Fibres, 



306 



[April, 1912. 



able. Wealth has brought in its train 

 many desirable features ; it has raised 

 the standard of comfort of the whole 

 population for the tract. Their home- 

 steads are commodious and comfortable, 

 and their cattle are the best to be found 

 in the Provinces. The people are better 

 educated, too, and more enterprising. 



The area under cotton, which in 1868-69 

 was only 2,037,617 acres, had increased to 

 4,176,561 acres forty years later (1908 09) : 

 while in 1909-10 it had topped 4J million 

 acres. The great increase in the area 

 has been largely at the expense of wheat 

 and millets. The rapid expansion in the 

 cultivation of this staple has, in no small 

 degree, been due to the improved rail- 

 way facilities which have been intro- 

 duced within the last half century. 

 Previous to that time the Central Pro- 

 vinces and Berar were almost inacces- 

 sible. The two great cotton marts outside 

 the Provinces were Bombay and Mirza- 

 pur on the Ganges, to which cotton was 

 carried by road by the Banjaras. The 

 load (bojha), of about 240 lbs. consisted 

 of two loose bags slung pannier-fashion 

 on a bullock's back. The cost of trans- 

 port in this way often exceeded half the 

 value of cotton. Much loss was suffered 

 in transit, too, for the cotton was eaten 

 by the bullocks, stolen by the drivers 

 and damaged by the dust. The dirty 

 state in which this fibre was exported 

 had long been a cause of complaint among 

 English mill-owners. Previous to that 

 time little inducement had been offered 

 to the grower to supply clean cotton, as 

 no more was given for clean samples than 

 for dirty ones. The ryot was, it is said, 

 in the habit of sowing his cotton broad- 

 cast in certain districts as a mixture 

 with tur, juar and other crops ; he 

 seldom did any weeding and did not 

 start picking till all the bolls had ma- 

 tured. The village bania as middleman 

 adulterated his purchases with cotton 

 seed, earth and water ; there were as yet 

 no European agents stationed in the 

 Provinces to set the standard of honesty 

 in the trade. The exporter, who was 

 directly interested in getting cotton of 

 good quality, was stationed in one of the 

 big marts and never came inco direct 



touch with the producer, who therefore 

 remained in ignorance of his require- 

 ments as to quality. It is not surprising 

 that under these conditions India cotton 

 became a byword among English mill- 

 owners, whose opinion was that it would 

 never be used by them, except as a make- 

 shift in the event of a shortage in the 

 American supply. 



The first real attempt at improvement 

 of this staple in these Proviuces dates 

 from 1866, when Mr. Rivett Carnac was 

 appointed Cotton Commissioner, (i) to 

 introduce foreign staples, (ii) to improve 

 the indigenous plant, and (iii) to watch 

 over all affairs relating to cotton, and to 

 further, so far as might be legitimately 

 possible, all interests connected there- 

 with. At this time the cotton of the 

 Central Provinces and Berar were classi- 

 fied as Chanda jari, bant or Hinganghat 

 and Berar jari oomras. Chanda jari and 

 bani were different names for the same 

 variety, which was known as Chanda 

 jari when grown as a cold weather crop 

 in the district of that name, and as bani 

 or Hinganghat when sown in other parts 

 of the cotton tract in the beginning of 

 the rains. The staple of this cotton 

 was described forty years ago as being 

 fine and silky and quite suitable for 

 the English mills— being nearly equal 

 to middling American. It is interest- 

 ing to note that samples of the 

 selected bani now grown on the Akola 

 Farm have this year been valued at 

 8"40d. per lb., wheu middling American 

 was selling at 8-07d., which proves that 

 this, our long-stapled cotton, has been 

 improving rather than deteriorating in 

 the quality of its staple. Berar jari or 

 oomras was slightly inferior to Hin- 

 ganghat; the name was applied very 

 possibly to all cottons containing a 

 mixture of bani and the fiuer types of 

 jari. The Cotton Commissioner decided 

 to concentrate his attention on the im- 

 provement of bani or Hinganghat mainly, 

 and to improve it by seed selection. 

 Large quantities of Hinganghat seed 

 from the locality of the same name 

 were sent to Berar, Nimar, Jubbulpore 

 and Chhattisgarh, as well as to other 

 Provinces. In 1867, 855 tons of seed of 



