The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-28 00:00:00

SECTION D.-ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

Great interest was excited in this section this morning by
the exhibition of a cotton plant, which has been raised by
Messrs: Gardner and Bazley, from Sea Island seed. The
plant was placed on the table in front of the chairman, and
was examined with much curiosity. It was in a wooden
stand about 30 inches high, the plant itself being about half
that height above the surface of the mould. It consisted of
one stem, bearing about ten or twelve spreading leaves.
Growth of Cotton in India.—Dr. Boyle read a highly in-
teresting paper on this subject. He first showed that the
cotton plant was a native of the new and old world, as well
as of several islands in the southern ocean. He inclined to
the opinion that these plants, though exhibiting great differ-
ence of appearance, were species of the same genus, one being
indigenous to one soil, and another to another. There were
thirteen known species of the plant, but the products of four
only were used for commercial purposes. Here the Doctor
referred to some beautifully coloured drawings of several spe-
cies, and explained their distinctive character. The species
commonly cultivated was called helvetius, being the percipium
helvetius of botanists, which, for distinction, he should call
India cotton; and of this species there were several varie-
ties. The species known as Brazil, Pernambuco, or Bahia
cotton, had been found in several parts of India; and it
was doubtful whether it was not also indigenous there, or
whether it had been introduced in some of the many attempts
to improve the cotton cultivation of India. It was known
amongst botanists as the percipium Peruviana. Another
species was the Barbadoes cotton, and of this species was the
plant grown by Mr. Bazley, now exhibited, though it was
from Sea Island seed which was black, while some of the
species had white seed. It was a curious fact that the
same species, in different situations, would give differently
coloured seeds, and sometimes, when a plant was long cultiva-
ted from one seed, the colour of the seed changed from white
to black. This had been proved to take place in America,
and the same might occur in India ; consequently difference
of colour in the seed did not always prove the species to be
different. Admitting that the American and India cotton
were different species, it was clear that the difference in qua-
lity was entirely owing to the superior culture bestowed on
the plant in America. There the culture took the character
more of garden than of field culture, each plant being indi-
vidually attended to. Not only was their culture carried on
with skill, but energy—a proof of which was the almost in-
credible increase of the production since 1785, when only a
few bales came into Liverpool. India cotton, en the other
hand, was supposed to have retrograded ; for India was once
the great cotton country. Owing to its inferior quality, the
price of India cotton in this country was lower; still it had
good qualities, and was useful for mixing with better kinds.
In the cultivation of the plant in India, many mechanical
points, carefully attended to in America, were entirely neg-
lected. Owing to the crowded state of the plants, they had
not room to fill. From a consideration of the soil and cli-
mate. of India, it was clear that it must be favourable to
this plant; all that was needed was care in the culture.
Such being the case, it was surprising that the attempts
to promote its culture there had not been more successful :
but in each case some essential step had been omitted. Dr.
R. then noticed the attempts which had been made in 1818,
1822, 1828, and at a subsequent period to introduce cotton
cultivation in various parts of India, and shewed the causes
of their failure. The Tinnevellee cotton was much deterio-
rated by premature pulling of the pods. In reference to the
last attempt in 1839, the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, in
their report for 1811, expressed their confident hope that by
using Hughes's Tinnevellee seed, and by adopting the neces-
sary care in cultivation, cotton of a very excellent quality
would be pi.oduced. Dr. R. then detailed the circumstances
under which the American gentlemen were recently sent out,
to the Bombay, Madras, and Bengal presidencies, to super-
intend the cultivation of cotton there. The experiment in
Bombay had been a failure—if, indeed, that could be called a
failure which bad never been tried—the soil there being pro-
perly black cotton soil, and the frequent failures of the Ame-
rican cotton in that soil had been recorded in print before the
late experiment ; consequently no general inference ought
to be drawn from this fact. In the other presidencies, the
experiments had answered fully as well as could be expected,
or even wished. The American planters sent to Bengal had
not arrived till April, last year ; and as the seed time was
in May or June, they had not had much time for prepara-
tions ; but the result of their experiments had been highly
encouraging. They had continued planting till the 2nd of
August, and though the season afterwards had been ex-
