COTTON-WOOL. 



121 



London; but whether the natives have continued state of Culture 



. and Trade of 



to cultivate the species of cotton thus placed with- Cotton in India, 

 in their immediate reach, does not appear. 



The delicate fabrics of Dacca were at all times 

 manufactured entirely from the cotton of that dis- 

 trict, which is the finest of all the cotton produced 

 in India, and is probably the finest in the world ; 

 but the growth of this particular kind of Dacca 

 cotton is limited to a space of about forty miles 

 in length by less than three in breadth, along the 

 banks of the Megna, about twenty miles north of 

 the sea. An attempt was made in the years 1790 

 and 1791 to encourage the cultivation of this spe- 

 cies of Dacca cotton in the other parts of Bengal, 

 and the Collectors of the Revenue, with the Resi- 

 dents at the commercial factories, were directed 

 to distribute the seeds amongst the native cultiva- 

 tors ; but the endeavour failed of success. 



The Court of Directors are in possession of 

 various reports from the Company's Revenue and 

 Commercial servants and others, upon the culture 

 and management of cotton in several parts of 

 India, in which the times of sowing, gathering, 

 and other particulars, are set forth with great 

 attention to details, shewing also the tenures of 

 land. The information contained in these docu- 

 ments might be useful if digested into an abstract, 

 but it would require much time for the perform- 

 ance of such an abstract. 



Bengal, 



