Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/143

 our climate than the others, but because they are subject to the attacks of an insect, which deposits its eggs in the young fruit, causing blight and destruction of the produce long before it attains maturity.

The Pernambuco variety ( Gossypium acuminatum) promises to succeed better, and being a strong growing shrub producing a very long stapled cotton, may prove a very useful addition to our stock.

It appears from the facts adduced, that the soil and climate of this portion of India, are far from unfavourable to the growth of the foreign varieties of the cotton plant, and equally that they produce cotton of good quality, but whether equal to that of American growth I am unable to say. Mr. Fischer of Salem, the Principal Cultivator on this side, of India has altogether discontinued cultivating it, not on account of the inferiority of its produce, but because it is greatly inferior as an article of commerce to the Bourbon variety and much more troublesome and expensive to clean and fit for the market, and then, does not fetch so high a price by nearly 50 per cent. But though that is the case in the ferruginous soils of Salem, it does not follow that it would prove equally so in other districts where the soil is entirely alluvial and argillaceous, since in such soils, my experiments have led to the conclusion that the American short staples are more productive, and answer upon the whole better, than the Bourbon, while, from the rapidity with which they come to maturity, they are as susceptible, as the indigenous sorts, of being cultivated as an annual, which, in the opinion of the natives, might be thought an advantage.

Having I trust satisfactorily shown that in the southern provinces of India, the American short stapled cottons can be cultivated with equal ease and certainty, under the same course of treatment, as the indigenous kind, it only remains to ascertain whether the produce is intrinsically equal in value, or in other words whether fabrics manufactured from it possess the recommendation of wearing equally well. On this point I confess myself unable to afford any satisfactory information. The belief of the natives as above stated is adverse to the supposition that the American cotton is equal in that respect to the Indian, but their conviction is formed from comparing imported European cloth, with native fabrics, which I do not consider fair subjects of comparison, in as much as India was, in the first instance and for a long time after, supplied with old cloths, the refuse of European warehouses, which had been deteriorated by long keeping and more or less by the processes employed in bleaching in Europe to which Indian cloths are not subjected. The result of my own experience, as well as of several others with whom I have conversed on the subject, is in favour of the supposition, that European cloth is fully equal to Indian, and I have no hesitation in adding, that native cloth which I have had made up to express order, and of the most costly quality, did not wear nearly so well as European cloth purchased 100 per cent, cheaper from the boxes of strolling hawkers. From this 1 infer American cotton grown in its own country, is at least equal to Indian, but whether when grown in India it retains its good qualities, remains to be determined, on that point I am unable to give any precise information, and for the present leave the matter as I found it sub-judice.

The fact of Bourbon cotton of Indian growth, having sold in the London market for the highest prices going, and I believe I may safely add, always 100 per cent higher than the native cottons or ' Surats' leaves no room to doubt its excellence, and some specimens of cloth fabricated from that kind have been acknowledged, in this country, to be of the first quality.

While thus endeavouring to the utmost to introduce new varieties it must not be overlooked, however much of the native partiality in favour of the indigenous cotton we may attribute to prejudice, that, notwithstanding it is generally badly prepared and dirty, it bears a fair and steady price in the English market, and is in constant demand for mixing with the American kinds, thus proving almost to demonstration, that in the estimation of the English manufacturer it possesses valuable properties, and even leads to the inference, that we might be more usefully employed in directing our energies to its improvement, than in devoting so much labour and capital to the introduction of an exotic, only adapted for successful culture on particular kinds of lands, and these well suited for other kinds of cultivation, while it is less, or not at all fitted for culture on the Black soils, especially adapted for the production of the indigenous sorts, which, on the other hand, are not so well adapted for the general purposes of agriculture. Could then anything be done to improve the quality and marketable value of the Indian cotton ?