The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-21 00:00:00

COMPETITIVE TRIAL OF SMALL-BORE RIFLES,

1864.
The annual competitive trial of small -bore rifles will, by
permission, take place at Woolwich in the month of Feb.
next.
Minimum bore .451, maximum weight 91 Ibs, minimum
pull of trigger 6 lbs.
Each gunmaker will have to bring 6 rifles of the same de-
scription and quality. The rifles will be fired from fixed
mechanical rests; and the description of rifle that giv,s the
best figure of merit will, as heretofore, be selected as the
one with which the Queen's Prize shall be cempeted for at
the ensuing prize meeting of the association, subject to the
conditions of the manufacturer undertaking to supply the
number of rifles required by the council within a specified
time, of their being in every respect equal to the one chosen,
and of the price not exceeding £l5 per rifle.
The mean figure of merit of all the rifles of each set that
may be tried shall decide the position to be assigned to the
particular description of rifle.
In order to test to a certain extent the amount of recoil,
it may be found desirable to try the shooting from the
shoulder, but the sheeting to determine the figure of merit
will be made from the fixed rest.
Rests similar to those used at the last competitive trial
will be provided by the association. Gunmakers can, how-
ever, if they prefer it, bring their own mechanical rests.
Competitors desirous of availing themselves of the rests pro-
vided by the association may, at any time previous to the
trial, go to Woolwich Arsenal for the purpose of seeing that
their rifles are properly fitted to the slides and rests.
Gunmakers intending to compete will be charged an en-
trance fee of £lO, and must send in their names to the
secretary of the association i n or before the lst of January
next, alter which date the entries will be closed.
An early application for slide-bars must be made by those
competitors who intend to use the association rest.
By order, E. ST. JOHN MILnMAY•
11, Pall-mall East.

COTTON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.

At the usual weekly meeting of the Executive Committee
on Wednesday, a letter was read on the cultivation of
cotton in Paraguay, which the Government is earnestly
endeavouring to promote. The President of the republic
having directed the Miuister of Foreign Affairs to forward
a sample of the cotton grown in Paraguay, 12 bales have
been sent to the Association for examination and sale.
Samples of fabrics made in Paraguay from the same
cotton have also been received, and may be seen at the
rooms of the Association.—A letter was received from
Trinidad, stating that cotton cultivation is extending;
that numerous applications are made for seed ; and that
in a year or two, should the price continue to be re-
munerative, cotton will no doubt again form a prin-
cipal item in the exports of the island. A letter
was read from the British Legation, reporting the
arrival of seed and its distribution in Ilayti.—A letter
was received from Belize, Honduras, stating that notwith-
standing the failure of several experiments in cotton
cultivation, there is no doubt of ultimate success. The
staple, mahogany, being no longer profitable, land cultiva-
tion, one half of which is cotton, is the next resource. Cotton
has been brought to Belize from Yucatan on the north,
Peten on the west, and Ruatan on the south, and from the
fact that it was readily taken by the merchants a much larger
production will doubtless be offered next year. Samples of
cotton from Jamaica, grown by inmates of the Reformatory
at Kingston, were submitted for examination, ana valued at
21d., 25d., 28d., 29d., and 31d. per lb. respectively.— A copy
of a letter from the Government of Madras, dated the 26th
June, forwarded by the India-office, was received, accom-
panying a sample of cotton grown in the Malabar district, and
thus described by P. J. Brown, E,.q. :—" About four or five
years ago, long before the cotton famine, my notice was at-
tracted to a solitary cotton shrub growing neglected in a
large orchard in consequence of seeing its head brilliantly
white with a crop of expending bolls. The gardener's
account was that it had been growing there, just as I saw
it, for several years, and was either chance sown or bird
sown. I had the remaining bolls gathered, the seeds
separated, and these distributed in twos and threes among
a few of my labourers, with instructions to sow the seed in
their grounds, and when the plants should bear, carefully
to gather the cotton, and bring it to me. Sample lis the first
year's produce from one seed and one shrub. The gross pro-
duce was 111 b; of clear cotton 2ilb, seed lilb, and a frac-
tional quantity of refuse, not dirt. In cotton properly cleaned
there is no dirt; by native spinners what there is of refuse,
after sending, is turned to account. Sample 2, sent to Madras
was the produce of another shrub, which I afterwards found
growing wild in one of the grounds, my attention being now
drawl's to this cotton. It is clear that both shrubs are foreign
perennials originally from foreign seed, not native annuals.
From the superior quality of the cotton they have pro-
(laced, as well as from the situations and the manner in
which they were found growing, I cannot have a doubt that
both shrubs are the lineal and undegenerate descendants
from the original Bourbon seed which my father obtained
from Madras, and sowed at Anjaralcandy in February,
1798, the very first month after he settled there; of
which he sent the first produce to the' Court of Directors,
and the Court sold in London at 2s 2d a lb. in 1802, at the
time the Court were selling the best "Surat cotton at 9d to
lld a lb. This decisive trial and intr4uction of Bears
cotton dates, therefore, so far back as upwards of 65 years
ago. But the peculiar value of sample 1 ate he present time,
when cotton-growing facts, not theories, what the cotton
grower seeks to guide him on his way, is the proof it fur-
nishes that this foreign cotton has continual to grow spon-
taneously and vigorously from that year to this. The soil
in which it has grown is the very opposite to that which par
excellence is called in India cotton soil ; it is the ordinary
ferruginous, stiff, red clay composing the steep hills and
hillsides of Malabar, and which was no doubt erected from
mud volcanoes in a former geological era. This cotton has
not only withetocd, but flourished, under a mean annual
fain fall of 125 inches. There is, therefot e, existing positive
evidence—first, that good cotton, of the foreign kinds most
required for the manufacturers of Lancashire, can be netts•
ralised in India, and grown there in every climate; rangh.,
from that which is rainless, where the plant receives its
indispensable moisture either from the copious dews of
Heaven alone, or from artificial irrigation, to the tracts where
the annual rainfall is from 120 to 140 inches ; second, that
cotton of those kinds can be successfully grown on every soil!
in India, from the rich black, locustrine deposit, the w.huse ic
the plant delights, extending over vast surfaces inordinary l
rior, from the remote south to the far north, to the
ricui
the
3g .
red clay constituting more or less the rest odf
bythe Fo-
tur al soil.'—Consular despatches forwardie
Mr. Consul
reign-office were received from Gtlaten,
;that, altho
W. Hall, under date June 25,
cultivation
also from
that the
during last year 246 bales ofa quantity
cottonr
itor y, statinga
aslelr thee chipped
produce u gohf
the port of Son Jose do Guatemala,
sent by land to the MeXiean
the coast on the Pacific,
will be carried to any extent. The working classes are
chiefly Indians, content to subsist orbs plantains, the cultiva.
it is not likely
'ion of which needs scarcely any la our. The absence of
roads, too, is another formidable obstacle. From Guityquil,
Mocatta, dated July 3, reporting that cotton of
Mr. Consul
middling quality grows along the entire coast of Ecudor.
About 200 quintals were exported last year,
but in conse-
quence of the high price of this article, and of the establish-
mentmanufactories in the interior of thecountry,
the of now
the plantations have increased, and the production during
the present year will probably exceed 2,000 quintals. Tho
soil in which all that is desired cau be grown, is excellent,
and washed. by navigable rivers. Much enthusiasm exists
for the growth of gotten, but unfortunately there is a total
want of labour, Thie is to only oifEQulty to be oTercoral