24 COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [l788 — 1813c 



Extract Pa- 

 pers relative 

 to American 

 tariff, laid 

 before Par- 

 liament in 

 1828. Cot- 

 ton Reports 

 of East In- 

 dia Com p. 

 (1836), p. ix. 



Despatch of 

 Court of 

 Directors to 

 Governor- 

 General, 20th 

 Aug., 1788. 

 Reports on 

 Coi ton wool 

 (1836), p. 3. 



500 millions; and in 1860 it was 1500 

 millions. Hitherto the American supply 

 has generally been equal to the demand ; 

 and Whitney's saw gin has done nearly as 

 much for the States in the preparation of 

 Cotton wool, as Arkwright's machinery 

 has done for Great Britain in the manu- 

 facture of Cotton goods. 



32 Early efforts to extend and improve Indian Cotton. 

 — From an early period the Directors of the late 

 Company were naturally anxious that India should 



take a part in the supply of Cotton. In 

 1788, during a temporary calm in political 

 affairs, the Directors ordered 500,000 lbs. 

 of the best Indian Cotton, and obtained 

 reports from the Revenue Collectors of 

 the several districts ; # but in the end 

 only a small quantity of very indifferent 

 Cotton was obtained from Bombay. Still 

 however the Directors were not disheartened ; and in 

 1790, and for some years afterwards, Dr. Anderson 

 was engaged at Madras in distributing a variety of 

 foreign Cotton seeds, obtained from Malta and the 

 Mauritius, throughout the Peninsula of India. 



33 Introduction of Bourbon Cotton into the Madras 

 Presidency. — One important result followed Dr. An- 

 derson's labours, namely, the introduction of Bourbon 

 Cotton ; and this variety subsequently became na- 

 turalized in three Southern Districts ; viz., Tin- 

 nevelly, Salem, and Coimbatore. This success is in a 

 great measure to be ascribed to the enterprise of a 

 private merchant named Hughes, who resided in Tin- 



nevelly. Mr. Hughes seemed born with a 

 genius for developing the resources of a 

 country. For a long time his Senna was 

 widely celebrated as the best in the world. 

 His cultivation of Bourbon Cotton was, 

 from author- however, a still greater triumph ; and for 



ltiesonthe ' , ° « V > rrv 



spot. more than twenty years Hughes s Tm. 



* Extracts from these obsolete Reports may be found in the Ap- 

 pendix to the Reports on Cotton Wool, 1836. 



Royle's Me- 

 moirs. Pari. 

 Return 

 (1847), p. 28. 

 Personal 

 knowledge 

 obtained 



