In the 25 years between 1857-58 and 1881-82, the value of all the cotton goods imported into British India from foreign countries rose from 25,726,618 to 120,772,098. Since 1868-69 the values of the twist and yarn and of the piece goods have but little increased. In 1881-82 the twist and yarn was of value 132,220,648. British India has been latterly holding its °WM The ex ports have consisted of cotton goods, including twist and yarn, and have risen from £637,651 in 1850-51, to 11,906,868 in 1861-82.
Tho yearly increasing exports frotn Europe misled exporters, for Europe had seldom been able to compete either with the delicate hand-made Mires which the Ilindus and Mahomedans have been producing, or with the strong, coarse fabrics which the village weavers produce during the slack time of their agricultural pursuits. In tho middle of the 19th century, British India also began to use machinery. In 1880 there were 58 cotton mills atwork in British Indkt, -with 1,471,730 spindles, mules, and throstles, and 13,283 looms, turning out twist and yarn and cotton cloths, with a nominal capital of four millions sterling.
With their rude implements the Hindus of Dacca formerly manufactured muslins, to which,' as Dr. Ure observed, European ingenuity can afford no paralle1,—snch, indeed, as has led a com petent judge to say it is beyond his conception how this yarn, greatly finer than the highest number made in England, can be spun by the distaff and spindle, or woven by any machinery ' (lire's Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain,i . p. 54). The jawbone of the boalee fish (Silurus boalis), the teeth of which being fine, re-curved, and closely set, serves as a fine comb in removing minute particles of earthy and vegetable matter from the cotton. The Hindu spinner, with that inexhaust ible patience which characterizes the race, sits down to the laborious task of cleaning with this instru ment the fibres of each seed of cotton. Having accomplished this, she then separates the wool from the seeds by means of a small iron roller (dullun kathee), which is worked with the hands backward and forward, on a small quantity of the cotton seeds placed upon a fiat board. The cotton is next bowed or teased with a small bow of bamboo, strung with a double row of catgut, muga silk, or the fibres of the plantain tree twisted together ; and, having been reduced by this instrument to a state of light downy fleece, it is made up into a small cylindrical roll (puni), which is held in the hand during the process of spinning. The spinning apparatus is contained
in a small basket or tray, not unlike the catheterm of the ancient Greeks. It consists of a delicate iron spindle (tukooa), having a small ball of clay attached to it, in order to give it sufficient weight in turning ; and of a piece of hard shell imbedded in a little clay, on which the point of the spindle revolves during the process of spinning. With this instrinnent the Hindu women almost rival Arachne's fabled skill in spinning. The thread which they make with it is exquisitely fine ; and ---,doubtless it is to their delicate organization and the sensibili4 with which they are endowed by nature, that their inimitable skill in their art is to be ascribed. The finest thread is spun early in the morning, before the rising sun dissipates the dew on the grass, for such is the tenuity of its fibre, that it would break if an attempt were made to manufacture it during drier and warmer portion of the day. The cohesive property of the filaments of cotton is impaired by high tem perature accompanied with dryness of the air, and hence, when there is no dew on the ground in the morning to indicate the presence of mois ture in the atmosphere, the spinners impart the requisite degree of humidity to the cotton, by making the thread over a shallovr vessel of water. A specimen which Dr:. Taylor examined at Dacca in 1846 measured 1349 yards, and weighed only 22 grains, which is in the proportion of upwards of 250 miles to a pound weight of staple. During the process of preparing the thread, and before it is warped, it is steeped for a couple of days in fine charcoal powder, soot, or lampblack, inixed with water, and, after being well rinsed in clear water, wrung out, and dried in the shade, it is rubbed with a sizing made of parched lice (the husk of which has been removed by heated sand), fine lime, and. water. The loom is light and portable ; its cloth and yarn beans, batten, templet, and shuttle are the appurtenances requisite for weaving.