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Proceedings of Societies : 



The great fall which has since taken place in the value of cotton 

 will no doubt check this important branch of commerce. If properly 

 managed and encouraged, however, there is every reason to suppose 

 that it will nevertheless go on increasing at a steady pace. The fact 

 is, there is no portion of the world at present which seems capable of 

 producing cotton at so cheap a rate as central India. 



The soil throughout the greater portion of the country is uncom- 

 monly rich, and its value is but trifling. 



The exact amount of the assessment I have not been able to ascer- 

 tain, but from all that I could learn it was not more for cotton lands 

 than 4 annas (about 6d.) per bigha. In the next place labour in 

 central India is cheaper than in almost any other portion of the world ; 

 the wages of an able bodied man being only 3 rupees per mensem. 

 It has been estimated therefore that Berar cotton may be cultivated 

 profitably for 30 rupees per candy, or for rather less than a penny a 

 pound ! Hence the only obstacle which exists to its production to a 

 much greater, I may indeed almost say to an unlimited extent, is the 

 difficulty of transportation from the place of cultivation to a market. 



To give an idea of the extent to which this operates, it is necessary 

 in the first place to state, that the price of transportation at present 

 amounts to from 7 to 9 rupees per bullock load between Oumrawutty 

 and Bombay, or allowing 3 bullock loads to a candy, to an average of 

 24 rupees per candy, a sum equal to 80 per cent, upon the first cost of 

 the article. But this is not all. The time occupied on the route 

 tetween Berar and Bombay is very great. A laden bullock travels 

 only at the rate of 9 miles a day, and often from lameness, fatigue, 

 and other causes, is obliged to remain stationary for days together. 

 About 70 days, therefore, are required to effect the transit between the 

 place of cultivation and the coast, and as the cotton of Berar ripens in 

 February and March, it requires the utmost exertion to bring any por- 

 tion of it to market previous to the setting in of the south-west 

 monsoon j while it almost invariably happens that large quantities are 

 caught on the road by the rain, and if not destroyed, are greatly da- 

 maged, by becoming wet, mouldy and black. Besides, in such cases, 

 numbers of the cattle used for transportation are killed from overwork ; 

 as in addition to the anxiety felt to push them onto the utmost to 

 avoid the effects of rain, the cotton with which they are laden, from 

 absorbing quantities of moisture, becomes double its original weight, 

 and actually crushes the animals it is upon to the ground. It frequently 

 happens therefore, owing to this and the other causes I have mentioned 



