THE COTTON PLANT. 21 



Having been gathered, the cotton is spread out 

 to dry, and when thoroughly dried is ready to be 

 ginned for the market. Whitney's cotton gin con- 

 sists of a hopper, in which the cotton is confined, 

 and a roller thickly set with circular saws. One 

 side of the hopper has bars, adjusted to admit the 

 edges of the saws, but so close together that when 

 the saw teeth catch the cotton fibres, and pull them 

 out of the hopper, the seeds are held by the bars 

 and remain behind. Stiff brushes then take the 

 cotton from the saws ; it is passed between heavy 

 rollers, and comes out in loose, flat sheets. Other 

 gins, different in construction, are also used. 



The sheets which come from the gin are rolled 

 in bales, not less than four hundred pounds in 

 weight; the bale cotton is afterward cleaned, 

 carded, drawn into a coarse, loose thread, and 

 then spun into stout or delicate yarns, as the need 

 may be. 



The great usefulness of cotton depends, as will 

 be shown by the following extract from Edwin 

 Lancaster's " Remarks on the Natural History of 

 Cotton," on its power of forming a twist. " The 

 cotton fibre is a hair : it does not, however, grow 

 on the surface of the plant. ... It is not the 

 length or strength of the hair alone which gives to 



