e various finishing treatments necessary to fit them for the market.
This method of disposing of the product appeals to many for it reduces
the manufacturing operations to the spinning of the yarn, and to the
weaving of the cloth. The owners or managers of the mills may have had no
experience outside of these branches, and if they themselves were to
attempt to finish, or "convert," the goods they would be entering strange
fields.

Whatever method of merchandising may be adopted, it is certainly obvious
that the product of large mills is so great that it must be disposed of
in a large way, and hence various channels of outlet have grown up to
satisfy the requirements of the case.

Dealing Direct With
Dry Goods Jobbers

A substantial portion of the output of the mills (but nothing like what
it was years ago, and it grows relatively smaller every year), is
disposed of directly to dry goods jobbing houses, and by them to retail
dealers, who sell it by the yard to the consumer. This practice was
formerly more widespread, but has diminished greatly in recent years. A
further enormous yardage passes eventually through the cutting-up houses,
which manufacture garments of every kind, from overalls to pajamas, or
from raincoats to shirts, and dispose of their products to distributors,
who eventually sell them to the public. Then there are retailers whose
requirements for goods of particular kinds are so considerable that their
orders are of sufficient magnitude to warrant the mills in dealing with
them direct.

Again, there are the great mail-order houses, with a gigantic annual
turnover, whose catalogues go to every part of the land, and which
handle great quantities of piece goods, as well as made-up garments, and
whose custom is eagerly sought for.

[Illustration: _Thousands of looms in a single room_]

Other mills make fabrics suitable for use in the military and naval
establishments of the country, and in other public channels, and which,
in selling these fabrics, will deal directly with the Government, or
indirectly through intermediaries.

In addition to these, and other domestic outlets, there is a great
quantity of goods produced for export, which are handled through houses
specially organized for that trade.

Merchandising by
Dry Goods Jobber

One of the oldest established agencies for handling mill products is the
dry goods jobber, and it is to be remarked that many large retail houses
do also a substa