Cotton. Cotton is the most important vegetable fiber used in spinning. The cotton fiber is a soft, downy substance which grows around the cotton seed. When examined under the microscope it appears as a long twisted cell. Owing to the fact that the cotton-plant yields so readily to the varying conditions of soil and climate, there is a large variety of cottons, each having some peculiarity which is considered enough to place it in a distinct class. An idea of the number of species of the cotton-plant can be obtained from the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture has recorded about one hundred and thirty varieties. The most important varieties are: Gossypium herbaceum, G. arboreum, G. hirsutum, G. barbadense, and G. peruvianum. The botanical name of a plant is divided into two parts: first the family name, followed by the species name.

The Gossypium herbaceum grows from four to six feet in height and bears a yellow flower. The seeds are covered with a short gray down. The fiber it bears is classed as short. It is found in Egypt, Asia Minor, Arabia, India, and China. The short-stapled variety of Egyptian cotton is from this species. The G. arboreum when full grown attains a height from fifteen to twenty feet. The seed is covered with a greenish fur and is enveloped in a fine, silky down, yellowish white in color. It is found in Egypt, Arabia, and China.

The G. hirsutum is a shrubby plant, its maximum height being about six feet. The young pods are hairy, and the seeds are numerous and covered with a firmly adhering green down. It is probable that this is the original of the green-seeded cotton which is now cultivated so extensively in the Southern States of America, and which forms the bulk of the supply from that source.

The G. peruvianum is similar to the G. barbadense. The Brazilian and Peru cottons are from this species.

The G. barbadense grows from six to fifteen feet high; its flowers are yellow and its seeds black and smooth, being quite destitute of the hair that distinguishes other members of the species. It is a native of Barbadoes or has been cultivated there for a long time. Cottons of the finest texture belong to this species—Sea Island and Florida cottons—from which our finest yarns are spun, and it is used chiefly in the manufacture of fine lace. The long-stapled Egyptian and several other varieties are said to be from this stock.

Cotton Growing Countries. The most suitable situation for growing cotton is between 35 degrees north and 40 degrees south of the equator. The chief cotton growing countries of the world in order of importance are: United States, India, Egypt, and Brazil. Cotton is also grown in the following countries, but in no quantity or quality comparable with the four named above—West Indies, west coast of Africa, Asia Minor, China, and Queensland.

The best soil for growing cotton is a light loam or sandy soil, which receives and retains the heat, and at the same time preserves a good supply of moisture. Cold, damp days are not suitable for its growth, while deep rich soils develop too much leaf and stalk. The best climate for the cultivation of cotton is where frost and snow are of short duration, dews are heavy, and the sun bright, warm, and regular. New soils generally produce the best cotton. The character of the cotton fiber is dependent upon three things, the species of the plant, the nature of the soil, and the locality in which it is grown.

Rough Peruvian. The nature of this cotton is harsh and wiry and resembles wool so nearly that it is almost exclusively used to mix with woolen fabrics. The staple is rough and generally strong, and is of a springy tendency, i.e., it does not lie close like American.

East Indian. India depends upon the monsoon for its moisture, and the success or failure of the crop is decided by that phenomenon of nature. Indian cottons as a rule are coarser and shorter than American cottons. The land is prepared before the breaking of the monsoon, and the planting begins after it. There is not the same care bestowed upon the cultivation of the Indian cotton, nor are such improved methods practised as in America. The ancient routine of past generations still persists, and as a consequence the yield per acre is less than one-half that of America. Moreover the acreage planted is only about two-thirds that of America. The better growths of East Indian cotton were once largely used in this country for filling, owing to their good color and cleanliness; but of late years the consumption has steadily decreased, owing chiefly to the increased takings by the Indian mills, also to the exports to China and Japan, and to the preference shown by English spinners for American cotton.

Egyptian Cotton. Egyptian cotton, on account of its long staple and silky gloss, is imported in considerable quantities. Egyptian is largely used in the manufacture of hosiery, and also for mixing with worsted yarn. Owing to its gloss it is used for mixing with silk, and on account of its strength it is made into the finer sewing threads. Egyptian cotton is sometimes so charged with grease that it has a greasy smell; and to make it workable it is necessary to sprinkle it with whitening. It has been observed that velvets woven (or piled) with Egyptian filling do not finish as well as when picked with yarns made from American cotton, the reason for this being that the greasy nature of the Egyptian cotton fiber often varies in strength, causing different shades in the finished goods. This greasy nature is said to be due to two things: (1) the fertility of the soil; (2) the extent to which the cell walls of the fibers are developed.

