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 
investigations have been carried out under favorable auspices and 
HAND SEPARATION 
PERCENTAGE OP VISIBLE WASTE. 
Fig. 1.— Graph showing the percentage of visible waste in five of the official cotton grades, 
this case was obtained by hand separation. 
The waste in 
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 this 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. 
