134 COTTON- WOOL. 



Letter from the J know vou iHust be strono;ly impressed with a 



India Board ^ ^ r) j r 



to the Chairs, seiise of the PTeat importance of improvino- the 



7 Oct. 1828. ° . , T T 



cotton grown in the East-Indies, of extending 

 thereby the export trade of the territories of the 

 East-India Company, and of rendering this country 

 independent of foreign nations for the supply of 

 the raw material of our most considerable manu- 

 facture ; and I am therefore satisfied that you will 

 give your favourable consideration to the sugges- 

 tions I am about to offer to you on this subject. 



It appears, undoubtedly, that measures have 

 been taken at different times by the East-India 

 Company for introducing into India the culture of 

 various sorts of foreign cotton ; and it seems that, 

 on one occasion, a gentleman conversant with the 

 cleaning of cotton in Georgia was engaged by the 

 East-India Company, for the purpose of giving 

 instruction in the use of the American machines 

 for separating the wool of the cotton from its 

 seeds, but that the attempts hitherto made for the 

 improvement of the culture and management of 

 cotton have not been successful. It does not 

 appear, however, that experiments have been 

 made in many different parts of India, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining whether, in some districts of 

 that vast country in which the cotton-plant is indi- 

 genous, it may not be possible to raise some of 

 the superior sorts of foreign cotton. Experiments 

 made in the Botanical Garden of Calcutta, where 

 cotton-plants from different soils and climates are 



cultivated 



