The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-07 00:00:00

CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN _INDIA.

A supplement to the Calcutta Gazette of Oct. 30
contains a memorandum from the Foreign-office on
cotton cultivation is the province of Pegu in 1860-1,
and which at the present time possesses considera-
ble interest. It appears from this memorandum
I that in those years the area of land under cotton
cultivation in the plains was 4,795 acres, the ap-
proximate area of land under cotton cultivation in
in the hills was 12,841 acres, and the estimated
produce of the whole area in cleaned cotton was
2,116,3201bs a voirdupois. Cotton is grown on the
islands and on the low banks of the Irrawaddy,
situated above the delta of the river. It is also
grown on the hill slopes of the upper portion of the
province. On the islands and river hank the seed is
sown as the inundation subsides, that is at the end
of Sent. The pods are ripe by the end of March,
In the hills cotton is sown during the month of
June and is gathered in February. In either lo-
cality the plant is an annual, though in the hills a
small crop is to be had the second year. The native
eatton of Pegu has ban thus described by Mr. I.
Willis in a report published in the journal of the
Agricultural Society of Bengal, for the first six
months of 1856, page 155 :—" The fibre is coarse,
curly, harsh, and rather short, and is very tena-
ciously attached to the seed ; but it is most exceed-
ingly strong, and in this respect lies its excellence.
Its colour, condition, and healthfulness are truly good
and the seeds are very abundantly enveloped in wool.
Its value in Liverpool in March month, 1855, may
be taken at 31d to 4d per Ib, and in May month,
1855, at 4„,id to 5d per Ib, if- prrtty well detached
from the seed, i e., without much breakage." Such
is the report on the native variety of cot-
ton cultivated in Pegu. The produce as entered in
the statement above refers to that variety only.
The area of land under cotton cultivation in the
plains has been obtained by measurement. That
in the hills is estimated. The average produce of
an acre of cotton plants has been estimated at
3651bs of the uncleaned fibre, which will give about
1201bs of cleaned cotton, such as is considered fit for
the market. At this rate the total produce of cot-
ton in Pegu during the put year was about two
million one hundred thousand pounds. The culti-
vation has undoubtedly very much decreased since
Pegu became British territory. This has resulted
from several causes. Ist. So much English twist
is constantly introduced into the country, that
the native looms now are chiefly worked with
that. 2d. The export of rice has so much
increased, and the demand for that grain
is so constant, that the cultivation of it is
more profitable than that of cotton. 3d. In
the northern portion of the province the Chinese
from Yunan settled at Ava used to purchase cotton
to export overland to Yunan. That market has
now been closed for several years. The present
average price of nncleaned cotton in Pegu is 9
rupees for one hundred viss-3651bs avoirdupois.
The cost of cleaning or ginning one hundred visa
of cotton is 5 rupees. The average price of cleaned
cotton therefore at present is less than 3d per lb.
Of late a considerable quantity of cotton has been
brought down from Ava and exported from Ran-
goon to Calcutta and elsess here. The cotton from
the whole of Upper Burmah used formerly to be
exported in large quantities by the river and land
route to the province of Yunan ; but that market
has now been entirely stopped, in consequences of
disturbances in the Chinese territory. It is
estimated that Upper Burmah could supply with-
out diffiaalty at present from eight to ten million
pounds of cotton annually. The cotton is considered
finer than that of Pegu. The market price for cleaned
cotton is as follows :—At Ava, 30 rupees per 100 viss,
equal to 3651bs ; at Rangoon, 47 rupees per 100 viss,
or more than 3d a pound before being shipped. It has
been pronounced to be worth 4d a pound in the
Liverpool market. Persevering efforts have been
made to induce the cultivators in Pegu to grow
foreign cotton. The seed of several varieties has been
distributed to them, but they have evinced great dis-
like to continue the experiment ; sometimes the seed
has been bad and has not germinated. At others they
have found that, either from want of proper care, or
from the soil being unsuitable, the return has not
been so great as the native seed would have afforded.
Then there is no certain market for the small quan-
tities of foreign cotton produced. At present the
improvement of cotton cultivation, or the introduc-
tion of a superior cotton to Pegu, through the un-
aided efforts of the present cultivators, appears
hopeless. Many of the peasants have the plant, the
Pernambuco variety particularly, in their gardens
as a curiosity, but are not inclined to cultivate it as
a regular agricultural product. Experiments in
growing foreign cotton have been made by the
superintendent of forests, Dr. D. Brandis. During
the year 1860-61 plants raised from New Orleans
seed the best return, equivalent to 125 lbs.
of clean cotton the acre. Texan seed also
gave a good return. These experiments will be
continued. There are in the upper portion of the
province of Pegu many millions of acres now lying
waste, where it is believed cotton of a quality far
superior to any nowoknown in the province could,
under European superintendence, be raised. It is a
crop which the people are accustomed .to, and to
the care of which they might easily be trained ; but,
except under supervision, they will not exert them-
selves to prepare the soil sufficiently, nor take the
necessaay care with the plants and the picking of
the pods, which appears necessary to ensure the
production of a long stapled and marketable cotton.

