NELLORE. 269 for its textile fabrics. A speciality was the weaving of 'blue salampores,' which found a ready market among the negroes in the West Indies. No cotton goods are now exported, but spinning and weaving for local consumption is still carried on in many villages. The total number of looms in 1881–82 was returned at 8825, and their estimated consumption was 391,648 lbs. of cotton; the total value of their produce was £27,693. At the village of Korúr near Nellore town, fine shirtings and pocket-handkerchiefs can still be obtained to order on a limited scale. Other industries are the wearing of hempen cloth, dyeing, the inaking of vessels of brass, copper, and bell-metal; the carving of images, pillars, and cart-wheels from stone; mat-making and bont-building. These are carried on only on a small scale. The trade of the District has considerably decreased since the time before the opening of the railway, when it formed the high-road between the interior and the sea-coast. In those days the cotton of Cuddapah and Karnúl (Kurnool) was brought down on pack-bullocks to be exchanged for the salt of Nellore. The sea-borne trade, now confined almost entirely to grain, is carried on in coasting craft, though formerly large ships used to carry salt to Bengal. In 1881-82 the total value of the exports amounted to £13,211; namely, merchandise, £13,071, and treasure, £ 1.40. The imports were valued at £1502, consisting purely of merchandise. The average annual value of exports for five years ending 1883-84 was £17,423 ; and of imports, £2982. In 1883-84 the value of exports was £24,797—the chief itenis being grain, bones, and seeds; imports, £866-chiefly rice, black gram, and tobacco. The two principal ports are Kottapatam and Itamukkula, both in the extreme north of the District. Indigo, which is manufactured almost entirely by natives, in accordance with what is known as the Bengal system, is sent by land and by the Buckinghan Canal to Madras to the amount of about 800,000 lbs. a year. Of recent years, there has been a considerable decrease in the manufacture of salt, owing to the circumstance that the foreign demand is now supplied from other quarters. In 1880-81, the total quantity made was 605,691 mannds, or 22,172 tons, valued at £62,780; of which 240,697 maunds, or 8811 tons, were exported by sea, and 338,52 I maunds, or 12,392 tons, were despatched inland. In 1882–83, the total quantity nade was 541,174 maunds, or 19,880 tons, valued at £108,235; of which none was exported by sea, but 234,864 maunds were despatched inland. There is no railway in the District, but one has been commenced which is to run from Tirupati (Tripatty) station on the north-west line of Madras Railway to Nellore town. The chief means of land communication is the Great Northern Trunk Road, which runs parallel with the coast through the whole length of the District. A branch known as the
