COTTON-WOOL. 



179 



then in request, the finer assortments being; scarcely ^^"^^^ 



^ ' . Madras, 



vendible, and there has not been any improvement is Aug. isso. 

 in its market value from that time. Indeed it is 

 stated by Mr. Ryder, a dealer in cotton, in his 

 evidence before the Committee of the House of 

 Lords on East-India Affairs, 23d May 1830, " that 

 *^ since the Sea-Island (American) cotton has been 

 " cultivated to the extent it has. Bourbon cotton 

 " has gone entirely out of use." 



16. Mr. Fischer himself seems to have been 

 aware of the want of demand for fine long-stapled 

 Bourbon cotton, as in a letter to the Superinten- 

 dent of Investment, entered on your Consultation 

 of the 6th January, 1829, he observes, that the 

 state of the markets at home did not admit of a 

 profit to the private merchant ; but that merely to 

 keep alive the cultivation of a plant, the introduc- 

 tion of which had been attended with so many 

 difficulties and so much expense to Government, 

 he had made small advances for it annually, and 

 still held the produce unsold in England and in 

 India. 



17. Sixteen bales of the cotton you have pur- 

 chased of Mr. Fischer have been received per the 

 ship Ladi/ Macnaghten^ and examined by persons 

 of great experience, who report that '*this cotton 

 " is very clean and of good colour ; the staple, 

 " though rather uneven in length, is fine as well as 



strong ; and that a parcel of about five hundred 

 " bales would, in the present state of the market, 



N 2 readily 