Orders were received at Aldershott late on Wed-
nesday evening for the following troops to hold
themselves in readiness to proceed at once to Canada:
—Leslie's No. 6 or F battery, 4th Brigade, Royal
Artillery; the 2d battalion, 20th; 2d, 16th, and
45th of the line, and a detachment of the 16th Lan-
cers. The battery was to parade for medical in-
spection at 11 o'clock this morning, and will leave
the camp early on Monday morning for Woolwich,
there to embark for Canada. This battery, which
is supplied with Armatrongs, was in the Crimea and
has been at Aldershott since June. The regiments
of the line and the Lancers are expected to leave
the camp during the ensuing week.
At the Royal Engineer establishment, Chatham,
yesterday, an order was received by Col. Harness,
C. 8., from the Deputy-Adjutant-General, Horse
Guards, to have the whole of the non-commissioned
officers and men of the several companies at head-
quarters who are fit for foreign service medically
inspected. As soon as the order arrived the Royal
Engineers were marched to the general hospital at
Brompton, where the inspection was commenced by
the medical staff of the establishment. This order
has occasioned the most intense interest among the
officers and men, and the result is looked forward
to with the keenest anxiety. It is stated that a
large forca of Royal Engineers will be despatched
to Canada.

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.—Mr. Cowper, the
First Commissioner of Works, has addressed a letter to the
Lord Mayor, apprising him that, on the recommendation
of the Government, a Royal Commission has been issued,
to take into consideration the question of embanking the
southern side of the Thames simultaneously with that of
the Middlesex side. The Commissioners are the same gen-
tlemen who investigated the project of a northern embank-
ment in the past summer, and the Lord Mayor has again
been invited to act as chairman. It is understood that in
the event of the Commissioners recommending the embank.
meat on the Surrey side to be undertaken contemporane-
ously with that on the north, the Government are prepared
to embody both projects in the bill which they will intro-
duce in the approaching session of Parliament.
Advices just received from Kurrachee announce
the trial of the new steamer Indus, belonging to the Orien-
tal Inland Steam Company.
She is intended for the navi-
gation of the Indus river, on which she will now be imme-
diately placed. The speed attained is reported to be about
20 miles an hour—being, it is believed, much in excess of
THE TRENT.—A correspondent
yit:tardian writes :—I am told (and the
plying in the East.
thalcofEmanswyEwlvizteeussisiteeiEl.
of the
authority of Lieut. Williams, the officer in charge of the
cmaapitlasinaboofa rd
the
et hneo
teTdrepnrt, iviast
eqeuro t
so du
nflotre
rth(oe r spteorrhy
a)
ptshraattht he
e r
the captain of the Jefferson Davis) was a passenger in the
English steamer when she was overhauled by the San Ja-
cinto, and that he smoked his cigar very quietly among the
crowd while the capture was going on. Ido not know if
he had changed his name for the voyage, or he would have
certainly been carried off had the captain produced his list
of passengers at the request of Lieut. Fairfax. The capture
of this famous privateersman would have been almost as
much a subject of exultation in the North as that of the
Southern envoys,