COTTON-WOOL. 



61 



privilege, as without the trouble and expense of Letter 



from Bombay, 



purchasing seed, they are thereby supplied with isDec. isib. 

 what is necessary for planting and with food for 

 their cattle. 



30. The system now observed of cleaning the 

 Company's cotton is as follows. The kupas to be 

 cleaned from the seed is delivered to a set of men 

 called bhukaries, who have been at a consider- 

 able expense in erecting bhukars (or w^arehouses) 

 for the receipt of it, and after being placed in 

 their hands they are responsible for the redelivery 

 of clean cotton agreeable to an annual fixed rate. 

 A vast number of indigent men and women, who 

 flock from various parts of the country every year 

 to the district of Broach, bringing with them a 

 churka or cleaning- wheel, are taken into the service 

 of the bhukaries, who pay them a trifling amount 

 regulated by the weight of the cotton-seed which 

 each turns out daily ; and, from the general cha- 

 racter of the people, there is reason to fear that 

 an attempt on the part of Government to intro- 

 duce any other machinery for cleaning kupas, 

 than that which is now^ in use, would be (as was 

 the case w^ithin the Government of Fort St. George) 

 altogether abortive, while it cannot be expected 

 to be freed from the seed better or cheaper than 

 by the present process. 



31. With respect to the large quantity of cotton 

 which is annually purchased for the supply of the 

 China market, it is already well known to your 



Honourable 