In addition to cotton, other crops are grown in Egypt—rice, sugar, beans, barley, onions, etc.—and the acreage devoted to cotton is regulated to some extent by the prospects as to which crops are likely to pay best. It is calculated that not more than one-third of the area is usually devoted to cotton.

Sea Island Cotton. This is the finest growth of cotton, and it commands the highest price. The staple, which is long and silky, varies in length from one and a half to two and a half inches. It is used for making fine muslins, laces, spool cotton, and other fabrics, and is also largely mixed with silk. It is said that this cotton was first introduced into America in 1786 from the Bahama Islands, whither it had been brought from the West Indies. It was first cultivated in Georgia, where it was found that the small islands running along the coast were best adapted for its growth, hence the name “Sea Island.” It was also grown on the uplands of Georgia, but although remaining good, the quality deteriorated. Counts as high as four hundred are occasionally spun in Sea Island cotton.

Other Varieties. Cotton grown in the Southern States under widely varying conditions of the soil, climate, and care in cultivation, naturally varies in length, strength, and other qualities of staple. Cotton known as “Uplands” or “Boweds” varies in length from three-fourths to one and one-sixteenth inches and is used for filling; this is grown in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. Cotton used for twist is grown in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, and the length of the staple varies from one to one and three-sixteenths inches. In the swampy and bottom lands in some of the states (notably Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas), cotton is grown with staple ranging from one and one-eighth to one and one-fourth inches. In addition to these, there are especially long stapled growths, known as “Extras,” “Allen Seed,” and “Peelers,” which measure one and three-eighths to one and five-eighths inches. Of late there has been an extensive demand for long-stapled American cotton (one and three-sixteenths to one and one-half inches), owing to the development of fine spinning.

Cotton Raising. Cotton is planted with a machine, which puts it under the ground about one and one-half to two inches. It is not planted as corn is, that is, dropped so far apart, but is planted in a continuous stream. After the cotton comes up out of the ground, when it is about three inches high, it is hoed by ordinary labor with a hoe, and is cut out or, rather, thinned. This is called “chopping out” and is for the purpose of removing the inferior or weak plants until only one strong plant is left. The distance between the plants depends on the nature of the plant, frequently about twelve inches being left between them.

The American Crop. The first step taken is the preparation of the ground for planting. This begins in the southern part of Texas as early as the middle of January, in Florida about the third week; in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, about the beginning of February; in Arkansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina from about the middle of February to the beginning of March. Actual planting begins according to latitude, principally from the middle of March to the middle of April, and ends in the first half of May. These dates, however, are dependent upon the state of the weather. When the weather is unusually wet the start is late. The plant suffers from the rank growth of grass and weeds, and extra labor is required to keep the fields clean. In abnormally hot weather, especially after rains, the plant sheds its leaves, thus exposing the bolls, which fall off, whereupon replanting becomes necessary. In addition to injuries by the weather the cotton-plant is subject to depredations by insects. Of late years the greatest pest has been the Mexican boll weevil.

The cotton-plant blooms ten or eleven weeks after planting. An early bloom is taken as a sign of good crops. When the crop is an early one, picking may commence in the districts in which it ripens first in the latter half of July; but the usual date is the beginning of August, following on in the various districts in succession until the early part of September. The plant goes on fruiting as long as the weather is mild and open. It finishes in the early regions about the beginning of December, the others following through December and closing in the later regions about the middle of January. Frosts play an important part in the ultimate yield. An early killing frost over the entire belt would curtail the size of the crop by 500,000 bales in a season, as was the case in 1909 when about 32,000,000 acres were planted. Light frosts and late frosts do little harm to the cotton-plant; in fact it is contended that the late frosts do much good under certain conditions of the crop, by opening the bolls that otherwise would not open, and thus adding to the quantity of the late pickings. The effect of frost upon the lint so picked is to produce tinged and stained cotton. Early killing frosts occur in some seasons in the early part of November, when much of the yield may be curtailed. When killing frosts occur late in the season, when the fruiting is practically over, it has little or no effect upon the yield except as regards the color.

The ripening of the crop proceeds in three stages, the bolls nearest the ground maturing first, then those around the middle of the plant, and lastly the top crop. Pods half ripe are often forced open and the fiber sent on with good cotton. East Indian is more highly charged with unripe cotton than American. The work of picking is not heavy, but becomes tedious from its sameness. Each hand as he goes to the field is supplied with a large basket and a bag. The basket is left at the head of the cotton row, the bag being suspended from the picker’s shoulder by a strap, and used to hold the cotton as it is plucked from the boll. When the bag is full it is emptied into the basket, and this routine continued throughout the day. Each hand picks from 140 to 180 pounds of cotton per day. The average yield in the South varies from 500 to 600 pounds per acre. Every boll of cotton contains seeds resembling unground coffee; when these have been removed by the gin, there remains about one-third the weight of the boll in clean cotton.

