rrespondent G. F. R., which I have now read, as well as an
article on the same subject in the "Manchester Guardian," in which
it is stated that 20,000 acres are now under cultivation, planted
with this improved cotton. I fear this is too good news to be
true. My informant is a gentleman who was in correspondence with
Mr. Mercer, the superintendent of these cotton estates, or some of
them, and I have again questioned him. He says that the crop which
would be gathered in March last, would amount to what I have
stated (1,200 begahs), according to Mr. Mercer's letter to him,
but he says it is now twelve months since he heard from Mr.
Mercer, as he left Bombay for England shortly after. His fear was
that none of this cotton would be gathered, as the disturbances
which took place in Central India, and which required so long a
time to quell them, were in this very district. If your
correspondent G. F. R. has got samples of this improved cotton, of
the second or third generation, he would confer a great obligation
upon me by sending me a small sample of it by post. But this is
wandering from what I intended to say, which was most heartily to
thank your correspondent for his second communication, which goes
far to prove the truth of what I had previously supposed, that the
cotton of India is capable of great improvement by being
judiciously crossed with suitable foreign varieties. Your
correspondent thinks if the old varieties deteriorate the new when
growing in proximity to each other, the new ought, for the same
reason, to improve the old; and no doubt they will, but to a much
smaller extent. It is said that a man leaping up into the air
attracts the earth (proportionately) as much as the earth attracts
him, and it may be so with the old and new cotton. What I mean to
say is, that although some of the old sort of cotton might be
hybridized by the new, the improved variety would be in so small a
quantity that a thousand to one the cultivator would never observe
it; and such is the aversion or indifference to anything new among
the natives of India, that if an improved plant were observed, it
is again a thousand to one he would take no pains to preserve it;
and if he did, it is again perhaps a thousand to one that it would
be entirely spoilt in the next generation by being planted among
the indigenous sorts.

I trust your correspondent will continue to favour us with his
communications whenever he has any fresh information on