246 



COTTON- WOOL. 



Letter from sown and the result communicated. When the 

 at Salem, seed was received from Madras, Mr. Gardner, 

 8 May 1833. ^^^^ charge of the district, gave a portion of it 

 to Mr. Fischer, who pays much attention to the 

 culture of cotton in the southern parts of the dis- 

 trict ; and that gentleman, in a communication I 

 lately received from him, states that he considers 

 the plant a delicate and unprofitable one, and 

 ''not at all calculated for this country;" for, he 

 observes, "independent of the climate being against 

 it, it requires too much care and trouble in its 

 successful cultivation for native indolence ; and 

 that it is not near so productive as the common 

 country or indigenous cotton, and by no means 

 so much so as the Bourbon." The American cotton 

 is certainly finer and more valuable than the 

 indigenous cotton, but the Bourbon, in my hum- 

 ble opinion, is again as superior to the Ame- 

 rican. When the American of the denomination 

 sent out to this country was selling in England for 

 sevenpence the pound, the Coimbatore sold for 

 fourpence halfpenny and fivepence, and my Bour- 

 bon for ninepence. 



The cotton crops in all the talooks are reported 

 to have been in last year a complete failure, and 

 that no where has the produce been more than 

 enough for home consumption. 



No. 



