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If the return obtained by the improved cultivation more than counterbalances the extra 
expense incurred, the natives •will, in course of time, adopt the suggested improvements. 
And it is with a view to prove practically the merits of these improvements that the 
model farms have been established in the centres of the cotton-growing tracts. Many 
specimens of the produce grown on these farms are exhibited. 
PßEPARATION OF THE COTTON FOR MARKET. 
The brauch of the cotton trade which has undergone the greatest improvement during 
the last few years is the preparation of the staple for market. It is not only to the 
cultivation of the crop that more attention is required before a really satisfactory article 
can be supplied to the European market. The picking of the article is conducted care- 
lessly enough, and the effect is shown in the quantities of dirt and leaf found in Indian 
cotton. The high prices given by the European merchant of late years have very for- 
tunately made the cultivator somewhat more careful in the manner in which cotton is 
cleaned and sent to market. By “ cleaning ” is meant the Separation of the seed from 
the cotton wool. The cotton, when picked from the plant, is in the shape of “ Tcupas,” or 
cotton in the seed, the fibre adhering to the seed in the manner shown in the many 
samples sent to the Exhibition. 
Cleaning the Cotton. 
Several of the native instruments by which this process is performed are shown. The 
most primitive of these is the foot-roller, used in the Southern Mahratta country of tho 
Bombay Presidency. This consists of a metal roller, which, with the aid of a wooden 
slipper, is worked by the foot backwards and forwards amidst the cotton and the seed. 
By degrees the seeds become loosened and separated from the fibre, which is drawn under 
the roller, and remains on one side of it, whilst the seed remains on the other. 
An improvement on this machine is the churka, or ordinary native gin, used with 
slight modifications in most parts of India. It consists of two rollers, eithcr one of iron 
and one of wood, or both of wood, revolving in opposite directions. The fibre is drawn 
through between the rollers, the seed, which is too bulky to pass through, falling on the 
other side. The machine is very simple, and seldom gets out of order, and the principle 
on which it works is the foundation of most of the cotton gins made from time to time in 
Europe. Many valuable improvements have been made of late years, and several of the 
excellent machines now in use were to be seen at work in the cotton department of the 
Exhibition. The subject, too, is of so much importance that a series of trials with 
the gins of every dass was held early in the present year at Manchester, and the report 
of Dr. Eorbes Watson, of the India Office, on this subject will be awaited with interest. 
Since the date of the last Exhibition many new gins have been introduced into India. 
Dr. Forbes, the Cotton Commissioner, Bombay, paid much attention to the subject, and 
made some valuable improvements in the gins used in the Dharwar country. Large 
ginning factories, worked by steam, have been set up in the Broach, in the Berars, and in 
other parts of India, and a considerable proportion of the Indian cotton crop is now 
cleaned by the Platt-Macarthney gin, which is found to suit the Indian staple better than 
any other. Specimens of the ginned Broach cotton were exhibited, and considered to bc 
of excellent quality. If the greater part of the Indian cotton crop could be brought up 
to this Standard, there would be less cause to complain of Indian cotton. The machinery 
separates the seed from tho fibre very thoroughly, without cutting or tearing it, and the 
absence of seed and leaf in this cotton makes it very populär. The Dharwar cotton grown 
from American seed is cleaned with the saw-gin process, which is sometimes found rather 
trying to the fibre. The native gins do their work fairly enough, but much seed is some 
times found with the cotton thus cleaned, some portion of it being doubtless often thrown 
in on purpose to increase the weight. Of the improvements made in India of late years 
in cotton gins, may be noticed, in addition to those of Dr. Forbes, already mentioned, the 
gin invented by Mr. Jones of Dharwar, and by Mr. Henderson, of the Mofussil Ginning 
and Dressing Company, at Oomraotee, in Berar, both of which are considered very 
successful.