ON  COTTON  CULTURE  IN  INDIA.  339 
Indicum  and  6r.  herbaceum  of  different  botanists.  In  geographi- 
cal range  it  extends  over  all  the  regions  of  India,  and  grows  in  the 
hottest  and  moistest  as  well  as  the  driest  districts.  The  varie- 
ties arising  from  soil  and  climate  are  all  shorter  in  staple  than 
the  American  cottons,  and  in  this  consists  their  chief  inferiority 
for  the  European  market.  But  the  Indian  cotton  has  peculiar 
advantages  of  its  own.  Its  color  is  good  ;  it  takes  dye  well ; 
and  yarns  spun  with  it  swell  in  bleaching,  thereby  giving  to  the 
fabrics  a  closer  texture.  For  strength  and  durability  the  natives 
prefer  their  own  cotton ;  and  the  famous  muslins  of  Dacca  show 
how  fine  the  manufactures  are  of  which  it  is  capable.  There  are 
several  other  species  indigenous  in  India,  such  as  the  Gfosst/pvum 
arboreum  ;  but,  though  yielding  fine  cotton,  they  are  not  culti- 
vated as  a  field  crop,  the  produce  not  repaying  the  expense  of 
culture.  That  cotton  was  spun  and  woven  in  the  East  from  the 
remotest  times,  we  know  from  its  being  mentioned  in  Sanscrit 
writings  twelve  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era.  The 
discovery  of  cotton-wool  and  cotton  fabrics  in  ancient  Peruvian 
tombs  proves  that  America  possesses  indigenous  cotton-plants 
independent  of  importation  from  the  Old  World  ;  as,  indeed,  was 
reported  by  Columbus,  Cortes,  and  the  first  European  explorers. 
The  Grossypium  Barbadense  of  botanists  is  the  species  furnish- 
ing all  the  cotton  of  North  America  and  of  the  West  India 
Islands  ;  that  of  Brazil,  Peru,  and  South  America  generally,  is 
the  produce  of  the  Gr.  Peruvianum — a  species  marked  by  its 
black  seeds,  and  their  adhering  firmly  together.  From  North 
America  the  G.  Barbadense  was  introduced  into  the  Mauritius 
and  the  Isle  of  Bourbon,  and  thence  to  India,  where  the  plant 
has  become  a  permanent  variety,  and  its  produce  is  called  Bour- 
bon cotton.  The  great  bulk  of  the  native-grown  cotton  is  pro- 
duced from  the  indigenous  species,  with  little  variation  either  of 
culture  or  of  manufacture  from  what  prevailed  three  thousand 
years  ago.  It  is  only  in  recent  times,  since  the  possibility  has 
been  contemplated  of  the  American  supply  failing  the  British 
market,  that  attention  has  been  fairly  directed  to  India  as  a 
cotton-exporting  country. 
We  must  refer  to  Dr.  Royle's  book  for  the  detailed  reports  of 
what  has  been  done,  in  the  way  of  experimental  culture.  In 
1829,  the  Agricultural  Society  of  India,  with  the  assistance  of 
