262 



COTTON-WOOL. 



Letter from quantity sold to Government, it has not been 



Bombay, 



5 Oct. 1833. attended with that success which might have been 

 expected. This failure is in some degree attri- 

 butable to the influence of the principal merchants 

 of Dharwar, with whom it was at first proposed to 

 contract for the supply of cotton cleaned on the 

 new plan, and whose refusal to co-operate in what 

 they conceived to be innovations on established 

 usages and customs, rendered it necessary for 

 Dr. Lush to make his bargains with the cultivators 

 themselves. So much difficulty was experienced 

 by that gentleman in inducing the ryots to follow 

 our system, that in 1831 he could succeed in 

 obtaining only a small quantity of clean- picked 

 cotton. 



19. It was evident, therefore, that a consider- 

 able time must elapse before a sufficient quantity 

 of the Dharwar cotton could be brought into the 

 market, so as to establish its character and to 

 effect a decided improvement in the trade. Not- 

 withstanding the steps taken by Government to 

 effect improvement in this valuable article of 

 commerce, the local dealers have evinced no dis- 

 position to assist in the attainment of this object ; 

 nor does it seem that the Bombay merchants have 

 abandoned the prejudices which they have always 

 entertained against the cotton of the southern 

 Mahratta country. 



20. Under these circumstances, it was con- 

 sidered advisable to establish an agency in the 



districts 



