cotton-growing districts in America, was estimated a few years ago at 32; the proportion of young persons not yet arrived at their full strength, and of elderly people still capable of some degree of labour, 25; the remaining 43 being composed of children under 14 years of age, and superannuated persons, none of whom are capable of any but very light work, such as weeding and picking the cotton. There is reason to believe, however, that these ratios vary at different times. It was estimated in 1836, that the whole quantity of land cultivated for cotton in the United States was two millions of acres; that the capital employed for the purpose was 800,000,000 or 900,000,000 dollars; and that the whole number of persons engaged in field labour, picking, and otherwise assisting in the cultivation of cotton, and raising their own provisions, was about 680,000. If to these were added the aged, the infirm, and the very young children composing the families of the labourers, besides overseers, owners, and their respective families dependent on the cotton crop, it was supposed that a million of persons were at that time engaged in the growing of cotton in the United States. Of later estimates we shall speak presently. The extension of the cultivation in the United States is noteworthy. In the year 1786 no part of our supply was obtained from that country; indeed it was not until the year 1800 that the amount thence obtained became otherwise than insignificant. During the present century the advance has been quite unprecedented. In the eight years 1850 to 1857, both inclusive, the produce rose to millions of bales annually. To appreciate the full force of these numbers, it may be well to notice that the weight of an average bale of United States cotton varied in those years from 418 lbs. to 445 lbs., giving a mean of about 430 lbs.* The total produce at the following periods, with the portion of it which was exported from the United States to Great Britain and other countries, was (in round numbers), as follows:

The difference between the total produce and the quantity exported represents pretty nearly the quantity worked up in the cotton mills of the United States. Applying the mean of 430 lbs. per bale, we shall find that on an average of the eight years, 1850-1857, the United States grew 2,960,000 bales, or 1,272,000,000 lbs. of cotton annually, of which 2,290,000 bales or 985,000,000 lbs. were sold to other countries. The prices of United States cotton have varied considerably. In the year 1806 they ranged from 15d. to 24d. per lb.; in 1820, from 11d. to 17d.; in 1830, from 7d. to 9d. In 1845 the quality called "middling bowed" was 42d.; and in 1848 it was 41d. Taking all the qualities together, the average price varied, in the eight years from 1850 to 1857, at New York, from 4 d. to 12 d. per lb., and the aggregate yearly values varied, in round numbers, from 21,700,000/. to 36,000,000l., which was the value in 1857. When the price at Liverpool is 4d. per lb., it is considered that this is made up thus: 3d. for all expenses and profit of growing, and 1d. for further expenses till warehoused at Liverpool.

In 1857 the cotton manufacturers of Great Britain became very uneasy at their prospects of a supply of raw mat rial. Their dependence on the United States was rendered every day more and more evident. Deficient crops and increasing demand drove up the price from 8.74 cents in 1855 to 12.75 cents in 1857. The American planters actually received most money in the year when the crop was smallest-showing how much there was in the trade partaking of the nature of a monopoly: a monopoly brought about, however, by our exclusive or protecting legislation. The English demand began to overtake the American supply about the year 1845; and ever since that date the state of the cotton crops in the United States has been a subject of yearly anxiety to the Lancashire manufacturers. What foundation there may be for hopes in other quarters, will be seen in the third article of this series; but the pressing question with manufacturers at present is-Can the United States produce be so increased in quantity as to be lessened in price? The chief cotton States are Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia; these produce five-sixths of the total quantity. It may

* It is necessary to bear in mind the singular variations in the weight of bales of cotton; otherwise the comparison between the produce of different years and different countries will lead to fallacious results. Some cottongrowing countries uniformly employ larger bales than others; while nearly all have exhibited a gradual increase in weight, possibly due to closer and more perfect packing. The bales of United States cotton have gradually increased from about 215 lbs. to an average of 430 lbs. during the present century. During the last eight years (1851-1858) the average weights of bales have ranged

as follow:

