The Story of the Cotton Plant

ion of the round bale shown in Fig. n, it will be seen how readily this new form of bale lends itself to greatly aiding the operatives in the opening processes in the mill. The roll which lies on the floor like a roll of carpet could be so fixed that the cotton could be fed to the opener by being unrolled as shown in the illustration. At present the round bale system is not popular and it remains to be seen whether it will commend itself to cotton spinners. CHAPTER VI. MANIPULATION OF COTTON IN OPENING, SCUTCHING, CARDING, DRAWING, AND FLY-FRAME MACHINES. Before attempting to give the readers of this story an insight into the various operations through which cotton is made to pass, it may be advisable to briefly enumerate them first. On the field there are the operations of collecting and ginning, that is, separating the raw cotton from the seeds. To the stranger it is very astonishing that as many as 66 to 75 pounds of seed are got from every 100 pounds of seed cotton gathered. Then in or near the cotton field the process of baling is carried out. Thus there are collecting, ginning and baling, as preliminary processes. When the cotton arrives in bales at the mill (see Fig. 10), in which it is to be cleaned, opened and spun, it is first weighed and a record kept. In the mill the first real operation is the taking of quantities of cotton from different bales of cotton from various countries, or different grades from the same country, and "mixin...