COTTON-WOOL. 



139 



growth of the districts near Surat and Broach, are i^etter 



to Bombay, 



little or nothing inferior to the upland American is Feb. 1829. 

 descriptions above named, the item of cleanness 

 alone excepted, and that such Indian cotton might 

 readily be brought into competition with the up- 

 land American. We are aware that it has been 

 stated in a letter in your Commercial Department, 

 that the seed of the cotton which is cultivated 

 near Surat is black ; but as the cotton usually 

 grown throughout India is almost universally of 

 the green-seed species, and we find that the seeds 

 which are very commonly intermixed with the 

 cotton imported into London from Bombay are 

 also green, we think it probable that your infor- 

 mation may not have been correct on this point. 

 But whether the seed of the Surat cotton be green 

 or black is of secondary importance, as the pro- 

 duce which it yields, when carefully prepared, is 

 much esteemed in the British market. 



6. Assuming that the quality and condition of 

 the Surat cotton shall become equal to that of the 

 common American upland cotton, the next ques- 

 tion that presents itself is, the rate of cost at which 

 it can be produced. The price of the American 

 cotton delivered at New York has been lately at 

 ten cents (or five-pence sterling) per pound, and 

 that cotton now sells in London at from six-pence 

 to six-pence halfpenny per pound : but both the 

 rate of cost at New York and the selling price in 

 London arc considered to be uncommonly low, the 



produce 



