COTTON FACTORY 955 



what modifications they can make in the management of the plant for the purpose of 

 making its growth possible in districts hitherto found unsuitable. There was a time 

 when not even the cherry much less the grape would scarcely ripen upon the Rhine, 

 a district which the fostering care of man has at length transformed into a fertile 

 wine-producing region. Much progress is also possible in the way of hybridisation 

 and careful selection of seed, by bringing into existence fresh varieties, which shall 

 perpetuate the best characteristics of their progenitors. The practice of hybridisation 

 is a department of cotton-culture which has not met with the attention it deserves. 

 The experiments in this direction of Major Trevor Clarke, whose persevering efforts to 

 improve the native Indian varieties are well known, have shown the great value of 

 this class of research. 



The number of species of Gossypium producing the cotton of commerce has been 

 very variously estimated ; but Parlatore, the writer of one of the most recent mono- 

 graphs upon this genus (Le Specie dei Cotoni, Firenze, 1866), describes and figures 

 seven good species. So great, however, is the multitude of forms at present in culti- 

 vation, that authorities are by no means agreed as to which of these forms are to be 

 reckoned as specific. But the opinion of competent botanists is gaining ground that 

 all these forms have descended from the three following species : Gossypium arborcum, 

 the true cotton of the Indian peninsula, and of the island of Celebes ; G. barbadense, 

 the Barbadoes or Bourbon cotton, from which has probably originated the celebrated 

 Sea Island cotton ; and G. herbaceum, or the common cotton of the East Indies, China, 

 and the Malay Archipelago. 



COTTON DYEING. See DYEING. 



COTTOW FACTORY, or COTTOKT ZVIIIiIi. These terms are employed indis- 

 criminately for the purpose of describing any building or set of buildings, in which the 

 processes of spinning or of weaving cotton by the aid of machinery are carried on. 

 Establishments of this kind are often of great magnitude, giving employment to largo 

 numbers of work-people, and producing many varieties of fabric. But whether it bo 

 large or small, whether its productions be of one kind or of many kinds, a cotton 

 factory needs to be arranged in a certain order, and its successive processes must bo 

 suitably organised. The hands and heads of those who labour must be specially 

 trained and habituated to their several parts, and the whole operation conducted with 

 the greatest attainable regularity, and with the least possible interruption at the suc- 

 cessive stages of the work. In this manner is secured that harmonious co-operation 

 which is scarcely less essential to economy of manufacture than is the use of steam or 

 water power. 



The successive operations carried on in the manufacture of cotton will be more fully 

 described elsewhere ; meanwhile the following synthetic view may furnish the reader 

 with a general notion of their nature and their order : 



1 . The mixing and opening up or loosening the cotton wool, as imported in the bales, 

 so as to separate at once the coarser and heavier impurities as well as those of a 

 lighter and finer kind. 



2. The willowing, scratching, or blowing, an operation which removes the seeds and 

 dirt, and prepares the material in the form of a continuous lap or rolled sheet for the 

 next process. 



3. The carding, which is intended to disentangle every tuft or knot, to remove every 

 remaining impurity which might have eluded the previous operation, and finally to 

 prepare for arranging the fibres in parallel lines, by laying the cotton first in a fleecy 

 web, and then in a riband form. 



4. The doubling and drawing out of the card-ends or ribands, in order to complete 

 the parallelism of the filaments, and to equalise their quality and texture. 



5. The slubbing operation, whereby the drawings made in the preceding process are 

 greatly attenuated, with no more twist than is indispensable to preserve the uniform 

 continuity of the spongy cords. 



6. The intermediate slubbing, another doubling and further attenuation, which is 

 however, omitted in the spinning of coarse yarns. 



7. The roving, which is simply a repetition of the doubling and drawing accom- 

 plished in the intermediate process, but leaving the cotton in a still more attenuated 

 condition ready for the next process. 



8. The spinning process, which completes the extension and twisting of the yarn. 

 This is accomplished either with the throstle or the mule. By means of the former 

 machine the thread is spun with a larger proportion of turns or twists, and is thus 

 made tough and strong for purposes requiring yarn that will not readily break as in 

 the warps of stout fabrics. By means of the latter, yarns of less strength are produced, 

 such as the warps of lighter fabrics, and wefts of all kinds. The latter process, being 

 the less costly of the two, is preferred in cases whore its results are otherwise suitivMo 

 to the particular end in yiew, 



