India revenue letter : dated 15th March, 1839 (no. 4).

  • Auckland, George Eden, Earl of, 1784-1849.
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India revenue letter : dated 15th March, 1839 (no. 4). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to the purchasing, as an inducement to the Ryots, their well-gathered clean cotton, with what effect I have not the means of ascertaining. 19. Details of the valuation prices, both of the indigenous and foreign seed cotton raised and sent home upon these experiments, are given in pages 272 and 280 of the Report on Cotton Wool, <^c.; and although the injury before alluded to from the use of the saw-gin was very consider- able, it will be observed, that the prices are rated generally above the 7d. per pound, which in a preceding extract is mentioned as a sale value at which several million sterling might be expected to be disposed of. Some cotton from Egyptian seed is noted as worthy of particular attention, (it being added, respecting this quality, that it should be well cleaned in the native manner,) and the same as regards encouragement to production is said of the cotton from New Orleans seed, and of some white seeded perennial cotton grown in a small experimental farm, under Mr. Lush, in Darwar. 20. A fresh supply of Egyptian seeds, and of the machines used in that country for the cleaning the cotton, was sent to Bombay in the course of 1836*; but the result is not reported in the papers in my possession. 21. It may be regarded, I think, as probable, from the foregoing summary, that by inventions such as may be reasonably expected from European mechanical skill, the means of quickly and safely cleaning the indigenous cottons of Bombay in so far as regards the separation from the seed after gathering, may be attained, and that, for the improve- ment which may be desired in the staple of the cotton of Bombay, we may look, with fair hope, to the growth of the article from the best foreign seeds. 22. In Bengal, the result of the experiments made has also been en- couraging f, though it is to be remembered regarding such results in all the Presidencies, that the growth of mere specimens is far from being a test of success in attempts to rear a produce of extensive cultivation. The cotton of the Akra experimental farm, the maintenance of which did not extend beyond three years, was in England, partly by actual sale, and partly by valuation, above the specified rate of 7d. per pound, and good specimens from various kinds of seed have been also produced in different other parts of the Presidency. The conclusion arrived at in the paper of the Secretary of the Agricultural Society is, that the “Upland Georgia and Egyptian is the seed best calculated for introduc- * See Report, &,e., pp. 20.3 to 292. t Summary liy the Secretary to the Agricultural Society.