COTTON-WOOL. 



113 



No. 54. 



Letter from the Secretary to the Committee of 

 Privy Council for Trade to the Secretary to the 

 Commissioners for the Affairs of India, dated 

 Whitehall, 26th July 1828, 



Sir: 



The attention of this Committee has lately been Letter from 

 called to the possibility of improving the culture tf India Board, 

 in the East-Indies of some articles which are now ^^"^^^^ 

 chiefly supplied by the United States of America, 

 particularly in cotton and tobacco. 



It has been represented to their Lordships, that 

 the cotton of India is inferior to that of Carolina ; 

 not through any inferiority in the soil in which 

 it is grown, but through a defective mode of cul- 

 tivation ; and it is thought that this deficiency 

 might be supplied by a judicious application of 

 skill and capital. 



The same representation is made as to tobacco. 



A slight encouragement is about to be extended 

 to the cotton of India,, by the reduction of the 

 import duty upon cotton-wool from six per cent, 

 on the value to four- pence per cwt. ; but if the 

 Lords of the Committee are rightly informed, this 

 encouragement will not be sufficient to occasion 

 the necessary improvement of the cotton, unless 

 measures be taken in India for applying skill and 

 capital to the cultivation. 



I The 



