COTTON 365 



Or irregular fibres may be due to irregular plant food. 

 Nature unaided will give us little but waste. It is to 

 human science that we look for good cotton. 



(3), (4)> (5) Length of fibre, strength of fibre, and 

 clinging qualities. Mr. Cobb rather curiously omits fine- 

 ness. Cotton yarns vary in value according to their 

 cleanliness, which is affected by the amount and kind of 

 waste. They also vary in value according to their fine- 

 ness, their strength, and their regularity. These qualities 

 of fineness, strength, and regularity in yarns depend 

 primarily on the cotton. Cotton, therefore, is valuable 

 to a spinner in proportion as it gives him these qualities 

 in his yarns. Nowl I imagine that these qualities in yarns 

 come from length and strength and fineness of fibre, and 

 from some other qualities which Mr. Cobb calls clinging 

 qualities. The well-known convolutions no doubt affect 

 this clinging, and probably also some characteristics of 

 the nature of flexibility of skin not easy to ascertain or 

 define. A spinner sometimes speaks of them? as oiliness. 

 I think that no one knows what are the exact relations 

 between these characteristics in the fibre and the qualities 

 we desire for our yarns. There is, I am sure, room for 

 research work on this point. There is also urgent neces- 

 sity for corresponding research work by cotton-growing 

 scientists as to the means by which they are to produce 

 those qualities in cotton which the textile laboratory finds 

 to give the required results in yarn. 



Now I pass from the spinner's requirements to a matter 

 which concerns both him and the grower, and that is, that 

 cotton should be cheap. The American orator proclaims 

 " Cotton is king." True, but it is a limited monarchy. 

 To remain king, cotton must be popular, cotton must be 

 cheap. Cheapness does not mean want of proper profit 

 for the grower. It does mean that all the resources of 

 science must be employed to produce large crops per acre. 

 Suitable cultivation must be given, suitable manures must 

 be employed; but, a'bove all, it rests with the plant breeder 

 to evolve a cotton plant whose purpose in life is to make 

 cotton, and not wood or cotton seed. The plant must 

 also be energetic and ripen its fibre quickly, so that men 

 and not the insects can get it. There is no necessary 



