COTTON-SPINNING SOUTH AND NORTH. 799 



the awl into the bottom of a thin steani-pipe which passed over- 

 head. A jet of steam rushed out right down upon the refractory- 

 sliver, and, to his astonishment, down it went right into the can. 



I have myself seen these same disobedient slivers fly all around 

 a man's neck and shoulders and adhere there, to the great dis- 

 gruntlement of foreman and hands. At the same old mill, above 

 Columbus, the second if not the first mill built in the State of 

 Georgia, the machinery was second-hand, brought from some 

 Northern State. The spindles (fliers) were very ancient. Some- 

 times when they had a fair chance in fine weather they did pretty 

 well, and at other times they would vex a saint. The very mo- 

 ment the sun sank behind the crest of the Alabama hills, however, 

 there commenced an improvement in the action of these old spin- 

 dles. Soon the room was in order ; the boys and girls who at- 

 tended the frames had a little time to "clean up," and their task 

 was a light one for the rest of the evening. It seemed to me that 

 the change was due to the humidity of the air inside, when the 

 dampness of the falls right at the side of the mill was saved from 

 evaporation by the withdrawal of the hot and drying sun-rays. 



Mr. Atkinson writes wisely and well upon the subject of com- 

 parative humidity in different sections, and only alludes to means 

 of artificial correction. Does it not seem probable that, with an 

 efficient hygrometric testing apparatus, and with steam always at 

 command capable of being admitted to a part or the whole of a 

 department, the condition of the inside air, in this respect, may be 

 kept almost uniform ? The expense would be small, and the fore- 

 man, after being instructed, might be left to control the humidity 

 of his room, as he is left to control its temperature. It appears to 

 me that this consideration tends to make all manufacturing pro- 

 cesses independent of climatic peculiarities. 



Mr. Atkinson's remarks as to the coarser work of the Southern 

 mills are all correct and go right to the root of the matter, but the 

 inevitable changes to finer work have already commenced here, 

 compelled, as they are at the North and East, by Southern as well 

 as Northern competition. I was told years ago that a Northern 

 manufacturer said that he could afford to pay ten thousand dol- 

 lars per annum to get rid of the competition of one Southern mill 

 on the same line of goods as those he was making. 



Mr. Atkinson seems to have reached correct results, in his 

 estimate of the comparative cost of raw cotton in Northern and 

 Southern mills, but he does not allude to all the points that deserve 

 consideration in respect to the ultimate cost of cotton in the 

 goods. A Northern spinner recently mentioned his estimated waste 

 at sixteen and three tenths per cent, but subsequently wrote me 

 that he thought it was then about fourteen per cent. I think that 

 Northern spinners usually estimate it at sixteen per cent. Even 



