GOSSYPIUM. 



OR COTTON. 



in the isolated instance hereafter to be noticed, 

 is not the cause of the nitter. In confirmation 

 of the opinum, putting aside the conclusive 

 facts adduced, the different processes through 

 which the cotton passes, whilst in the hands 

 of the planter, nee^only to be briefly adverted 

 t-r the stained is separated from the 

 white, the latter is thrown, in small parcels, 

 into a whipper, in order to extract the dirt and 

 ID throw otf the short and weak fibres, which, 

 if allowed to remain, would detract very mate- 

 rially from the value of the crop. This ma- 

 onstructed of wood, with round wooden 

 teeth, is turned by the hand. Unless the door 

 oi' tin- whipper be closed, which is never done, 

 the egress of the cotton is quickly effected. 

 After this operation the cotton is ginned, and 

 thru taken to the moting-house, where, on a 

 frame of wood-work, it is gently shaken and 

 partially opened by the hand. When clean, it 

 is received by the packer, who, with a wooden 

 instrument, compresses it into a bag, weighing, 

 when finished, from 800 to 400 Ibs. In these 

 various but necessary modes of treatment, in 

 not one of which any violence is used, the com- 

 mittee feel persuaded that the staple sustains 

 no injury whatever. It is well known that 

 every description of cotton, except the finest 

 qualities of sea island, before it is converted 

 into fabrics, is subjected to numerous opera- 

 tions, all of which are performed by machinery. 

 From the willow, which, by its revolving spikes, 

 tears open the matted masses, succeeded by 

 the scutching machine, in which the cotton is 

 beaten by metallic blades, revolving on an axis 

 at the speed of from 4000 to 7000 revolutions 

 in a minute, other machines with iron fingers, 

 teeth, and wheels, follow, so that it may almost 

 be said that, without the aid of human hands, 

 the vegetable wool 'is opened, cleaned, spread, 

 carded, drawn, roved, spun, wound, warped, 

 dressed, and woven.' 



"Now, although it is represented that the 

 superior qualities of black-seed cotton are not 

 thiiN wrongly treated, yet, as they are 'opened 

 and cleaned by being placed upon cords 

 stretched on a wooden frame, and then beaten 

 by women with smooth switches,' the commit- 

 tee are at no loss to perceive how the com- 

 plaints of the manufacturers by their own act 

 may be increased. This last mode of cleans- 

 ing the raw material was very generally pur- 

 sued by the planter a few years ago. Were he 

 now to resume that ready method of preparing 

 his crop for market, he is satisfied that, whilst 

 his time and labour would be saved, the fabri- 

 f fine goods would be likely to incur an 

 additional expense of no ordinary magnitude. 

 if* switches, it is nearly certain that the 

 :ihres are broken into minute parts, and, 

 with the naturally short and rotten, intermix 

 and become entangled. Although, therefore, 

 the imperfection of the staple, which is the 

 special subject of this report, is undeniably 

 common to the cotton plant under peculiar cir- 

 cumstances, the committee incline to the opi- 

 nion that that imperfection can be created by 

 artificial means, and, from experiments insti- 

 tuted by them, is engendered by the different 

 processes through which the cotton goes in its 

 conversion into cloth, as already particularly 

 560 



described. That the nitter, however, is occa- 

 sionally formed through the want of foresight 

 on the part of the planter, when his crop, from 

 adverse seasons or other causes, is defective 

 in texture, is highly probable. The filaments 

 of unripe cotton are transparent, cylindrical 

 tubes. When ripe, even before the capsule 

 bursts, the tubes collapse in the middle, form- 

 ing semi-tubes on each side, which give to the 

 fibre, says Mr. Baines, in his able treatise on 

 the cotton manufacture of Great Britain, when 

 viewed in certain lights, the appearance of a 

 flat riband, with a hem or border at each edge. 



'The twisted and cork-screw form of the 

 filament of cotton distinguishes it from all other 

 vegetable fibres, and is characteristic of the 

 folly ripe and mature pod. This form and 

 character the fibres retain ever after, and, in 

 that respect, undergo no change through the 

 operations of spinning, weaving, bleaching, 

 printing, and dyeing, nor in all the subsequent 

 domestic operations of washing, &c. &c., till 

 the stuff is worn to rags, and then even the vio- 

 lent process of reducing those rags to pulp for 

 the purpose of making paper effects no change 

 in the structure of these fibres. From the dif- 

 ference between the elementary fibres of cotton 

 and flax, the latter being transparent tubes, 

 cylindrical, and articulated or jointed like a 

 cane, it has been incontestably proved that the 

 mummy cloth of Egypt was linen. 



"Unripe cotton is finer than that which has 

 attained its full age, but is deficient in the 

 other essential attributes of a perfect staple, 

 strength and length. Some of the filaments, 

 indeed, are not the eighth of an inch long, and 

 until several days after the opening of the cap- 

 sule are found doubled or curled, full of watery 

 and oleaginous particles ; the cotton is wet to 

 the touch, and is of a brown hue. In this state, 

 unless dried in the sun, it becomes more or 

 less mouldy; the superfluous oil from the seed, 

 which ought to have escaped, is diffused 

 through the mass; the colour soon changes; 

 heat is generated; and the staple, originally 

 strong, is quickly perceived to be materially 

 affected. Hence it is not surprising that in 

 immature cotton, distinguished, as it is known 

 to be, for its delicacy of texture, variableness 

 in length, and want of pliability, when subject- 

 ed to the mildest mode of treatment to free it 

 from extraneous matter, the threads should 

 cross and mix with each other, thus forming 

 artificial nitters. Within a few years, the ac- 

 tion of the sun, with a view to the dessication 

 of the wool, has been sedulously avoided by 

 perhaps a majority of our planters. The daily 

 gatherings are spread in houses, or under scaf- 

 folds erected for the purpose, and thus the dry- 

 ing process, if a few exposures in that way is 

 worthy of this appellation, is conducted. That 

 the practice is radically wrong, for the reasons 

 already assigned, the committee firmly believe. 

 Damp cotton, also, can neither be ginned nor 

 cleaned but w^ith difficulty; this of itself is a 

 serious objection, to which may be added the 

 indubitable fact that, from its too unctuous 

 properties, the floating dust of the atmosphere 

 tends to its discoloration. 



"From these observations it will appear thai 

 nitters are either natural or artificial, and that 



