374 



COTTON-WOOL. 



Appendix, effect of which is, to break the staple, and thereby to 

 increase the proportion of waste usually made by the 

 flyings from the cards; and after every degree of skill 

 and attention on the part of the manufacturer, it is at last 

 impossible to separate them so perfectly as to produce in 

 the spinning a fine clear even thread. A further objection 

 to cotton-wool in this state is, the additional stress which 

 it lays upon the machinery, the effects of which are to 

 reduce the quantity of work capable of being produced 

 by a given power, and to increase the wear and tear, 

 which in both cases adds to the expense of the article 

 produced. 



6. Upon the subject of colour, the want of that silky 

 brightness which formerly characterized Pernambuco 

 cotton, appears to arise from a part of the stained cotton 

 being in the new mode of management so mixed up and 

 incorporated with the good, as to prevent the possibility 

 of its being afterwards detached, and thence a dingyness of 

 colour is communicated to the whole, besides the essential 

 properties of the staple being injured, in whatever pro- 

 portion the stained cotton bears to the perfect. Thus it 

 is that all the Pernambuco cotton, to which these objec- 

 tions apply, is reduced, in point of value to the manu- 

 facturer, to nearly the scale of the inferior sorts, such as 

 Surinam, Demerara, &c. namely, two-pence, three-pence, 

 and four-pence per pound, it being, for the reasons before- 

 mentioned, inapplicable to the finer branches of manu- 

 facture or to any purpose for which the above sorts are 

 not nearly as well calculated. 



7. To obviate these leading defects, it is recommended 

 that, in gathering the crop, particular care be taken to 

 keep the stained and dirty cotton separate from the more 

 perfect ; which may be done, for the most part, by each 

 labourer having two bags (or such other vessel as there 



may 



