LETERARY NOTICES.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 36, 13 March 1863, Page 2

LETERARY NOTICES.

NOTICES (From;S»j?77*, mtieritiii Co.'s Mmth\ .Cottpn.: An Accountsqf it?,Culturlr ( ... bay JPr^ideyimj^^'epa^eWiJ^nomli iißecordsaivd ''other; authentic, sqiircti /•' ance ieiih'd-Resolution of the^'iSf-di India.' Bj W/alterJJ. Cassells. In pp. 347: Numerous folded diagram Cotton Handbook for JSehgal:'being all information available from i cords and other Sources, on 'thesn Production of ■ Cotton in the'l*'-^.,^ Compiled by J. G. Medlicott, 1 ance with a Resolution of the fTo 1 India* Imperial Bvo, pp. 481. Dis Tables. 21s. ■ Cotton: the Chemical, Geological, ai logical Conditions involuedin its sue tivation, with an Account of the Ax tions and Practice of Culture in States of America. By Dr. John lett. I»ostßvo,pp.lß3. With fold 7s 6d. In our notice of the work on cotton by Mr Gibbs, wo made a brief statei connected with the supply of cotton and elsewhere. With the lapse of tii further development of the struggle the subject is one that rather gains tl importance. We hare thought it rigl to call attention to .the valuable sC^ that have been compiled by order of Government, as well as to the practics cotton culture from the pen of Dr..Ma] Without pretending to give an anal official publications before us, which n many pages, and nfter all prove but a interesting catalogue raisonnee of s may assure the reader that they con information on every point connects cultivation of cotton in the Bengal a presidencies, and on the commerce in rial, especially as it bears on the si English market. Mr Cassells' cone] the mass of evidence thus, brought | less encouraging than we coulcj: havj his opinion being that exotic-cotton c largely cultivated in the Bombay prts thit the Indian staple cannot bo nu proved. Mr Medlicott, on the other edits the statistics for Bengal, take ■view of the case, explaining that the 1 vator has never yet pretended to comp American grower as regards quality, [ regards the price, in which he has bee The following are Mr Cassells' remari the regulations recently promulgated dian Government for the redemption tax: — " It is to be feared that many who nnacquainted with the climate and p dia, may build unreasonable hopes upo sure, which has been forced from got the pressure of a public who are not with either. There can be no doubt European energy and enterprise are bt contact with the natives of this count gress of improvement will be slow am tory. All, however, who know Indii that European agency cannot succor ployed in the actual cultivation of I quarter of a century has produced change in the circumstances wlucl R. Carnac to say, * Cotton culture 1 inducement for any private person, what he is about, to engage his caj speculation on a large scale.' Tl the cotton experimental establishm dantly tested and proved that Europea ing the soil, could never compete in compensating results, with the husba ryots. Generally speaking, the whole of his farm is performed by the ryot am and their labor is given with all the g self-interest, and all thet Constancy concern. It is t-i impossible to<:ompe' efforts by hired labor as it is for the ] perform that labor himself, under an Hired labor in India, so far as the lab cerned, is a contract to do 'as little sible for the highest possible wages. ( for the purpose of actual cultivation, i undertaking." As to the cultivators, he says :— "Attentive students of English di the state of the Indian cultivator, vti served that he is endowed with two i sonalities to suit two distinct points of chameleon-like facility he assumes a hue when he is placed on the dark sp cultivation, and he rises into bright, and moral colors when he stands in th land tas. The ryot, as cotton culti ignorant savage, tilling the earth ups? and primitive system, and drawing, duce from its liberal fertility, morajt thin by good guidance. His plougnii the scratching of the soil with a croola sowing is a rude broadcasting of the s tural seasons; his rotation of crops is: ignorant caprice, and his whole effoi posed to be paralysed by his abject pu debtcdness to the sowars. The ryo'% the land-tax, is an acute and intelligei the same Stamp as tbe 'canny" Seotc; ralist, who knows well how to improi but is deterr?ci from any actual b( danger of a. possible increase to iiis k in the thirty years' distance of the He is a keen and close calculator, tc expend one anna in improvements vM ration later, might afford the pretext ing government to extort a higher asse "If the British public, after looking fancy picture and on that, could but • ryot •in his habit as he lives, 1 mai theories may be set at rest. The nake would stand, before them, draped with a yard of calico, might lead opinion k milieu which it is apparently so de cover. The genuine ryot cultivates li a system which, though primitive, is adapted to the circumstances of soil i His plough is regulated by the power: and the strength of the ploughman, have been prescribed by the expert ries. He is often poor, in the Englisl of the word, but with the few wants o doo, he is not in bad circumstances, in general, much capital beyond the s farm, and he is frequently obliged to heavy interest, the means of carrying o expensive operations of cultivation, i advance in. its produce. £Te is the creat averse to change, and afraid of inno meets most suggestions for bis improv the philosophical assertion that he is c things cs they are. Practically speafc dian is quite incapable of the foresight bread upon the waters, that it may be many days. He lives from hand to t forefathers have done, and he has nei sire nor the menus to redeem a light by a cot -idevable precent payment, vance of which he will have to give us rest, which will cripple him more tba tax. If he pos;.3sses the requisite cap l' like'.y that he will invest it in a pur will virtually save him only the five pa land-tax, when he can any day place the bazaar at twelve or fifteen per c It is rightto observe, however, that s is a true picture of what the ryot has and of what a considerable part of the the whole are rapidly improving in m very large number are rising into subs and possess capital in the shape of car of bullocks, as well as in money."