=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.