In a weaving mill there is no more important process than sizing, and on its satisfactory management depends the quality and quantity of work turned off, and probably the success of the concern. This is exemplified by the anxiety of a manufacturer to get hold of those recipes well known as obtaining good results. The sale of a shirting, domestic, drill, or heavily sized cloth, absolutely depends on the satisfactory sizing, whilst the cost of making it is regulated by the production of the looms. This has been known in many instances to vary 2s. per loom per week, in the use of a good mixing and a bad one. Cotton warp will not weave well without the previous application of some strengthening substance. In the loom the tension on the threads is great, and whilst distended--and therefore in the most favourable condition for being chafed--the healds with alternate vertical motion, and the reed with reciprocating horizontal motion, rub the threads so severely as to fray them to pieces, unless sized. This point was recognised and counteracted, even in the hand loom days, as mentioned in Chapter I. In sizing, the objects are to press into the thread a mixture of suitable ingredients, so as to strengthen the yarn, smoothen it, and lay the fibres which project from the surface of the thread, thus increasing the strength, and at the same time reducing the amount of fluff at weaving; also to give to the yarn and cloth the requisite appearance of toughness, strength or body, known technically as the “feel.” It is in the sizing that the “boardy,” “leathery,” “clothy” feels or grip are produced. Another very important object of this process is the introduction into low classes of cloth of an additional weight of foreign substances. We have not here to deal with the debated and debateable point of its honesty or otherwise, but how the object may best be attained; so long as heavily sized pieces will be bought, so long will they be made, and no blame can, at all events, be attached to the manufacturer. He profits not by the weight, unless unscrupulous, for the price obtained for the piece of cloth is not based on the total weight, but on the amount of cotton contained in it. Frequently the state of the market allows a greater profit out of pure sized goods.