COTTOiN-WOOL. 



153 



cotton-wool from British India, both with a view Mr. Tucker's 

 to the great national object of rendering Great 

 Britain, as far as possible, independent of foreign 

 supply, in the first instance, of a raw material, 

 upon which her most valuable manufacture de- 

 pends, and also with a view to add to the agricul- 

 tural resources of India, and in so doing, to facili- 

 tate the means of remittance from our extensive 

 possessions in the East, which incur annually a 

 political and commercial debt to the mother 

 country. I shall therefore submit, in a summary 

 way, the results which I have been enabled to 

 obtain by consulting the public records, and by 

 personal communications and correspondence with 

 those individuals (Dr. Wallich and others) who 

 appeared to me likely to possess the best infor- 

 mation on the subject. 



L There are two species of the cotton-plant 

 producing the wool which is used in our manufac- 

 tures ; the gossypium Barbadoise and ihe gossi/pium 

 herbaceum : and there are persons who maintain 

 that an essential difference exists, not merely in 

 the botanical character of the two species, but in 

 the strength and durability of the filament which 

 these plants produce. It is well known that the 

 gossi/piumBarbade?iseis grown generally in America 

 and the West- Indies, and may be designated the 

 cotton of the West, while the species herbaceum 

 is a native of Asia, and may be distinguished as 

 the cotton of the East. 



2. There 



