1848-49.] MR. FIOTIE's FOUR TEARS IN TINNEVELLY. 133 



him that more good Cotton had been received there 

 from the crop of 1847-48, than had ever been known 

 before ; a result which he attributed in some measure 

 to his own humble efforts to convince the people of the 

 importance of cleaning their Cotton. The perseverance 

 of the Natives in this course would of course depend 

 upon the encouragement they received, and the induce- 

 ments offered them to keep the different qualities se- 

 parate, and the best clean Cotton unadulterated with 

 inferior sorts. If the Natives could make more money 

 by selling the quantities separate, than they could by 

 selling them mixed, — then of course they would keep 

 them separate, and much unadulterated Cotton would 

 be exported from India. 



Native Cotton should be first threshed, next chur- 206 

 kaed, and finally cleaned by hand. — As regarded the 

 separation of the staple from the seed, Mr. Finnie was 

 satisfied that the time-honoured churka was a much 

 more efficient instrument than was generally supposed ; 

 and he did not believe that a better substitute would 

 easily be found. Two other processes were however 

 necessary, one before and the other after the churkaing. 

 Eefore the Cotton passed through the churka, the dirt, 

 trash, and rotten locks, should be separated from the 

 seed Cotton ; and this, as Mr. Finnie had previously 

 indicated, could be best carried out by the thresher. 

 Then again, after the Cotton had passed through the 

 churka, a subsequent process was necessary to separate 

 the remaining small particles. This process consisted 

 in beating the Cotton on cots, so as to allow the im- 

 purities to fall below it ; and this gave a lively and fine 

 appearance to the Cotton, and rendered it really clean 

 and beautiful, as clean indeed as the Cotton generally 

 produced in America. This work was performed by 

 hand, and was certainly tedious ; but in a country 

 where there were so many people whose time was of 

 little value, the work could be performed much cheaper 

 by hand than by machinery. 



Erection of Mr. Finnie's Gin-house and Driving 207 

 Machinery at Sevacausey. — Up to the early part of 

 1849, Mr. Finnie's ginning operations appear to have 



