton-wool 

 which is produced in the Isle of Bourbon, toge- 

 ther with a short statement of its mode of culti- 

 vation and the nature of the soil to which it is 

 best suited, as may enable our Governments to 

 make a decided experiment, to ascertain whether 

 a considerable quantity of cotton-wool of good 

 staple cannot be speedily grown in India, which 

 may be equal to American cotton in all respects. 



4. We are not unmindful, that the experiments 

 which have heretofore been made to cultivate 

 Bourbon cotton in India have not been attended 

 with much success ; but as those experiments may 

 not have been prosecuted with perseverance, or 



possibly 



