COTTON-WOOL. 



253 



any alterations that mio:ht appear to them to be Letter from 



D rr Bombay, 



likely to be profitable. 5 Oct. isss. 



3. At the same time Mr. Martin stated, that 

 from what he had seen of the cultivation of the 

 cotton-plant, in which so much depended upon the 

 season and so little upon the skill of the cultivator, 

 it appeared to him that more improvement might 

 be looked for from a better mode of o;atherino- the 

 kupas than from any alteration that would be in- 

 troduced in the cultivation. As all the Broach 

 cotton sold for nearly the same price, the cultiva- 

 tors would not (Mr. Martin added) take the trouble 

 to pick it carefully ; but this difficulty might, he 

 conceived, be obviated, by Government taking at 

 a certain rate a quantity of well-cleaned kupas 

 from each village, care being taken that it be of 

 good quality, and by making a trifling present to 

 those villages in which kupas of a superior de- 

 scription was produced. 



4. The Superintendent was accordingly autho- 

 rized, on the 4th July following, to let out to native 

 farmers portions of the experimental farm, to be 

 cultivated by contract under his own directions, 

 as he had proposed ; but in respect to his suggestion 

 for purchasing kupas from villages, it was deemed 

 expedient to make a reference to the acting Com- 

 mercial Resident (Mr. Felly), who was required, 

 if he approved of the plan, to state the manner in 

 which it should be brought into practical opera- 

 tion. 



From 



I 



