Page:Modern Hyderabad (Deccan).djvu/137

Rh by the ryots. Hand-gins gave place to ginning machines, and the ryots ceased to weed their fields carefully, and to cultivate only the best cotton. Grain and pulses then became more expensive, so much of the best land being laid down in cotton, and Marathwara entered upon a critical period of its existence. Says the new Census : — "The evolution from the agricultural to the manufacturing stage has already begun in Marathwara...... When a country begins to produce the raw materials of manufacture in place of food crops, it has started on the road to industrialisation."

One of the most serious developments, after the ginning and pressing factories sprang up, was the mixing of the three sorts of cotton grown in the State — the Gaorani, Nambhri, and Bharat varieties.

In the days of hand-gins, Gaorani, which is said to be the indigenous variety, had by its long staple gained for Hyderabad cotton a high place in the cotton marts. But the buyers, who came in numbers from Bombay and elsewhere, showed a preference for Bharat, which has a short staple, but is a hardy coarse cotton that will stand rough handling and climatic difficulties, and yields a far larger crop per acre than the Gaorani variety.