8 BULLETIN 62, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
SUMMARY. 
Ill accordance with the last appropriation bill of the Department 
of Agriculture, tests as to the waste, tensile strength, and bleaching 
qualities of the different grades of cotton as established by the Gov- 
ernment have been carried on in order to ascertain certain facts which 
would make the official cotton grades more useful and reliable. 
About 10 or 12 bales of each of the five grades Middling Fail', Good 
Middling, Middling, Low Middling, and Good Ordinary, of both Atlantic 
States Upland and Western Upland cotton of 1-inch staple, were 
secured early in July, 1913. This cotton was stored at the Riverside 
and Dan River Cotton Mills, Danville, Va., where the experiments 
started on October 1. The Danville tests will be supplemented by 
additional experiments made on a certain quantity of the same cotton 
which has been sent to the textile department of Clemson Agricultural 
College, Clemson, S. C, and to the North Carolina Agricultural and 
Mechanical Textile School, at Raleigh, N. C. 
The average . difference in percentage of visible waste between 
Western Upland and Atlantic States Upland cotton was found to be 
between 1 and 2 per cent, taking all the grades into consideration. 
The differences are considerably greater in the lower grades than in 
the higher grades. The mill-waste figures have been checked up by 
hand separation of composite samples, and the figures from these 
experiments are consistent with those obtained from the mill. 
Although the value of the visible waste from the various grades is 
not yet determined, it appears certain that the valuation figures for 
the waste of the two classes of cotton will be approximately equal, 
weight for Weight . 
Preliminary figures show the yarn from the two classes of cotton 
to be about equal in strength. 
The mill waste in the experiments to date varies from about 4 per 
cent in Middling Fair to about 11 per cent in Good Ordinary, while the 
figures for the other grades are more or less consistent. 
At the close of these experiments exhibits made from the material 
reserved at each stage in the manufacture will be made to accompany 
the full report. 
ADDITIONAL COPIES of this publication 
-£J- may be procured from the Superintend- 
ent of Documents, Government Printing 
Office, Washington, D. C, at 5 cents per copy 
WASHINGTON" : GOVERNMENT I'KINTING OFFICE : 1913 