Some of the planters, believing England to be wholly at their mercy, advise a restriction rather than an extension of growth, in order that prices may be driven up still higher and higher. The merchants of New York, New Orleans, and the other shipping ports, however, more interested in the quantity of cotton to be shipped than in the price per pound, are making speculative estimates concerning the probable and possible in the cotton culture. Some computers, glancing at the capabilities of various parts of the United States, assert that there are 39 millions of acres of land fitted for growing cotton; that these would require 5 millions of slaves to tend them; and that the produce might be 8000 million pounds of cotton annuallymany times the quantity at present worked in all the mills in the world. Hence there has been a sort of special pleading, to the effect that if Christendom would silently acquiesce in a renewal of the slave trade, there might be such an influx of slaves in the United States, and such an increased area of ground laid down in cotton, as to insure a lessening of price to English manufacturers. There are, on the other hand, many reasons for thinking that slave labour is really more costly than free labour; and that we ought to look rather to an increased supply of cotton from the East Indies and elsewhere, than to an extension of slave-raised produce in the United States. It would indeed be grievous if the hateful institution of slavery should be encouraged by the demand of England for raw cotton. There are agencies now at work which encourage a hope that such an evil may be averted.

South American Cotton.-The remaining portion of the American continent, as cotton growing districts, need not engage any lengthened

attention.

The immense empire of Brazil does not occupy the rank which is due to it as a cotton-producing country. The total produce in sixteen years only varied from 19,000,000 lbs. to 35,000,000 lbs; 1847 giving the smallest quantity, and 1850 the largest. The average may be five causes: the abolition of the external slave trade, the deerness of about 25,000,000 lbs. This stagnant condition has been attributed to labour, the ravages of insects, the peculiarities of climate, and the inaccessibility of the interior. Writers in the United States, especially those in the slave-holding interest, endeavour to show that all these difficulties must continue to prevent Brazil from being a flourishing cotton-growing country. There are other parties, however, who advocate the construction of a railway from Bahia into the interior, to a large district said to be eminently fitted for the culture. The Brazilian cotton is of good quality; and there certainly seems to be no sufficient reason for a continuance of the present apathy. connection with this subject. The coast districts of Peru and Chili The other regions of South America need scarcely be named in have been found suitable for cotton cultivation; but the state of industrial enterprise has not hitherto been such as to lead to any considerable production.

West India Cotton.-It has already been stated that England relied upon the West Indies mainly for cotton, at a time when scarcely any was grown in the United States. In 1786 one-third of the English consumption was brought from the British West Indies, one-third from the foreign West Indies, one-quarter from Brazil, and the small remainder from the Levant. The British West Indian portion rose a little during the remaining years of the century; but from 1801 till the present time there has been a signal falling off. The yearly average quantity has gradually decreased from 84,000 bales in the five years, 1806-10, equivalent to the total production; seeing that nearly all the British to 11,000 bales in the seven years, 1851-57. These quantities are nearly West India cotton has been brought to Great Britain. The diminution has been attributed to several causes: the withering results of " protection," the maladministration of colonial affairs, supineness on the part of the colonists, and the scarcity of labourers since the abolition of slavery. The last is believed to be the more immediate cause of the backwardness of the culture at the present day. The free negroes will not work hard; as a class they prefer easy labour and small wages. The other labourers are Creoles, Coolies, and Portuguese. The planters are now urgently soliciting the British government for permission to import labourers from Africa, India, and China; but so strong is the apprehension of a revival of the slave-trade, as a consequence of this permission, that a disinclination at present exists to grant the necessary facilities. Demerara declares that she could increase her produce of cotton immensely, if the immigration of free labourers were allowed. Many planters strongly assert that free labour is in the end cheaper than slave labour. Lord Brougham, at the annual meeting of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, in May, 1858, said: "I find

What was done in this matter, we shall see presently, in connection with the Cotton Supply Association.

