Before any cooperative is organized, investigations are made to ensure that (I) there are raw materials near at hand, (II) there is skilled workmanship available, and (III) there is a market for the finished product. Where these three do not co-exist at one place, a compromise of the most reasonable kind is effected if possible. Some examples--by no means exhaustive--of the adaptation of types of industry to meet local conditions are described as follows: _Wool_ ... In the beginning of 1939 woolspinners of Chentu were still using either the simple old whorl or the handturned wheel. The volume of production was very small. But during 1939 the C.I.C. embarked on a huge program of blanket production for the army, and improved streamlined treadle spinners were introduced, and thousands of men and women taught the technique of using them. Blankets were made at eight centers of west and northern China; everywhere improved woolspinning and woolweaving machines and techniques brought new productive power. During the winter of 1939-40, 400,000 blankets were turned out, and another million and a half will be made during the remainder of 1940. The wool used by the blanket-making cooperatives comes from the highlands of Chinghai, Kansu, Ningsia, and Shensi, and now instead of being carried raw to Tientsin or Shanghai as in the old days, it is being spun and woven near to the source of supply. Improvements are constantly being made--better machines, finer spinning, use of waterpower, better carding and finishing--so that the whole project works to raise the efficiency and living standard of the local people. _Cotton_. Wherever cotton is grown spinning and weaving cooperatives are numerous, for clothing is one of the fundamental needs of life.... _Grass Cloth_. Linen, or more correctly grass cloth, was introduced into Szechwan from Kwangtung generations ago, and now fine cloth is woven. Production thereof from ramie thread was at its height 20 years ago, but since then the craft has declined until recently, when the partial blockade of the war made the industry profitable again.... _Goldwashing_. Placer gold exists along every river in West China and in many parts of South China too. Even in Chungking one may see needy coolies scraping up and washing riverside mud for its tiny precious content.