rience of yarn salesmen that Lancashire produces an
increasingly large amount of specialities that indicate a continued
differentiation in trade. The tendency to spin finer counts has been to
some extent counteracted by the development of the flannelette trade,
for which heavy wefts are used, and there has been again a tendency
lately to use "condensor" or waste wefts, which has worked to the
disadvantage of the spinners of the regular coarse counts spun at Royton
and elsewhere. The demand for cloths which require careful handling and
regularity in weaving has helped to develop the supply of ring yarns
which will stand the strain of the loom better than mule twists. A great
amount of doubled and trebled yarn is now sold, though it does not
appear that recent expansions have added much to doubling spindles, and
considerable developments continue in the use of dyed and mercerized
yarns.

Yarns are sold according to their "actual" counts, though when they are
woven into cloth they frequently attain nominal or brevet rank. There
has been a long-continued discussion, which between buyer and seller
sometimes degenerates into a dispute, on the subject of moisture in
yarns, and the difficulty is not confined to the Lancashire industry.
The amount permissible, according to the recommendation of the
Manchester Chamber of Commerce, is 8%, but while it may be assumed that
yarns at the time of their sale rarely contain less than this, they
frequently contain a good deal more. It is a matter of experience that
cotton yarns which when spun contain only a small percentage of moisture
will absorb up to about 8% when they are exposed to what may be rather
vaguely described as natural conditions. The exigencies of competition
prompted the discovery that if yarn were sold by weight fresh from the
spindle its comparative dryness made such early sale less profitable
than if it were allowed to "condition." Between loss and delay the
spinner found an obvious alternative in damping the yarn artificially.
As it was often clearly to the advantage of the buyer that he should
receive immediate delivery he did not object to water in moderation, but
art soon began to run a little ahead of nature. The essentially
dishonest practice of deluging yarn with water, which has sometimes even
degenerated into the use of weighting materials deleterious to weaving,
has been recognized as a great nuisance, but while various attempts have
been made to protect the