Egyptian Cotton.-Until about thirty years ago, Egypt produced cotton only in small quantities; but the introduction of good seed and improved methods of culture by the energetic pacha, Mohamet Ali, led to a marked advance. England first imported cotton from Egypt in 1823. In 1855, Mr. Clegg, from inquiries made at Alexandria, computed that there were 60,000,000 lbs. of cotton grown annually. England takes far more than half the produce, the next best customers being France and Austria. The small excess above the quantities so exported is worked up in the cotton mills of Egypt. North African Cotton. It was in the year 1850 that the French government first began to direct attention to the cultivation of cotton in Algeria. A portion of the coast was found to possess a soil and climate fitted for this plant. In 1855 there were 150 exhibitors of Algerian cotton at the Paris Industrial Exposition. In that year, about 9000 acres of land were under cotton culture. In 1856 and 1857, the produce fell off in quantity, supposed to be owing to a rush of cultivators into the trade who had neither the requisite capital nor skill. There is, however, no reason to doubt that a steady increase of produce will be exhibited in future years, even though it may never reach any important amount. Along the further portion of the African coast, towards the Atlantic, there is not at present cotton grown in a regular way for the European market; but the English manufacturers are endeavouring to encourage it, by sending good seed, and making known better modes of culture; and the sovereigns of Morocco and Tunis seem well disposed to second these endeavours. West African Cotton.-Considering the nature of the climate and the abundance of labour at the west, or rather north-west, coast of Africa, there is every reason to think that cotton might be extensively grown in that region. Mr. Clegg, on the part of the Lancashire manufacturers, in conjunction with the Church Missionary Society, has brought this subject under the notice of the authorities at Sierra Leone, Lagos, Fernando Po, Liberia, and the interior. In the year 1852 there were 1810 lbs. of cotton brought to Liverpool from that region; it gradually rose, until the first four months of 1858 exhibited an import of 96,000 lbs. Mr. Clegg's own account of his operations, communicated to the Society of Arts in December, 1858, is full of interest: "Some ten years ago, seeing the importance of the subject, he thought he would, as an individual, see if he could not get cotton from somewhere else than America. He turned his attention to Africa; and he asked the Church Missionary Society, of which he was a member, to select for him suitable agents, to whom he could entrust money for the purchase of cotton from the African natives. He made arrangements always to have money on the spot, in the hands of the agents; and his instructions were, that they should purchase the cotton of the natives in however small parcels it might be brought to them ; if only half a pound had been plucked from the plants, they were to buy it. The consequence was, that in a short time the women brought small quantities of cotton to the stations: this was communicated to their neighbours; and in a little while afterwards seed was planted, and the cotton growth became more and more plentiful. He sent out a number of cotton gins, which the natives soon learned to He also erected a store, and placed a large number of gins in it. The natives brought the cotton in pods and in seed, and they learned to clean it; and after using a gin sufficiently long to pay the expense of it, they shouldered the implement and carried it off as their own property, to be used hereafter in dressing the cotton they brought for sale. He had introduced three young African natives into his mill at Manchester, where they had been taught the use of machinery generally; and they had been sent back to their own country, to carry out the preparation of cotton upon a larger scale." Mr. Clegg estimates that West African cotton can be sold at Liverpool for 41d. per lb., made up thus:

use.

If the cotton were of fairly good quality, and moderately clean, it would meet with eager purchasers at anything near this price.

South African Cotton.-Whether the region around the Cape of Good Hope could produce cotton of a quality and price that would compete with that of America in the English market, is a problem not yet answered; there is not at present an organisation sufficient for ensuring a due and steady supply of labour. Attention is, however, at present directed to a part of Africa north of the Cape, scarcely known to Europe until Dr. Livingstone visited it. This skilful and energetić traveller, in passing through the country of Angola, saw the native women spinning cotton with spindle and distaff. "The cotton was brought to the market for sale, and I bought a pound for a penny; this was the price demanded, and probably double what they ask from each other. We saw cotton growing luxuriantly all around the marketplace from seed dropped accidentally. This is seen also about the

ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL, III,

native huts; and so far as I could learn, it was the American cotton so influenced as to be perennial." He found an abundance of willing labourers; but no roads from the cotton-fields to the sea-coast. "I found the people were anxious to engage in commerce with us; but they had no roads, nor pathways down to the coast; and although 100,000l. worth was annually exported in ivory, bees'-wax, and palmoil, yet every ounce thus procured was taken down to the coast on the heads and shoulders of men." M. Canto, Portuguese commandant of Gelanjo Alto, on one occasion said to Livingstone, "If I had possession of a few hundred pounds, I would create a complete revolution in the commerce of this country; I would purchase all the cotton now produced, and certainly next year they would produce much more; and then the third year I could make myself rich with a few hundred pounds." When Dr. Livingstone returned to Africa in 1858, he took with him a few bushels of very fine cotton seed, to encourage the natives to grow cotton fitted for the English market, hoping that roads and other facilities would gradually be obtained. In a debate in the House of Commons on the Slave Trade, on July 12th, 1858, Lord Palmerston expressed himself thus strongly: "I venture to say that your commerce with the (south) western coast of Africa in the article of cotton will, in a few years, prove to be far more valuable than that of any other portion of the world-the United States alone excepted." Miscellaneous Cotton Districts.-All the remaining cotton-growing districts may be passed over briefly. Asiatic Turkey used formerly to be a great source of supply for England; but the portion furnished has now become very small-partly because the inhabitants of Asia Minor and Syria have introduced the cotton manufactures among themselves, and partly because the portion exported goes to France rather than to England. It is believed that, so far as natural capabilities are concerned, the produce in Western Asia might be immense; but to develope this produce would require irrigation, good seed, capital, energy, and skill. Spain and Italy grow a little cotton, but it is too little to need attention here. Australia has been examined in certain places, with a view to ascertain whether the soil and climate are suited for cotton culture. There is a district, measuring about 300 miles by 100, near Moreton Bay, which is believed to possess many of the requisite qualities; but the scarcity of cheap labour is at present an insuperable difficulty.

To what extent the several countries of the world consume the cotton thus grown, is a subject treated in a separate article [COTTON TRADE AND CONSUMPTION]; we have here purposely confined our attention almost exclusively to growth and supply.

(First and Second Annual Reports of the Cotton Supply Association, 1858 and 1859; Ellison, Handbook of the Cotton Trade, 1858; Royle, Culture of Cotton in India; Mackay, Reports of Cotton Culture in Western India; Livingstone's Travels in Africa; Jury Reports on the Great Exhibitions of London and Paris in 1851 and 1855; M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, last edition; Liverpool and Manchester Trade Circulars; New York and New Orleans Trade Circulars; Baynes' and Bazley's Lectures on the Cotton Manufactures; Consular Reports on the Trade of Foreign Countries; Board of Trade Tables: Parliamentary Papers; United States' Statistical Tables.)

COTTON MANUFACTURE. We now arrive at the second of the three divisions into which it has been deemed desirable to group the information concerning cotton; namely, the manufacturing processes, in their history and their practice.

The use of cotton as a material for the production of woven fabrics, was known in India and China for many centuries before its introduction into Europe. The carliest mention of cotton by the Greek writers is by Herodotus (iii. 106) in his brief notice of the usages of the Indi: he calls it (iii. 47) by the significant name of tree-wool (elpiov and uλov), apparently not being acquainted with the native name. In the reign of Amasis, B.C. 563-525, cotton was known in Egypt; but it must have been imported, for there is no reason for supposing it was then grown in Egypt. Cotton cloths were, according to Arrian, among the articles which the Romans received from India; and there is no doubt the manufacture had been carried on in many parts of Asia, long before any extant notice of that quarter of the world being visited by Europeans. The perfection to which the weaving of cotton had then been brought by the natives of many parts of India, notwithstanding their rude and imperfect implements, attests at once their patience and ingenuity. In China, this manufacture is supposed not to have existed at all before the beginning of the sixth century of the Christian era. The cotton plant was indeed known in that country at a much earlier period, but continued till then to be cultivated only as a garden shrub, and was not indeed propagated on a large scale until the eleventh century; at the present time nearly all the inhabitants of that populous empire are clothed in cotton cloths of home manufacture, made from cotton brought in part from India, but mostly of home growth.

