COTTOX-WOOL. 



419 



these means; and even then will only be limited, for the Append 

 cottons generally throughout India are of so short a staple, 

 that with all the care that can be given them, they will 

 never have a much higher character. A more effectual 

 improvement would no doubt be, to send them the seed 

 of a new and different variety of the plant. 



The introduction of a new variety of the cotton-plant 

 is, however, regarded as almost chimerical ; and though it 

 is admitted that the influence of the Company's servants 

 over the agriculturists in India seems to insure the success 

 of such an attempt, yet the advantage is regarded as too 

 remote and uncertain to induce its being made. It is 

 apprehended, likewise, that any new variety of the cotton- 

 plant would gradually, from the effects of climate and soil, 

 assimilate in character to what is already produced. This 

 idea, however specious, is nevertheless a mistake ; for 

 that the inferiority of the district cottons is more to be 

 attributed to the variety being originally bad, than to the 

 effects of climate or soil, is evident, from there being 

 better cottons made both to the northward and southward 

 of the Ceded Districts, and both in similar soils. In the 

 black-cotton lands, as they are called, to the northward, 

 they are made in the Nagpore districts and the sources 

 of the Nerbudda, and carried overland to Mirzapore, 

 and from thence down the Gang^es to Calcutta : and 

 to the southward, again, better cottons are produced 

 in the black-cotton lands of Tinnevelly. In Tinne- 

 velly, likewise, some attempts have been made from the 

 Bourbon seed, and not without success. I remember 

 seeing a letter where they had been withdrawn at 

 the Company's sales at two shillings and sixpence per 

 pound ; as well as its then occurring to me, that the 

 produce of the same lands, had they been planted with 

 the seed of the district cottons, would not have brought 



2 E 2 more, 



