machine, the saws seize it and strip the
cotton from the seeds, which fall through grids placed below the saws.
The cotton is afterward stripped from the saws themselves by means of a
quickly revolving brush which turns in the opposite direction to the
saws. This gin is best suited to short stapled cottons, especially such
as are grown in the States. For the longer fibred cotton this gin is not
well adapted, much injury resulting to the cotton treated by it.

After the cotton is ginned, it is gathered into bundles and roughly
baled. When a sufficient quantity has been so treated, it is carried to
the "compressors," where the cotton undergoes great reduction in bulk as
a result of the enormous pressure to which it is subjected.

For the general reader it will scarcely be necessary or wise to describe
a "cotton press" in detail. Let it suffice to say that by means of a
series of levers--in the Morse Press seven are used--tremendous pressure
can be obtained. Thus for every 1 pound pressure of steam generated
there will be seven times that pressure, if seven levers are used. When
200 pounds pressure of steam is up, there will be 1400 pounds pressure
per inch on the cotton. So great is the pressure exerted that a bundle
of cotton coming to the press from the ginnery, 4 feet in depth, is
reduced to 7 inches when drawn from the compressor. While in the press
iron bands are put round the cotton, and readers will have frequently
seen cotton on its way to the mills having these iron bands round it.

The following table shows the number of bands which are found on bales
coming to England from cotton-growing countries:--

No. of bands. Weight in lbs.
American bale 6 or 7 500
Egyptian " 11 700
Indian " 13 390
Turkish " 4 250-325
American Cylindrical bale -- 420-430
Brazilian -- 175-220

Within the last few years an entirely new industry has been started in
some of the Southern States of America.

Up to recently the bales sent to European countries from America were
all of the same type as shown by the centre bale in Fig. 10.

Image: FIG. 10.--Bales from various cotton-growing countries.

Now a vast quantity of cotton is being baled in the form as shown in
Fig. 11, and what are known as cyli