Before the discovery of the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope, cotton wool is said to have been spun and woven in some of the Italian states, the traders of which were the channels through which the cotton fabrics of India were distributed to the different countries of Europe. Becoming thus acquainted with these goods, and having near at hand the raw material of which they were formed, it was natural that they should apply to the production of similar goods the manufacturing skill they had long possessed.

Baines has shown ('History of the Cotton Manufacture,') that the cotton plant was extensively cultivated, and its produce manufactured, by the Mohammedan possessors of Spain in the tenth century. This branch of industry flourished long in that country. In the thirteenth century the cotton manufacturers formed one of the incorporated companies of Barcelona, in which city two streets received names which point them out as the quarter in which the manufacturers resided. The cloths made were mostly of coarse texture, and a considerable quantity was used as sail-cloth. The name fustians, from the Spanish word fuste, signifying "substance," was borrowed from the Spanish weavers, and is still used to denote a strong fabric made of cotton. The intercourse between the Mohammedan possessors of Spain and the Christian inhabitants of other European countries was so small, owing to religious prejudice, that the arts which long flourished among the former, did not extend themselves to the latter; the traffic of Andalusia was all carried on with Africa and the East. From Italy the cotton manufacture made its way to the Netherlands, and about the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century was brought thence to England by protestant refugees. Lewis Roberts, in 'The Treasure of Traffic,' published in 1641, makes the earliest mention extant of the manufacture in England. He says, "The town of Manchester buys cotton wool from London that comes from Cyprus and Smyrna, and works the same into fustians, vermilions, and dimities."

There is abundant evidence to show that in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and probably before that time, cotton was cultivated and converted into clothing in most of the countries occupying the southern shores of the Mediterranean. The European conquerors of Mexico in their first invasion of that country found in use native manufactures of cotton, both unmixed and mixed with the fine hair of rabbits and hares. Some of these fabrics were sent by Cortes to Spain as presents to the Emperor Charles V. Cotton was cultivated and manufactured at an equally early period by different nations on the

coast of Guinea, and it is stated by Macpherson in his 'Annals of Commerce,' that cotton cloths were imported into London in 1590, from the Bight of Benin.

It would be difficult to trace the introduction of the cotton manufacture in the different countries of Europe where it is now established but some notice of its recent progress and present state therein will be found in the next following article.

In England, previous to the introduction of the inventions of Arkwright, this manufacture was of small importance, as is evident from the quantities of the raw material then brought into the country. Arkwright's first patent for the mode of spinning by rollers was taken out in 1769; and between the years 1776 and 1780 the average annual consumption barely reached seven millions of pounds. The system under which this manufacture was long carried on was very different from that which is now pursued. It was the custom for the weavers who were dispersed in cottages throughout the district to purchase the material with which they worked, and having converted it into cloths, to carry their wares to market and sell them on their own account to the dealers; but about 1760, the merchants of Manchester began to employ the weavers-furnishing them with yarn for warp, and with raw cotton to be spun by the weaver's family into weft, and paying a fixed price for the labour bestowed in weaving. The application of machinery to the preparation and spinning of raw cotton for weft preceded by some years the inventions of Arkwright. In the year 1760, or soon after, a carding engine not very different from that now used was contrived by James Hargreaves, an illiterate weaver, residing near Church in Lancashire; and in 1767 the spinning-jenny was invented by the same person. This machine, as at first formed, contained eight spindles, which were made to revolve by means of bands from a horizontal wheel. Subsequent improvements increased the power of the spinning-jenny to eighty spindles, and the wheel was placed vertically, as in the annexed cut :-where the rovings (1), clasped and drawn by the frame (5), are transferred in an attenuated state from the spindles (3) to (4). The saving of labour which it thus

