nufacturers prefer a cheap curd soap, such as is generally termed
"second curd," and in cases where lower grades of wools are handled, the
user is often willing to have soap containing rosin (owing to its
cheapness) and considers a little alkalinity desirable to assist in
removing the oil.

Another operation in which soap is used, is that of milling or fulling,
whereby the fabric is made to shrink and thus becomes more compact and
closer in texture. The fabric is thoroughly cleansed, for which purpose
the soap should be neutral and free from rosin and silicates, otherwise
a harsh feeling or stickiness will be produced. Curd soaps or
finely-fitted soaps made from tallow or bleached palm oil, with or
without the addition of cocoa-nut oil, give the best results. All traces
of soap must be carefully removed if the fabric is to be dyed.

The woollen dyer uses soap on the dyed pieces to assist the milling,
and finds that a good soap, made from either olive oil, bleached palm
oil, or tallow, is preferable, and, although it is generally specified
to be free from alkali, a little alkalinity is not of consequence, for
the woollen goods are, as a rule, acid after dyeing, and this alkalinity
would be instantly neutralised.

2. _Cotton Industry._--Cotton fibres are unacted upon by caustic alkali,
so that the soap used in cleaning and preparing cotton goods for dyeing
need not be neutral, in fact alkalinity is a distinct advantage in order
to assist the cleansing.

Any curd soap made from tallow, with or without the addition of a small
quantity of cocoa-nut oil, may be advantageously used for removing the
natural oil.

In cotton dyeing, additions of soap are often made to the bath, and in
such cases the soap must be of good odour and neutral, lest the colours
should be acted upon and tints altered. Soaps made from olive oil and
palm oil are recommended. The same kind of soap is sometimes used for
soaping the dyed cotton goods.

The calico-printer uses considerable quantities of soap for cleansing
the printed-cloths. The soap not only cleanses by helping to remove the
gummy and starchy constituents of the adhering printing paste, but also
plays an important part in fixing and brightening the colours. Soaps
intended for this class of work must be quite neutral (to obviate any
possible alteration in colour by the action of free alkali), free from
objectionable odour and rosin, and readily soluble in water. These
qualities are pos