TESTS OF WASTE, TENSILE STRENGTH, ETC.^ OF COTTON. 7 



LENGTH OF STAPLE USED. 



It must be carefully borne in mind that the cotton used in these 

 investigations was all of the same length of staple. It will be seen 

 from an examination of the purchasing sources that most of the 

 Atlantic States Upland cotton has probably come from the Piedmont 

 and similar sections. An examination of the Census Bureau statistics 

 for the last five years indicates that about half of the Atlantic States 

 Upland cotton of the character used in these experiments originates 

 in these sections. The other half of the cotton used in the tests 

 came from the Gulf States and Arkansas. 



CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE EXPERIMENTS WERE MADE. 



Although the foregoing figures and statements are the result of 

 experiments on only one season's cotton, they are presented with 

 confidence in their approximate accuracy so far as they go. The 

 uivestigations have been carried out under favorable auspices and 



^ia. HAND SEPARATION 



PERCENTAGE OP VISIBLE WASTE. 



Middling_ Good Middling Low 



i*air " ~ Middling " Middling 



Soojd 

 Ordinary' 



Fig. 1. — Graph showing the percentage of visible waste in five of the official cotton grades. The waste in 

 this case was obtained by hand separation. 



have been attended with good fortune. The only exception to this 

 has been that unsuitable weather occurred during a part of the spin- 

 ning. No detail received greater attention than that of suitable and 

 uniform humidity. Among other precautions taken was the halting 

 of the experiments for three months in order that the work might be 

 done during the most suitable spinning months for the region (Dan- 

 ville, Va.), namely, those of October and November. Hence, the mill 

 experiments began on October 1, 1913. 



Unfortunately, however, the weather during the first weeks of 

 October was about the most varied that had ever been experienced 

 at Danville. Everything was done to offset tliis disadvantage by 

 as careful control of the humidifiers as possible. . Furthermore, the 

 precaution of reserving 200 pounds of each grade somewhat short of 

 the spinning stage had been observed, and it was possible later to put 

 this weight of each grade through the spinning processes on the same 

 day, thus securing a relatively small amount of yarn more strictly 

 comparable than would otherwise have been possible. The final 

 figures will be ready for publication in the course of a few months. 



