India revenue letter : dated 15th March, 1839 (no. 4).

  • Auckland, George Eden, Earl of, 1784-1849.
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India revenue letter : dated 15th March, 1839 (no. 4). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    green seed species. A machine called a “ Roller Gin* * * §” is employed for the American Sea Island cotton, and the Egyptian cotton is described to be “ separated f from the seeds by means of a machine worked by manual labour, such as is made use of in South America for cleaning long staple cotton.” The Indian cotton, is generally cleaned by an instrument called a “ Churka,” which answers the purpose sufficiently well, but is comparatively slow and expensive J. “ Whitney’s Saw-Gin,” so successful in America, might naturally be thought to be adapted to this short staple cotton, but it has been unfortunately found at Bombay, from some cause, “ whether § the method of working it, or the weakness of the fibre of the cotton,” to injure the staple seriously, and some modi- fication of this, or an altogether new machine, appears consequently to be absolutely required. The Honourable Court, in a despatch to Bombay, of March 6th, 1832, have suggested that the “ Saw-Gin,” notwithstand- ing its unsuitableness to the indigenous cottons, might be used for cleaning cotton raised in India from American seeds. In Bengal, the “ Saw-Gin,” for cotton of a generally similar character, has been favour- ably reported of at Calcutta ||, and unfavourably at Calpee. It is with the view of overcoming the difficulty occasioned by the presumed inap- plicability of the “ Saw-Gin,” that the East India Association at Glasgow have recommended their improved machine for cleaning cotton, (referred to in the concluding paragraphs of the Court’s present dispatch,) “ on the principle of the Indian churka,” and stated, “ to clean most satisfac- torily the Kupas ^ sent from Bombay.” 12, The total importation of cotton into England, taking the three years**, 1831, 1832, 1833, varied from 288,000,000 to above 300,000,000 of pounds in each year, and of this quantity, the cotton of India furnished not more in any year than 38,000,000 of pounds tf, a large proportion of which was to be re-exported to the Continent, where * Sir J. Malcolm’s Work, p. 122. t Ibid. p. 132—note. + The process of cleaning by the saw-gin is four or five times more rapid than by the common churka.—Ibid, p, 133. § Report on Cotton Wool, &c., p. 268, and see p. 214. Sir .1. Malcolm, p. 123. ti Ibid. &c., pp. 197 and 227 to 231. ^ Cotton with seed. •* Report on Cotton Wool, &c., p. 19. i f In 1836 the total quantity imported was 406,959,059, of which, from tho East Indies and Mauritius, 75,746,226.—Official Tables, published for Parliament, 1838, p. 14.