New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-07-31
COTTON CULTIVATION IN INDIA.

Perhaps no other region on the earths surface has
been the subject of more marvellous and inconsistent
tales than India. In the words of recent lecturer,
India is vast country" nearly nineteen hundred
miles long and fifteen hundred broad and possessing,
from varying degrees of elevation and other causes
climate ranging through every degree of temperature
from the torrd to the arctic regions Her inhab
ants SOIL and productions are ALL like the climate,
equally dicersei Jet Europeans accusomedto West
ern ways of life, and without knowledge of any one
of the many languages spoken throughout the land
and who have never travelled beyond the corporate
limits of the cities of Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay,
will sit down, with all necessary assurance, and write
long about the particular capacity Of the coun-
try and people, for producing certain articles in ocali-
ties which they have seen and which may differ
| from the spots with which they acquainted as
widely does the State of Maine from that of Texas
We have lately had an instance of an error of this
sort in the letter of correspondent of The London
| Times, who at great length of words and figures
tries to prove that rice is more profitable crop
for the natives Of India to cultivate than cotton,
and that consequently the expectation raised in other
parts Of the world of increased supply of that ar
Gle from Hindostan never be realized The "cor-
respondent entirely orges the very forcbe fact that
the land in India which grows cotton exceedingly well
| is entirely useless for growing rice.
The graspng and short-sighted policy followed by
the late government of India is the chief cause why
little cotton, and above what is necessary TO sup
ply the wants Of the natives has hitherto been pro.
duced in that country. The habits of the Hndoos are
simple and their wants few that indirect taxation
can extract from them but small percentage of the
required to be raised by very extravagant
system of rule that of the late East India Company
To repensh their treasury they continued the old sys
tens to which their predecessors in authority the Mo-
guls, were omed to resort, and among others
levied land tax This tax was never less, though
often more than one-third Of the gross value of the
estimated worth of the crop at the place where raised.
The charge upon an acre Of cotton was from two to
three dollars and if the ground were only plowed,
whether cropped or not or If tho crop were
short failed altogether the tax was levied all the
same. Another heavy drawback TO the development
of the resources Of India is the want Of roads and
bridges, and the necessity Of transporting cotton
upon the backs Of miserable cattle often very great
distances, during which transit it is sometimes ssri-
ousy damaged or totally destroyed by heavy rains and
river foods.
tits an acknowledged fact that in India the cultva-
ton and manufacture of cotton has existed longer than
in any other country and that five centuries before our
era the greater part Of the clothing of the ndoos was
made of this product More than 1000 years before
Europe conceived the idea of applying modern indus
try to the manufacture Of cotton India had matured
a system Of hand-spinning weaving, and dying, which
has during all that period of time received percept-
bic Improvement There are many species and varie
ties Of cotton known in India but g! gssiiSa gw