Year: 1869

lOhS VI TIE great cHuSeS OF 1nQln send
ing so limited u supply of cotton to
England was the stoppage of the facil-
tiles we formerly had in moving the
cotton crops from the interior down
to the coast. Now, also, since / have
seen and observed the cotton raising
III this country, ] must confess that we
are doomed in India to play the sec
ond fiddle for the supply of cotton as
long as this country remains ut peace
and returns to the avocation in which
they attain such perfection. Moth
ing will express it better than the
frank statement that in India we grow
cotton, but in the United States cot
ton is cultivated.


I naturally felt a great interest in
seeing the cotton fields in the United
States, and l spent much time and
money to make myself acquainted.


found that the cotton field, say in
Alabama, is carefully ploughed; the
seed is then thrown in long burrows
when the plant comes mp, as it will,
very thick, it is after few weeks Ia
boriously thinned out, and you can
count as you go along the tender
little plants. After a little it is hoed.
Again time in given it to grow, and
then again it is second time hoed,
and cleaned of all the weeds.


What care, what tender care is tn
ken in this country with that delight
full plant, and if the season is only any
way fair, and the arch-enemy to the
plant, the army worm, does not touch
it, the husbandman is fully rewarded
for his trouble by n splended result,
both in yield and in quality.


But in India, where cotton is ut all
sown, it seems sufficient for the ma
tives or the stupid ryots TO put the
seed pell-mell in the ground. 1t has
then to take its own chance. Few,
fields, indeed, are ever weeded or
hoed. All that the ryot fears is either
too heavy rains, which the monsoon
favors him with, when all the seeds
are washed out of the ground; or that
the monsoon entirely ceases for week
(which is often the case), when the
ground literally bakes up, and the
plant dies before it has a chance to
show It's head above the ground. If,
however, this crisis is passed and the
cotton-plant grows five or six inches
above the ground, all seem contented,
and certainly do no more for the grow
ing plant.


l cannot describe fully the melan-
cholly sight of an Indian cotton field
to me it always looked like n race be-
tween the cotton plant and the weeds,
the latter however, always wins the
race. have no doubt but that is a
great reason for the staple being so
much shorter than in the American
cotton.


If / am asked whether this mode OF
growing cotton in India will ever be
altered, and whether we will cuhirate
it as you do here, I must sorrowfully
answer nerer. The climate is against
| it the monsoon, our tickle but main
ally for cotton growing, is against it
above all, the intelligence of the peo-
lple is lacking, and that is the main
thing that is against it.


In your cultivation of cotton you
raise more on one acre than we can do
in India on fiye-and we never will
get the staple. We have done one
thing, certainly-we produce now
much "cleaner cotton" than we did
before or during your war. That is
chiefly owing to the strict cotton law
passed IN the India Council some few
years ago, which makes it a felony to
adulterate cotton, which was. so fre-
quently done. Hence, you see that
our Dhollera cotton brings within q
pence, and our Hingunghat within l ]
pence of your fair Orleans cotton.


This stringent act, and now strict
custom of buying only good clean cot
ton, has much diminished the produc-
ton, which is perfectly Ineligible.
How ridiculous are the spurts I so of
ten see from the Manchester people oil
raising companies to produce or stim-
ulate cotton growing in India. How
little do such people know of what
they speak or write, if they think that
they can ever attain cotton "cultiya-
ton" in India. We can grow it, as ]
said before, without the aid of any one,
if the monsoon will allow it-but we
cannot cultivate as it is done here.


But India is a vast country. The
population is, with the exception OF
some parts of China, the most dense
in the world. Labor is worth so little
that In this country it would be called
nothing. You can have labor in the
interior for to 6 rupees per month,
say 50 gold. This alone gives India
an immense advantage over all other
countries in producing cotton.


But the difficulty now is to bring
the produce to the coast. We have no
roads worthy the name in India. Mos
of the cotton is actually brought by
the sepoys on their backs, or carried
by means of bamboo sticks to ou1
market. Our India government is full,
ly aware of the Importance of commu.
nication, and now that the main trunk
lines of railways are finished, or being
finished, the Indian Council is borrow.
ing money and straining every nerve
to intersect the cotton districts with
branch lines. I have no doubt that in
a few years, when these roads are
opened, we shall have cotton regular.
/ ly again in Bombay for 150 rupees Q
candy, or even less, which will lay i
down in Liverpool for about sixpenct
la pound.


i Whether by that time your Southern
cotton cultivators will have again re-
gained their supremacy in supply re.
i mains to ha seem Tho ,.ooa ;e how