Cotton 
11 
fuinots Central Kailroaa 
Fic. 9. Loading cotton on a Mississippi packet boat. One of these broad, flat-bottomed river 
boats, with the barges that it can tow, will transport thousands of bales of cotton. 
for automobiles. Moreover, most farmers of the South cannot afford 
to own so expensive a conveyance as a motor truck, especially since 
it is little needed except for the few months in the year when cot- 
ton is being transported. During much of the remainder of the 
time the truck would be idle, while the mule can then be used for 
plowing, drawing the planting machine, and cultivating. 
In the city, on the other hand, the motor truck is used economically 
to carry the bales to the factory, since the factory needs a constant 
supply at all seasons, and since the truck may be used also to take 
away cloth or even to bring coal and other supplies. Moreover, the 
truck is used far more economically on the paved city streets than 
on the dirt roads of country districts. 
COTTON MANUFACTURING 
We have followed cotton through two of the great fields with which 
commercial and industrial geography deals — primary production 
and transportation. Now we are ready to see what happens to it in 
the third great field — manufacturing. 
Manufacturing Processes 
How cotton is cleaned. In the cleaning room of the factory a 
workman swings an ax, the iron bands of the cotton bale are broken, 
and the cotton springs to double the size of the bale. At once it is 
thrown into a great bin where men loosen the large wads, and later