An encyclopedia-style article by J. R. Fordyce, a ginning machinery manufacturer, describing how seed cotton is separated from its seed and baled in the early 1900s. It covers the churka, the Whitney saw gin, the McCarthy roller gin, the layout of a gin house, and each machine in sequence: telescope, pneumatic elevator, feeder, gin, flue, condenser and press. It also covers square and round bale presses, compresses, and the growth of US cotton exports and crop size. Illustrated with a line-drawing plate of cross-sections and a plate of photographs of a gin, a press and a ginnery.