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cultivation of better kinds of cotton and the erection of cleaning 

 factories at Palembang the cotton industry would quickly go ahead, 

 put itself at head of affairs. It requested from Government permis- 

 sion to take charge of the management of the trials, and the 

 buying of the produce and further asked for a concession to put up 

 a factory for the cleaning and pressing of the cotton. 



The Government gave this Society its greatest possible support, 

 in order to further the success of the thing. At Palembang the 

 Government itself assisted in the erection of the factory, and in the 

 meantime, it had distributed among the inhabitants of the different 

 districts, seeds from New Orleans, for planting. This was on the 

 advice of the Trading Society. The Resident personally saw to 

 the matter, as he knew that the Minister of Colonies, was strong)} 

 interested in the cotton industry. 



The Resident had again to report, that the seeds had nowhere 

 come up, and he thought that the fault lay with the seeds. The 

 seeds were dead. In his note- the Resident says, that the cotton 

 is the favourite plant of the natives of Palembang but that the 

 changeability of the weather is disadvantageous to this cultivation. 



The cultivation is mostly done on grounds which serve for rice 

 growing. 



Previous to this, under the direction of Resident Pretorius, trials 

 were made with the planting of foreign varieties of cotton. The 

 New Orleans seeds then imported sprang up well, but the inhabitants 

 wanted to have nothing more to do with the matter after the ex- 

 periences they had had with the new kinds of cotton. 



In 1847 the. Director of Agricultures wrote to the Government, 

 that the various trials of planting foreign varieties of cotton in Java 

 had entirely failed. 



It is only lately that the last cotton undertaking, that of Mr. VAX 

 Toll in Cheribon has been given up, and it may be taken 0:1 the 

 grounds of these experiments that Java is not suited for this industry. 



In the Palembang Residency, also the ground and conditions 

 seem to be less suitable for the kinds of cotton, wanted in the 

 European markets, than for the native kinds. It only remains for 

 the inhabitants there to choose the latter kind. I see little or no 

 advantage in inducing them to grow foreign cotton. 



It would be of more advantage to the inhabitants of Palembang 

 to show them, before all, a way of better preparing and cleaning 

 their own products. 



The Governor-General wrote to the Minister fcr Colonies in I 848 

 the following : — 



"Truly all experiments of this kind in Java have proved unsuc- 

 cessful and they have shewn, that disregarding the injurious in- 

 ! fluence which the moist air and the changeability of the weather 

 have on the cotton fruit, a certain worm which burrows into the 

 fruit and spoils it before they have reached full maturity, proves to 

 be an obstacle, scarcely removable, against the growing, in Java, 

 cotton suitable for the European markets, in sufficient quantities to 

 I repay the cost and leave a profit. " 



