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THE Cotton-twift company have between three and four hun- MANAGEMENT OF THE CHILDREN. dred apprentices, which they clothe and feed themselves, in commodious houfes built for that purpofe, the boys and girls in feparate houses. Thefe houfes are white-wafhed twice every year, are fumigated three times a week through every apartment, with fmoak of tobacco; befides this the fleeping-rooms are washed twice a week, and the bed-ftocks are frequently sprinkled with rectified oil of tar. All the windows in the fleeping-rooms open at the tops, by which a thorough draft of air is admitted during the whole time the children are at work. To thefe and other precautions the good state of health of fo many children may be justly attributed; for though the number of apprentices have not been lefs than 300 for thefe feven years paft, they have only buried feven. Their food for dinner is beef or pork and potatoes three or four times a week, the other days herrings and potatoes, or soup and bread and cheese, as much as they pleafe to eat. Their breakfafts and fuppers in fummer is milk and bread; in the winter, when milk cannot be had, they drink porridge or broth, with bread and cheese. A furgeon is appointed to fuperintend their health; and a Sunday fchool is regularly attended by a master at each house.

OUR little children fleep three in a bed, the larger fizes only two; and thofe who work in the night are fo far from fucceeding each other in the fame beds, that they do not even sleep in the fame rooms.

THEIR BEDS.

The

COTTON Wool is produced in the East and West Indies, and also in many other places. The Ifle of Bourbon, in the East Indies, furnishes the best; the next to this in quality, grows in the Portuguese fettlements in South America, from whence it is exported to Lisbon, and imported from thence to England in British bottoms, dutyfree. If in foreign bottoms, a penny per pound is paid. About fifteen years ago, not more than five hundred bags were cultivated in the Brazils; but of late years, on an average, fifty thoufand. The Dutch fettlements, fay Berbice and Surinam, fupply a confiderable quantity of good cotton, and comes to this country better cleaned than any other.

THE Cotton-plant grows naturally in China and India. The cultivation travelled weftward into Arabia, Perfia, and the Levant. It is alfo cultivated in the province of Valencia, in Spain, with vaft fuccefs. On the plains of that rich province, in good years, about four hundred and fifty thousand arrobas (of 26 lb. each) are `harvefted. I fuppofe all this to be manufactured in Spain, at left I do not hear of any being imported into our kingdoms.

COTTON

COTTON twift is fpun here of 130 hanks to the pound. Each hank is 840 yards long, fo that one pound of cotton thread thus fine will be 62 miles 80 yards long. The new principle (for it is not yet 30 years old) by which cotton wool is made fo perfect a thread, is by the use of iron-rollers moving horizontally; their fpeed is governed by brafs wheels of different fizes and numbers, calculated to produce what fineness is wanted; the twist required is given by the flier and spindle. The cotton-twift made here is fent chiefly into England and Scotland, to be woven into ginghams, muslins, muslinets, dimities, nankeens, fine callicoes, fuftians, &c. &c. which goods, when finished, are either admitted or smuggled into every part of the known world. It is introduced into every part of the Ruffian dominions, and even into the diftant Kamtfchatka.

A NUMBER of machines called Mules are also used here with MULES. fuccefs this machine is a compound of the water-engine and the spinning-jenny, and being of a mixed breed, was, I presume, the reafon of its being fo named. It is a machine particularly adapted to the spinning of fine yarns, and far exceeds every other yet difcovered for that purpose.

THE laft mill on the river is a corn-mill: a large building CORN-MILL. erected by the cotton-twift company, instead of the old one;

and

of another which stood a little lower down, on the fite of which stands part of the great cotton-mill.

THE length of the stream, from the fountain to the marsh, is one mile and two hundred and thirty-four yards. The following are the number of falls, from the level of the marsh to the fpring-head:

Ee

Parys

LENGTH OF THE
STREAM,

LET me conclude with remarking the vast population these companies have brought to the townships of Holywell and Greenfield. In refpect to the first, there is no great increase of building; but the latter has of late years received fuch an addition in works and in houses, that almoft the whole is a continued feries of edifices of different kinds, from the upper corn-mill quite to the fea-fide. Among them are a hundred and feventy-feven houses for workmen of different occupations, of which few indeed have been erected beyond my memory.

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