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COTTON COLLECTION, PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OE GERALD 
FITZGERALD AND H. RIYETT-CARNAC, FORWARD ED FROM INDIA 
TO THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1872 AND SENT 
FROM THE INDIA MUSEUM TO THE YIENNA UNIVERSAL EXHIBI 
TION AT THE SUGGESTION OF BARON MAX KUBECK, ON BEHALF 
OF THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. 
REPORT BY H. RIVETT-CARNAC ON THE COLLECTION. (Reprinted from the 
Journal of the Society of Arts, of 8th November 1872.) 
The International Exhibition of 1872, the programme of whicb included raw cotton, 
and everything connected with cotton manufacture, appeared to offer an excellent oppor- 
tunity for bringing together a complete collection of the cottons grown in India, and of 
the articles manufactured therefrom ; and of illustrating at the same time the measures 
adopted during the last few years hy the Indian government to improve the cultivation 
and preparation of the staple, and to assist the trade in this most important article of 
Indian produce. 
Considerable interest was taten in the subject by the late Earl of Mayo, and careful 
instructions were issued hy his government to the central and local committees appointed 
in India to forward the views of Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the International 
Exhibition, and to render the collection as perfect as possible. The result is the large 
array of Indian raw cotton, together with specimens of everything connected with the 
cultivation of the plant, its preparation for market, and the various processes of the manu 
facture in India of thread and cloth, exhibited in the West Quadrant adjoining the Albert 
Hall, specially assigned by Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the purpose. 
It is proposed in the present paper to give a brief sketch of the cultivation of the 
cotton plant in India, and to notice the chief points of interest in this collection. 
Üwing to climate and other influenees, the staple of Indian cotton is unfortunately 
short, and not so well adapted to spinning as American, Egyptian, and other superior 
varieties. Until the commencement of the American civil war, and the consequent 
scarcity of cotton, the demand for “ Surats,” as Indian cotton was generally called, was 
comparatively small, both in the United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe. The 
year 1862, however, saw the manufaeturers glad to get almost any description of cotton 
for their mills, and then came a great demand for the despised Surats, at prices far beyond 
the native cultivator’s wildest hopes. Although the quantity that up to that time had 
found its way to Europe was, comparatively speaking, inconsiderable, cotton had always 
been cultivated on a large scale in India, chiefly for local consumption, and for exportation 
to China and elsewhere. The crop is one well adapted to the soil of many of the rnore 
fertile provinces of India, and is well understood by and populär among the peasantry. 
The consequence of the greatly enhaneed prices offered for the produce was a remarkable 
extension of the cultivation of cotton throughout India, accompanied by the withdrawal 
of some quantities from local consumption. It is not very easy to collect accurate statistics 
of the area under cotton cultivation throughout all the provinces and presidencies in India. 
In some cases the returns prepared are merely rough estimates, but, on the whole, they 
give a fair idea of the effect on the cultivation of the sudden rise in tiie price of cotton. 
Thus, for instance, in the Central Provinces of India the area under cotton cultivation in 
the year 1862 was 375,000 acres. In the year 1865 it rose to 690,000 acres; and, 
although of recent years tho cultivation has followed the prices, and has somewhat fallen 
off, there are still about 600,000 acres sown with cotton in those provinces. In the 
adjoining district of the Berars, in which some of the best Indian cotton is grown, the 
Proportion of increase was hardly less than that noticed above, and the same may be said 
of the extension of cultivation in the Bombay Presidency. The following table shows 
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