COTTON-WOOL. 



417 



Append 



EXTRACT OBSERVATIONS 



ON 



THE COTTONS OF INDIA, 



And particularly those of the Ceded Districts: — By 

 Mr. Bernard Metcalfe, dated 1815. 



There are two species of the shrub-cotton, viz. the 

 black and the green seed, in each of which there are, 

 probably, as many varieties as of the gooseberry or any 

 other shrub. The black seed is only cultivated in the 

 West Indies and the Brazils, because the labour required 

 in separating the cotton or staple from the seed is neither 

 so difficult nor so tedious as the green seed. The cottons 

 grown in India are for the most part a variety of the 

 green seed, of which some are more easily cleaned than 

 others. Those that may be regarded a staple commodity 

 of the country are principally found in the Company's 

 possessions, in the Guzerat and the Broach, in the Mah- 

 ratta dominions, and the Ceded Districts of the Nizam : 

 they are likewise cultivated to a considerable extent in 

 the province of Bundelcund and the Rohilla country, as 

 well as in the Southern Districts of the Peninsula. In 

 fact, the cotton-plant is indigenous in most countries 

 within the tropics, and cultivated in much higher latitudes, 

 neither requiring a very rich, nor impoverishing a lighter 

 soil. It has this singular property, of producing the finest 

 staple where the waters are brackish. The Georgia Sea 

 Island, the Surinams and Demeraras, are all grown on 

 the border of the sea, and the prime qualities only as far 

 inland as the influence of the sea-air and tide-waters 



2 E extend, 



