CULTURE AND PREPARATION OP COTTON FOR THE MARKET. 
colour and staple, and, moreover, that it 
would meet with a ready sale in the Liver- 
pool market at 6§d per pound ; whilst the 
average quantity of other East Indian cotton, 
commonly sold under the denomination of 
Surat and Bengal, was not worth more than 
5d. per pound, and that of nine-tenths of 
the cotton grown in the United States of 
America, is of the value of 6|d per pound. 
We proceed however to allude to facts ; to 
shew that Bengal as well as India generally 
possesses climate and soil to afford cotton 
in the greatest quantity and in the greatest 
perfection, capable of producing sufficient 
for the consumption of the European mar- 
ket. All that is desiderated is the proper 
application of European skill and capital. 
Fifteen thousand bales a week of cotton 
have been consumed annually in Liverpool, 
and the consumption of cotton in Bukar is 
increasing with extraordinary rapidity. 
We are in possession of some interesting 
documents regarding the introduction of 
the Sea island cotton. The introduction of 
cotton into Georgia and Carolina has always 
been deemed a subject of paramount impor- 
tance. For domestic purposes it appears that 
cotton was introduced from Virginia into 
Georgia anterior to the revolutionary war. 
At this period Sir R. Arkwright had in- 
vented a spinning wheel, and cotton be- 
came a matter of deep interest in England. 
It rose in price in consequence ; its various 
qualities began to attract notice, and the 
world was searched for finer kinds. The 
island of Bourbon was also found to produce 
them, which resembled a green seed cotton 
with which twenty acres had been cultivated 
by Col. Dellegal upon a small island near 
Havannah before the revolution. The seed 
however from Bourbon, strange to say,.could 
not be naturalized at Georgia. The Sea island 
cotton was introduced directly from the 
Bahama islands into Georgia. The quali- 
ty of the Bahamas cotton was then consi- 
dered among the best grown ; it was first 
cultivated in the spring of 1787 upon the 
banks of a small rice-field in St. Lonan’s 
island. The land was rich and warm, the 
cotton grew large and blossomed, but did 
205 
not ripen to fruit ; it however ratooned 
and grew from the roots the following year. 
The difficulty was now over; the cotton 
adapted itself to the climate, and every 
successive year from 1787 saw the long 
stapled cotton extending itself along the 
shores of Georgia, and into South Carolina, 
where an enlightened population, then en- 
gaged in the cultivation of indigo, readi- 
ly adopted it ; all the varieties of the long 
staple or at least the germ of those varieties 
came from the seed ; differences of soil de- 
veloped them, and differences of local si- 
tuations are developing them every day. 
The same cotton seed sown in one field 
will give quite a black and naked seed ; 
while the same seed, sown into another 
field, different in soil and situation, will 
run into large cotton with Jong boles and 
pods, and with seeds tufted at the ends 
with fuzzy. A particular kind of cotton, 
equal to any in the South Sea islands was 
cultivated in the neighbourhood of Sylhet 
hills. The cotton at Madras is generally 
valued at 100 rupees per candy, but Tinevel- 
ly and Ramnad cotton is valued at 120. As 
a proof what may be done on this side of 
India, a gentleman, connected with Gisborne 
and Co. who resided at Benares, got a few 
seeds of Brazil cotton, which he cultivated 
in his garden there, for two or three suc- 
cessive years and produced three bales of 
cotton at last which he sent down to 
Calcutta for shipment to England. Gis- 
borne shipped them to London, where they 
sold for a shilling a pound, at the time that 
Indian cotton was generally between four 
pence and five pence. Richie and Co. of 
Bombay imported seeds from the Brazils 
and America ; but they did not succeed there 
in improving its culture and preparation 
for the market. The cotton greatly deteriorat- 
ed, and some of the seeds did not come up ; 
we believe, hov/ever, in the foregoing in- 
stances, there were no superintendents or 
agents acquainted with the culture of Ame- 
rican cotton; for very fine cotton has been 
produced at Salsette by Dr. Scott equal to 
Bourbon cotton. There is also a village near 
Manyrole in Kattywur, called Labarcoire, 
which produces some of a very fine quality 
indeed, which is cultivated by natives 
