The East Indian varieties are extremely variable in length, and also in relation to the quantity of weak fibres; the properties common to almost the whole being brown colour, and dirty and rough character of the cotton. It is chiefly used in Rossendale, Bury and Oldham for coarse counts. In the medium trade the fibre is subjected to no fewer than nine processes (each different, and sometimes duplicated or triplicated) before it arrives at the form of even thread known as yarn. In the fine trade two or three additional processes are added. [Illustration: PLATE I.--PLAN OF SHED. _To face pp. 16 and 18._] The spinning department, to describe it briefly, consists of:-- 1. _Mixing_ the cotton in stacks to secure thorough blending of various qualities, and elimination of the unevenness present in different bales or parts of one bale. Then commence processes for cleansing, viz.:-- 2. _Opening_ or passing the matted pieces of the bales through a series of armed beaters having the functions of both separating the material into small flakes and removing the heavier impurities contained in it, such as sand and seeds. 3. _Scutching._--In this process a wing beater, revolving at a speed of 11/1500 revolutions per minute, removes the remainder of the heavy dirt, delivering the material in the form of a lap or roll of cotton. This process is repeated. 4. _Carding._--Here, by means of revolving cylinders covered with fine wire teeth, and combing the cotton against other cylinders or plates similarly covered, the light impurities--leaf, dust, short and weak fibres--are extracted, and the lap attenuated into a thin sliver, in which the fibres are laid in such a position as to be easily drawn parallel at the drawing process. These four kinds of cleaning machinery remove impurities and other matter foreign to the nature of cotton, to the extent of about 10 per cent., taking middling American cotton. 5. _Combing._--The long fibres are here separated from the short, thus enabling a portion of the cotton to be used for spinning finer yarns than the bulk would spin. It is only in the mills spinning yarns above, say 80’s, that this process is found; in ordinary, the custom is to go direct from carding to 6. _Drawing._--A simple process repeated for yarn up to 30’s, used three times up to 60’s, and four processes are used above this. The machine has for its object the levelling of the slivers, six of which are placed together and drawn six times the original length. When this has been repeated once or twice, the sliver becomes very even and silky in consequence of all the fibres having had the curl taken out and been laid parallel to each other.