occasioned produced considerable alarm among those persons who had employed the old mode of spinning; and a party of them broke into Hargreaves' house and destroyed his machine. The great advantage of the invention was so apparent, however, that it was soon again brought into use, and nearly superseded the employment of the old spinningwheel. A second rising then took place of the persons whose labour was thus superseded by it; they went through the country destroying, wherever they could find them, both carding and spinning machines, by which means the manufacture was for a time driven away from Lancashire to Nottingham.

The cotton-yarn produced both by the common spinning wheel and the spinning-jenny, though suitable for weft or cross-threads, could not be made sufficiently strong to be used as warp or long-threads; and, therefore, linen-yarn was used for the last-named purpose. It was not until Arkwright's spinning frame was brought into successful operation that this disadvantage was overcome. Yarn spun with Hargreaves' jenny continued for some time to be used for weft. At first, the manufacturers of cloths composed of cotton only were subject to much annoyance from the determination of the revenue officers to charge them with double the duty paid upon calicoes woven with linen warp

and printed for exportation; and also by prohibiting their use at home. With some difficulty an act of parliament was obtained for removing these obstacles to the development of the manufacture, which from that time was prosecuted with a great and continually accelerated rate of increase.

The earliest attempts at producing the finer cotton goods called muslins were made about the year 1780; but without much success, although India-spun yarn was substituted as weft for that produced by the spinning-jenny: the greatest degree of fineness to which yam spun with Arkwright's frame had then been brought, was eighty hanks to the pound, and even this degree was not attainable by means of the jenny. This disadvantage was overcome by the invention of Samuel Crompton's machine, whch came into general use about the year 1786, and which, partaking of the nature of both Hargreaves' and Arkwright's machines, was aptly called the mule-jenny. By means of this piece of mechanism, yarns were produced of a much greater fineness than had before been attained. Crompton's invention was made several years before it could be openly used, because of its interference with the patented invention of Arkwright; but when this patent was annulled, the mule-jenny was brought rapidly and exten

Crompton did not secure to himself the benefit of his invention by taking out a patent; he carried on a spinning and weaving business on a small scale at Bolton, and worked his mule-jenny with his own hands in an attic. In a brief memoir of Crompton, Mr. Kennedy has stated, that about 1802 he, in conjunction with Mr. Lee, set on foot a subscription which amounted to 500l. and that with this fund Crompton was enabled to increase his manufacturing establishment, and to set up several looms for fancy work in Bolton. In 1812 Crompton made a survey of all the cotton manufacturing districts in the kingdom, and ascertained that the number of spindles then at work upon his principle amounted to between four and five millions. The kind friends already named assisted him in making an application to parliament for some reward; and the great merit of his invention having been established before a Committee of the House of Commons, he received a grant of 50007., which was paid to him in full without any deduction for fees or charges. This money was employed by Crompton in putting his sons into business; but they proved unsuccessful, and he was reduced to poverty. Mr. Kennedy again interfered in his behalf, and raised a second subscription, with the produce of which a life annuity of 631. was purchased. Crompton lived only two years to enjoy this small provision. The first mule-jennies consisted of not more than thirty spindles each, but the number has been progressively increased, and they now frequently contain from 600 to 1000 spindles each, or even a still greater number. The next great improvement in the construction of this machine was effected by Messrs. Sharp, Roberts & Co., machinists of Manchester. Their machines, which are called self-acting mules, do not require the manual aid of a spinner, the only attendance necessary being that of children, called piecers, who join such threads as may be accidentally broken. Self-acting mules were contrived at different times by Mr. William Strutt of Derby, Mr. Kelly of Lanark, Mr. De Jongh of Warrington, and others; but none of these were brought successfully into use, owing, no doubt, in some measure, to the inferior skill of the machine makers of those days.

