COTTON 363 



very imperfectly. A spinner is not necessarily a scientist. 

 In all the century and a quarter during which the cotton 

 trade has grown to greatness it would have been nearly 

 useless for the spinner to spend time in studying the laws 

 that govern quality in cotton. Useless because he knew 

 no one who would have tried to give the special charac- 

 teristics required. The actual sequence of events, I think, 

 has largely been that the grower has grown what chanced 

 to grow, and the spinner has adapted his machinery to 

 deal with it. And by the rule of thumb the spinner has 

 bought what suited him the best, and the grower has 

 used the seed which promised the best results to himself. 



At the present time things are different. In every 

 country where it has been sought to introduce cotton as 

 a new product its difficulties have compelled people to 

 study its nature, and it is largely owing to the Agricul- 

 tural Departments that so much progress in this know- 

 ledge has recently been made. Again, the organization 

 of the Imperial Institute, and the formation of the tech- 

 nological departments in our municipalities, and at the 

 Universities, have made possible research work in the 

 nature of the fibre. In the United States some inter- 

 esting experiments are being made with the object of 

 ascertaining the practical differences to the mill arising 

 from the use of cottons of different grades, these grades 

 being classified under the new official standards. I may 

 quote some useful words from Bulletin No. 62, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, which reports progress so 

 far made. Mr. N. A.^Cobb says therein: "The Official 

 Grades at present take cognizance of only two qualities, 

 viz. : (i) The colour; and (2) the amount of trash and 

 waste matter. Any complete system of standardization 

 of cotton will, however, have to take into consideration, 

 among other things : (3) the length of the fibre ; (4) the 

 strength of the fibre; (5) the clinging qualities of the 

 fibre; and (6) the bleaching qualities of the fibre." 



This is aiming high; it is indeed a fine ideal, and the 

 business of the spinner will be simplified and the products 

 of the mill improved if the time ever comes that official 

 valuations take properly into consideration the spinning 

 merits of cotton as apart from its mere appearance. Mr. 



