Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-25
SAND IN COTTON.
what the People OF England Say of
American Cotton.
Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial


Results of a careful investigation made by
our consul at Manchester, England, and re-
ferred to the state department, show that
producers and shippers of cotton in the
United States ought to take some action for
the purpose of preventing frauds by which
English buyers are constantly suffering loss.
So many complaints have been made within
the last year about the mixture of sand
water and other substances with cotton ex-,
ported that Consul Shaw began an exhaust
i've inquiry among consumers OF American
cotton in the cotton-spinniDg district of
which Manchester is the center. Complaints
about the Use of sand in bales, to increase
their weight, were more numerous than COM
plants of other kinds. Mr.. Shaw says the
cases presented were of the most shameful
description, and that the answers to his ques-
tions. were humiliating to an American.
Hundreds of tons of sand are bought and
paid for at the price of cotton every year in
Oldham. The sand is apparently thrown
into the cotton by the sboveifull while
packing a bale, and sometimes nearly
enc hundred pounds are found in one
bale. In many cases from twenty to
eighty pounds are found in the middle
Of bale. A Preston spinner asserted
that the use of sand was peculiar to
American producers and shippers. Some
times sand seems to have been blown into
The cotton by some process. A Stockport
spinner bought one hundred bales, one quar-
ter of which were laden with fine red sand,
the weight being from nine to twenty six per
cent. A Warrington firm has made tests to
discover the average amount of sand in the
cotton which they were using-strictly good
and ordinary good Texas and New Orleans.
The amount ranged from twelve and half
to tw twenty-five per cent. The whole weight
and average was seventeen and half per
cent. In their opinion sand had been will |
fully put into the bales. Their average loss |
has been at least ten per cent 1t WAS re-
ported that adulteration ia much greater than |
it was before the war. One consumer asserts |
that he found ninety-four pounds OF sand in |
the middle of a bale, and in another a piece |
OF iron weighing fifteen pounds. Samuel |
Andrews, of Oldham, writes to Mr.. Shaw |
that he has known factories to work tor |
months without profit, simply because of 50 |
much sand in the cotton that it had to be |
wheeled out by the barrow full. 81 should |
not be overstatipg the truth" he says, Gin |
saying that Oldham purchases at the price of |
cotton thousands of tons of white and red !
sand every year."
Another spinner says there is no cotton so |
easy or so pleasant to spin American, but |
so much fraud prevails in its packing that ii |
loses thereby much of the preference it would |
otherwise obtain.
1t is suggested as a remedy that the planter |
and packer should be required to stamp |
their names on the outside and the inside of |
each bale. The cotton sometimes comes in |
layers of different quality, and it is said that
in many instances water in large quantities |
seems to have been thrown into bales to in
crease the weight. The amount of weight !
caused by damPue IL sometimes fifteen per |
cent. The cotton from Egypt and India is
free from damp. The enactment of laws
against aduiteratiou have made cotton from
the East much cleaner and drier than that
from America and it is baled or packed in
more satisfactory way. Mr.. Shaw says there
IS no doubt of the use OF sand aud water 10
increase the weight of our cotton, and he
urges that honest dealers should unite in a
to prevent such frauds.