Another event which contributed to the rapid extension of the cotton manufacture, was the successful attempt to weave by means of machinery, made in 1785 by Dr. Cartwright, who secured the invention by patent. In a commercial point of view Dr. Cartwright did not draw any advantage from his power-loom; but in 1809 he obtained from parliament a grant of 10,000l. as a reward for his ingenuity. Mr. Monteith, of Pollokshaws, Glasgow, who fitted up 200 power-looms in 1801, was the first person who brought them to profitable use. A great obstacle to their success was presented by the necessity for the frequent stopping of the machine in order to dress the warp. This difficulty was removed in 1804 by the invention of a machine for dressing the whole of the warp before it is placed in the loom, which was made the subject of a patent by Mr. Radcliffe, the inventor. In the use of this machine the warp in its progress to the weaving beam is passed through a dressing of hot starch: it is then compressed between rollers to free it from the superfluous quantity of starch taken up; and afterwards, in order to dry it, the warp is drawn over a succession of cylinders heated by passing steam through them. By this means the weaver is relieved from the necessity of stopping from his weaving to dress the warp.

The machines and apparatus of recent introduction, connected with the cotton manufacture, almost countless as they are in number, are rather extensions and improvements of systems already known, than

inventions partaking of the capital importance of those of Arkwright, Hargreaves, Crompton, Cartwright, Radcliffe, and Roberts. Instead of attempting the hopeless task of describing the various modern inventions, we shall proceed at once to a description of the processes in their ordinary routine. The cotton fibres have to be spun into yarn or thread before they can be woven into calico, fustian, muslin, or other textile material; and this spinning is the most important part of the whole operation. Nevertheless it can be effected, in a slow way, with few and rude implements. Among all the ancient mechanical arts there were few so simple as that of converting the downy filaments of the cotton plant into a continuous thread according to the methods generally used before the time of Hargreaves and Arkwright. The same primitive methods are still employed in eastern countries. There are, on the other hand, few processes for the performance of which the inventive powers of man have since that period been more taxed, in this country and during this age of invention, than for the cheap and perfect production of cotton twist and yarn. The use of the spindle and distaff was superseded in England by the spinning-wheel, in or soon after the reign of Henry VIII. The next improvements in this useful art were those of Hargreaves and Arkwright; which were followed by the whole train of novelties just adverted to.

One of the first processes in a cotton mill is that of mixing the fibres. Owing to the great variety generally found in the quality of different bags of cotton, which would otherwise occasion a corresponding difference in the quality of the yarn produced, the contents of several bags are mixed together in a heap. This is done by spreading out the contents of each bag in a horizontal layer of uniform thickness, the contents of the several bags forming separate layers and resting one upon the other, so that the number of layers corresponds to the number of bags. In making this heap, which is called a bing or bunker, the several layers are trampled or pressed together somewhat in the manner of building a hay-stack. The cotton of which the bing is composed is then torn down by a rake from top to bottom. It is evident that in its progress a portion of each horizontal layer will be brought away, and that thus, if the work be skilfully done, the contents of the different bags must be collected together in a mass of uniform quality. It is customary to mix in this manner different descriptions of raw cotton for the production of various qualities of yarn; and some skill on the part of the manufacturer is called for in order to produce a mass that will answer the intended purpose at the least possible cost. The practice of different spinners varies much in this respect, but it is considered proper as a general rule to mix together only such qualities as are similar in the length of their staple. The waste cotton produced in the previous operations of the mill is mixed in the bing in certain proportions for making the lower or coarser qualities of yarn. For the higher or finer numbers, and for twist which is used for warp, finer qualities of cotton are required than for low numbers or for weft. It may here be mentioned that in the technical language of the trade, high numbers,' meaning fine yarns, denote a great number of hanks to the pound; while 'low numbers,' meaning coarse yarns, denote a smaller number of hanks to th's pound.

When the cotton has been mixed, the machine next employed is usually the Scutching or Willowing Machine. This is used to open the