Ginning. The next operation to which cotton is subjected is that of ginning, or separating the seeds from the fiber. This work was formerly accomplished by hand, and so great was the quantity of seeds that frequently an entire day was occupied by a workman in separating them from one pound of cotton. At the present day the devices for separating the lint from the seed are of two classes: roller gins and saw gins. The former device is the more ancient, having been used from the earliest times by the Hindoos. In its simplest form it consists of two rollers made of metal or hard wood, fixed in rude frames, through which the cotton is drawn and the seeds forced out in the process. An improved form of the roller gin is at present used for cleaning the long-staple Sea Island cotton. The saw gin, which works on an entirely different principle, is the machine which, with its improvements and modifications, has separated the seed from fiber almost exclusively for one hundred years of American cotton growing. In this machine the seed cotton is fed into a box, one side of which is formed of a grating of metal strips set close together, leaving a narrow opening from one-eighth to a quarter of an inch wide. Into these openings a row or “gang” of thin circular saws project mounted upon a revolving mandrel. The long, protruding teeth of the saws, whirling rapidly, catch the fibers, and pull them away from the seeds. The latter, being too large to pass through the openings of the grating, roll downward and out of the machine. The lint, removed from the row of saws by a revolving brush, passes between rollers and is delivered from the machine in the form of a lap or bat.

This machine is responsible for much of the “nep” (or knots) found in American cotton, which is caused when the machine is overcharged. The Whitney gin will turn through more cotton than any other type of machine, and will clean from 200 to 300 pounds per hour. When the machine is running at high speed the tendency is to string and knot the cotton.

The working of the ordinary gin is as follows: The wagon loaded with cotton is driven under a galvanized spout called the sucker, through which there is a suction of air which draws the cotton into the gins. In each of the gins there are seventy circular saws revolving on one shaft. These saws are about one inch apart, and the teeth go through the gin breast, much as if one were to put the teeth of one comb into the teeth of another comb. This process takes the lint cotton off the seed, and by the use of brushes the cotton goes into the lint flute, into the condenser, and into the box, where it is revolved and made into a bale. While the lint is going through this process, the seeds, being heavier and smaller, draw to the bottom of the gins, fall into an auger which is operated by a belt, and then are dropped into a conveyor and carried to the seed pile or houses. The lint goes in one direction and the seed in another.

When the seed is taken from the cotton at the gin, it is covered with a lint of cotton. In order to remove this the seeds are put through a delinter, which takes off the small, short fiber from the seeds, leaving them clean. This seed is then put through a huller which takes off the outside hull or thick skin. The kernel is then put through a hydraulic press, which squeezes the cotton-seed oil from it and leaves the “meal.” Cotton-seed oil is used for many purposes, such as making olive oil, butter or oleomargarine, lard, etc. Of late an experiment has been made with the meal for use in the place of flour, and has been pronounced a success. Seed crushing has now become an important industry, with the cotton crop each year amounting to between 12,000,000 and 13,000,000 bales of 450 pounds each.

The Cotton Gin. The cotton gin was invented in 1792 by Eli Whitney, a citizen of Georgia, but a native of Massachusetts. The importance of this invention to the cotton industry of the world cannot be overestimated. It was the one thing needed to insure a sufficient supply of raw material to meet the requirements of newly invented machinery for spinning and weaving. The result of Whitney’s invention was the rapid extension of the culture of cotton in the United States, and its permanent establishment as one of the leading staples of the country.

Cotton Bales. After the cotton is ginned and baled it is shipped to the mill. The standard size of a cotton bale in the United States is 54×27×27 inches, and contains nearly 500 pounds. To produce this bale over 1,600 pounds of seed cotton are required. The bales are wrapped in jute bagging and strapped with sheet-iron bands, this covering adding about twenty-five pounds to the weight of the bale.

The Bessonette cylindrical bale is turned out by a self-feeding press, which receives the lap of lint from the gin between two heavy rollers. The fiber is rolled upon a long wooden spool so tightly as to press out nearly all the air, and forms a package of uniform shape and size throughout, having a diameter of fourteen to sixteen inches. The bales are covered with cotton cloth, held in place by small wire hoops. It is claimed that the cotton is rolled so tightly by this process that the bales are practically fireproof and waterproof.

Egyptian bales are compressed into a shape similar to the American bale, but the average weight is over 700 pounds.

The Indian bales, which are more closely compressed than the American, usually weigh 400 pounds.

Cotton is purchased by the mill authorities in the shape of a bale. The method is to purchase from cotton brokers, samples being furnished to the buyer from which to make selection.

