SCIENCE AND THE SUPPLY OF FINE 



COTTON 



By W. LAWRENCE BALLS, M.A. (Cantab.) 

 Lately Botanist to the Khedivial Agricultural Society of Egypt and to the Egyptian Government 



In the preface of a work on cotton published in 1835 may be 

 read the following remarks : " The manufactory, the laboratory, 

 and the study of the natural philosopher, are in close practical 

 conjunction. Without the aid of science, the arts would be 

 contemptible; without practical application, science would 

 consist only of barren theories, which men would have no 

 motive to pursue. These remarks apply . . . above all, to the 

 Cotton Manufacture of England, which is the very creature 

 of mechanical invention and chemical discovery, and which has, 

 in its turn, rendered the most important service to science, as 

 well as increased the wealth and power of the country." 



We pass over an interval of nearly forty years, and from 

 another standard work on cotton we extract a less optimistic 

 view : " There is a great danger of resting satisfied with the 

 present condition of things, especially when trade is pursued 

 with the sole object of making money, and without the introduc- 

 tion of a spirit of pride in the attainment of better and higher 

 results. That careful attention to detail which always marks 

 the true workman must be carried by us into the recesses of all 

 our manufacturing processes. Knowledge and science may 

 enable up to do this without a material increase in the cost." 



Lastly, from a recent communication by one of the first 

 authorities in the ranks of the cotton-spinners, published in the 

 present year of grace, we take the frank statement : " The 

 spinner has not been accustomed to look for causes ; all that he 

 has cared for in the past has been the results. Would the cotton 

 spin the counts he wanted ? Did it give him the strength and 

 cleanliness desired? Were these results achieved with the 

 waste loss to which he was accustomed ? ... If cotton is to be 

 developed in the future on scientific lines, some attempt must 

 be made to define the characteristics required by spinners." 



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