CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 
95 
ments upon Whitney have brought the machine to per- 
fection, and we now behold it doing the work which, fifty 
years ago, was performed by three hundred hands. 
The cotton gin now used is composed of a stand 
about six feet in width, inclosing a cylinder and brush, 
arranged horizontally, and running on iron axes in compo- 
sition metallic boxes. On the cylinder are arranged a series 
of circular saws, made of the best cast-steel plates, in seg- 
ments, or two parts. They are placed about one inch apart, 
and are so secured to the cylinder as to insure perfect accu- 
racy and uniformity of action. The teeth are very pointed 
and oblique, and are very carefully and smoothly dressed. 
The cylinder, when put in njotion by a band running on a 
trundle-head attached to it on one side of the stand, and 
by which it is connected with the running gear, revolves 
in such a manner that the teeth pass between a correspond- 
ing series of metallic grates, curved or bent so as to conform 
to the circumference of the saws, and placed in such a 
manner as only to permit the free passage of the teeth of 
the saw, together with the lint which it removes in its 
revolutions. The grates form one side of a movable hop- 
per, the breastboard or fall in front forming the opposite ; 
the hopper working on hinges at the bottom, by which the 
grates can be elevated above the saws as occasion requires. 
In its working position, the teeth of the saws pass 
through the grates and enter the hopper just so far as to 
take a proper hold on the cotton, with which it is kept 
supplied by raking it from the pile of seed cotton deposited 
on the top of the stand. 
In operation, the saws passing through the cotton cause 
it to revolve-in the hopper, and form a roll from which the 
seeds, as the lint becomes detached, fall to the bottom, and 
are removed by means of a spout. 
