36 



I have stated that the right point to treat cotton for the removal 

 of all heav}' waste and a large portion of the motes gathered with the 

 cotton in the field is when the cotton leaves the gin, and before it has 

 been condensed or compressed in any manner. How this should be 

 done is a question to be settled by experience. It may be accom- 

 plished by a slow-moving single beater, by what is called a preparer, 

 or by blowing the cotton through a trunk furnished with grids. 



A large portion of the work will be accomplished by keeping the 

 motes out of the cotton that now infest it in the gin-house, cotton 

 press, and yard. * 



If these motes, consisting of bits of leaf, boll, and trash from the 

 field, dust and trash from the gin-house, and dirt fiom the bags, levee, 

 or 3 T ard, were kept out or taken out, there would be no material dif- 

 ference in the weight of the bale. This is not the stuff that adds 

 weight, and the labor and treatment of the cotton in the picker and 

 card room of the factory could be reduced one-half at the very least. 



One beater, or its equivalent, applied to the removal of motes as 

 the cotton is delivered from the gin, before 'compression, would be as 

 effective as two beaters after compression ; and one carding applied to 

 clean and well-ginned cotton, carefully baled, and kept clean after 

 baling, would be as effective as double carding applied to the average 

 of the cotton as now delivered. By reducing the number of beaters, 

 and reducing the carding to the simple purpose of straightening fibres, 

 a larger quantity of stronger yarn would be produced to each spindle, 

 and every loom could be speeded higher with less imperfect work. 



Another very great advantage in the cleaning of the cotton im- 

 mediately after it has passed the gin, and before compression, would 

 be the removal of the almost impalpable sand or dust that infests the 

 cotton grown on many soils, and that causes injury to the machinery 

 of the cotton factory, especially to the cards. 



In this connection, let me again call the attention of planters to 

 the expediency of investigating the merits of the Ralston trash-cleaner, 

 and other machinery of like kind, in which very dirty cotton is sub- 

 jected to the action of beaters before the fibre has been removed from 

 the seed. The seed with the fibre attached having greater specific 

 gravity than the dirt, motes, or trash that are mixed with the fibre, is 

 carried by the action of the beater away from the trash detached by 

 its action, and the trash falls behind into the receptacles prepared to 

 catch it. I have never seen the machine, but the theory is unques- 

 tionably right. 



In my previous communications I have said that the cotton manu- 

 facture is a unit: it begins on the field, and ends in the cloth-room 

 of the factory. The most important part of this manufacture must 

 be carried on near the field, and is the process treated in this paper. 



If the South desires to enter upon the safest, surest, and most 

 profitable branch of cotton manufacturing in which the largest re- 

 sults can be reached with the least expenditure of capital, it will do 

 well to consider these suggestions. 



EDWARD ATKINSON. 



