46 



COTTON-WOOL. 



Letter dirt, (fec, are all disapproved of, as being very 



from Bombay, . im n ^ i I'ru 



30 May 1812. destructive to the fibre of the staple, and ir the 

 cotton is not previously picked and cleaned (at an 

 expense of Rs. 20 or Rs. 30 per candy), the com- 

 modity is very little improved. Bowing alone 

 costs Rs. 10, and switching or beating Rs. 4 per 

 candy, and the great expense of hand-picking the 

 cotton renders the general use of that system im- 

 possible. 



51. The means of improving materially the qua- 

 lity of the Honourable Company's cotton rested, 

 in Mr. Forbes' opinion, with the Collector at 

 Broach, by insisting on every village delivering a 

 portion of good clean cotton ; and although the 

 other quality would be no doubt inferior, it would 

 still answer for the China market. 



52. Were the ryots positively enjoined to pay 

 every attention to the gathering of the cotton, and 

 as observed in the printed instructions, directed to 

 put the clean, well-coloured, and ripe part into 

 one bag, and the leafy, dirty, bad-coloured and 

 unripe, or that which is not easily separated from 

 the pod, into another, we should, Mr. Forbes 

 thinks, have some cotton of a very superior quality 

 indeed, whilst the additional trouble would be 

 nothing, and the process most simple. 



53. Your Honourable Court will observe, that 

 of about one hundred and fifty villages which pay 

 their revenue in cotton to the Honourable Com- 

 pany, there are only eight which deliver thomil; 



whereas 



