116 



Selections. 



[NO. 3, NEW SERIES, 



The Roller Gin is still used for finer Sea Island Cotton, which 

 would be injured by the Saw Gin. I am told, that the Saw Gin 

 has been improved by a mechanic in the service of the East India 

 Company, from whom he has received a pecuniary acknowledgment 

 for the improvement. An American gentleman, now in this coun- 

 try, has patented a different mode of cleaning, with all the celerity 

 of the Saw Gin, without injuring the staple ; not only removing 

 the seeds, but even the small motes which weaken the thread and 

 render the web rough and irregular. 



SCREW PRESS. 



The other essential Implement to enable African or other Cot- 

 ton to compete with American is the Screw-Press. By compres- 

 sing the wool into a compact and square, instead of a bulky and 

 round bale, it can be brought at a freight of one farthing to one 

 half-penny per lb. which, otherwise, could not be shipped here 

 under one penny or three half-pence per lb. 



The cotton is thrown into a square box, and by means of a screw 

 it is pressed upwards against a beam, where the compactness of 

 the bale is secured by ropes previously arranged. 



CLEANING COTTON FROM DIFFERENT KINDS OF SEED. 

 It is of importance to attend to the seeds being covered with a 

 thick down, or comparatively bare, and free from down. When 

 they are covered with a close adhesive down, however fine may be 

 the staple of the surrounding Cotton, the seeds are so difficult to 

 clean by the best Roller Gins as to make the article unremunera- 

 tive ; when the fine sorts are cleaned by the Saw Gin, they may 

 be torn and so reduced to the better qualities of New Orleans or 

 Egyptian, worth from 6d. to Sd. per lb. 



If the seed is of the fine stapled sort, and bare of down, then 

 the Roller Gin may be employed, as injuring the fibre less than 

 the Saw Gin ; of this kind is the American Sea Island, which, 

 when so cleaned, brings I2d. to 18d. per lb. The Anguilla and 

 some of the indigenous sorts of British Honduras, comparatively 

 bare of down, could be advantageously cleaned by the Roller Gin, 

 and are considered to resemble Sea Island. Hand picked samples 