tremely unfavourable, and the plants had been ravaged by
the worm, the general result had been most gratifying, and
the planters expressed no doubt that in a few years, by the
adoption of the American system of planting, the staple of
the plant would be improved, and its cultivation would be
rapidly extended.—Dr. R. read extracts from several letters
and reports of the American planters, testifying the great
change which had already taken place ; and one of them.
Mr. Lowther, declared his conviction that the success of the
experiment was already established, and would be fully
manifest at the close of the next season.—The third set of
experiments, those in Madras, had been less successful, the
soil on which the experiment had been made being highly
unsuitable. Dr. White, one of the planters, in a letter of
the 18th of January last, admitted the nearly total failure of,
their efforts, but expressed no doubt that success would be
ensured by persevering in a course of proper cultivation.
In a subsequent letter, in March, he expressed greater
hopes ; and in the following month wrote to say, that
the result of their labours was anything but a defeat,
and that next season he had no doubt of producing at
least one thousand bales of American and some native
cotton. Hitherto, the average production had been about
two ]hundred pounds to the acre, and it would have been
much more had not a great portion of the seed been
bad.— The success of these two sets of experiments,
one in the extreme north, the other in the south of India,
showed that a great extent of country, embracing about 20
degrees of latitude, was capable of producing cotton. The
Doctor here exhibited specimens of the American and native
cotton grown in India, both in the north and south, which
appeared to be of a very respectable quality, There was
every reason to hope, the same careful culture being conti-
nued, that the American cotton now introduced into India,
would not deteriorate, but would retain all its good qualities,
as had been the case with that introduced in Tinnevellee, in
1818. That it would be a profitable speculation there could
be no doubt, as the cultivation cost only six rupees an acre,
while in America it was 15 to 16. He had not the slightest
hesitation in predicting, that in the course of a twelvemonth,
we should have 1,000 bales of India cotton in Manchester.
(Applause.) Dr. Stanger stated that cotton had been culti-
vated with advantage on the coast of Africa, in Sierra Leone,
and at Cape Coast Castle.—General Briggs said he had
brought this subject before the association at their meeting
in 1838, and he had since published a work, in which he had
condensed all that was known on the subject; and he then
expressed an opinion, that, as American cotton had been
grown in various parts of the world, it might be produced in
India. This was now confirmed ; and he might appeal to
Mr. Bazley, or any manufacturer present, if some of the spe-
cimens exhibited were not quite equal to the Upland cotton.
The general read several extracts from his work, illustrative
of the success which had attended the various attempts to
introduce cotton cultivation in India.—At the close the
thanks of the section were voted to Dr. Boyle, for his inter-
esting paper.
SECTION F.—STATISTICS.
Mr. John Shuttleworth, of Manchester, read a paper "on
the vital statistics of cotton-spinuers." The object of Mr.
S. was to show that the processes of " fine-spinning" in the
cotton mills in Manchester had no injurious effect on the
health of the persons employed; and the figures he cited
fully bore out that conclusion.
Sir Charles Shaw next read a paper " on the criminal sta-
tistics of Manchester." It consisted principally of the re-
turns recently made to government by Sir Charles, in his
official character as chief commissioner of the Manchester
police. In the course of a short discussion, Colonel Sykes

made some remarks on the statements contained in the pa-
per, and observed that though they had the experience of Sir
Charles Shaw to prove that the factory system did not pro-
duce immorality, or that the Irish were no more immoral
than others, they had the striking fact, looking at the number
of apprehensions, that ene out of every eighteen of the inha-
bitants of Manchester had been in the hands of the police!
Mr. James Heywood submitted some " tables relative to
degrees taken in Oxford and Cambridge during the I6th, 17th,
and 18th. centuries," and in accompanying explanation poin-
ted out the causes of the extraordinary fluctuations shown by
the tables. The circumstance that the number of degrees
conferred had not at all kept pace with the increase of pop-
ulation, he attributed to the restrictive statutes regulating
the bestowal of university honours.
Professor Baden Powell read a paper on a similar subject
—" academic statistics,"—which he stated to be a continua-
tion of a paper he had read three years_ ego at the Birming-
ham meeting.—Some curious results were drawn by the
Professor from the figures he submitted, amongst which was
the fact, that out of those who were candidates for degrees,
only two out of seven passed.—A short discussion on the two
papers together ensued.