xl 



REPORT ON 



Report. for from the Superintendent of the Company's 

 Botanical Garden at Calcutta, from the Secretary 

 to the Horticultural Society and the Commercial 

 Residents at the Company's factories at Bauleah, 

 Hurripaul, Commercolly, and Soonamooky. Co- 

 pies of the reports furnished on this occasion on 

 the several subjects referred are given in the 

 Appendix K. 



The Governor-general in Council, in his letter 

 of the 10th April 1832, informed the Court, that 

 he had sanctioned a proposal of the Board of 

 Trade, for establishing an experimental filature 

 at Howrah near Calcutta, for the purpose of in- 

 stituting comparisons and experiments, with a 

 view to improve the manufacture of raw-silk. 



New methods of constructing the filature-basins 

 and furnaces had been devised by the Commercial 

 Residents at Radnagore, Commercolly, and Go- 

 natea, and by other gentlemen. All of them were 

 designed to afford similar advantages : " saving of 

 fuel and labour, superiority over the old filatures 

 in the mode of supplying the basins with water, a 

 greater degree of cleanliness in the interior of the 

 filatures by the exclusion of smoke, and cheapness 

 as well in their original construction and adapta- 

 tion." It appeared desirable to try, by a series 



of 