The commercial value of cotton is determined by its length, fineness, strength, pliability, smoothness, regularity, color, and cleanliness. As a rule, the cotton that is the longest is also the finest, but by no means the strongest. Thus, Sea Island cotton has the longest staple with the least diameter, and Hinganghat (an Indian cotton) is much inferior to it in both respects. The strength of the latter, however, is 50 per cent greater than the strength of Sea Island cotton. In every other respect Sea Island cotton is in advance over Hinganghat cotton. It is the most valuable, especially for the production of fine yarns.

The most regular cotton is Orleans, in which the length of the staple varies only a small fraction of an inch. In consequence of this there is less loss in working Orleans than is the case with the other cottons, owing to the fact that their fibers vary in length.

The Leading Growths of Cotton. In order to purchase the raw material of the cotton manufacture, to arrange the “mixing” or have much to do with the raw material in any other capacity, one should know as much as possible of its characteristics; for ignorance may cause much trouble and no little loss to those who have to spin the cotton. Each crop differs from the previous one to a greater or less degree, as it depends entirely upon the weather. Thus, in a very dry season there is a “droughty crop” which, while it may be (and generally is) clean and well up in class, will be weak, short, and of irregular fiber. In order to obtain the desired length and strength of staple the buyer will have to pay a relatively higher price than in what may be termed a normal season.

Again, in a crop that is poor in class, a defect that may have been caused by too much rain in the early or middle stages of its growth, or by unfavorable weather for the production of cotton of good grade, the staple will probably be all that could be desired, leafy and small, but the buyer will have to pay more to obtain his usual grade, especially if he requires it for good filling. Then there are seasons when the crop turns out fairly well in class and staple, but the cotton is wasty, dirty, or abnormally leafy; and in this case the buyer has to exercise great care and judgment in calculating the extra loss that will ensue.

The terms of purchase of cotton include an allowance of 4 per cent for tares. That is, a bale of cotton weighing 400 pounds would be paid for as 384 pounds, or should the buyer have reason to believe that the tares are unusually heavy, he has the option of claiming the actual tare. This is ascertained by stripping ten bales and weighing the covering and the hoops, which means considerable work, and although it is at the option of the buyer, it is an exception rather than the rule.

As a result of these causes we find cotton divided into the following grades:

Full Grades of Cotton. Egyptian cotton is graded as follows: extra fine, fine, good, fully good fair, good fair, fair, middling fair, middling.

Indian cotton is graded as follows: superfine, fine, fully good, good, fully good fair, good fair, fully fair.

Brazilian cotton may be classed: fine, good, good fair, fair, middling fair, middling.

American cotton has seven grades: fair, middling fair, good middling, middling, low middling, good ordinary, and ordinary.

In addition to the full grades there are half and quarter grades. The American cottons are graded as follows:

The following are a few of the leading varieties of cotton, with the numbers of yarn they will make:

During the last few years considerable discussion has taken place among mill men, both in this country and abroad, bearing upon the subject of moisture contained in baled cotton. Of course the natural moisture in the cotton fiber varies, as might be expected, from year to year, according to the character of the season during the picking. The standard of moisture is based upon what is known as regain, that is, if 100 parts of absolutely dry cotton are exposed to the air, they will absorb about 8½ per cent of moisture, although a much higher per cent is sometimes found.

In some of the small Southern mills located in the cotton raising section, the cotton is delivered by team direct from the gin, without going through the compress. In this way they save the greater part of transportation expense. They also save in the strength of the cotton fiber itself, since the process of compression injures the fiber. They get better cotton, being nearer the source of supply and having better opportunities for selection.

When the cotton arrives in the shape of a bale, it is necessary to cut ties and loosen up the cotton before use. This may be done in two ways. One method being to pull the bale apart by hand, and the other to pass it through a bale breaker or similar machine, which loosens up the cotton by means of beaters. It now starts on a continuous journey through successive machines until it is made into yarn. The yarn is made into a warp, and the warp interlaced with the filling yarn to make cloth, and the cloth finished for the market.

Not every country is adapted for making cotton yarn, for certain conditions are necessary to manufacture good yarn. If the atmosphere is too warm or too dry, the fibers will become brittle and will not twist well; if too wet they collapse and stick. Lancashire County, England, seems to have been fitted by nature for cotton spinning. It has just the right climate, a moist temperature, and copious water supply. There are hills on the east of the valley, forming a water shed, and the town lies in a basin covered with a bed of stiff clay, that holds the water, allowing it to evaporate just fast enough to keep the air in the moist condition needed to fit the fibers for weaving. Countries that have not these conditions are obliged to produce them by artificial means—humidifying, etc.