CHAPTER V. MILL OPERATIONS

_Bale Opening_. Each spinner, as already indicated, stores his
bales of jute of various "marks," i.e. qualities, in a convenient
manner, and in a store or warehouse from which any required number
of bales of each mark can be quickly removed to the preparing
department of the mill.

In the woollen industry, the term "blending" is used to indicate the
mixing of different varieties of material (as well as different
kinds of fibres) for the purpose of obtaining a mixture suitable for
the preparing and spinning of a definite quality and colour of
material. In much the same way, the term "batching" is used in the
jute industry, although it will be seen shortly that a more
extensive use is made of the word. A "batch," in its simplest
definition, therefore indicates a number of bales which is suitable
for subsequent handling in the Batching Department. This number may
include 5, 6, 7 or more bales of jute according to the amount of
accommodation in the preparing department.

All the above bales of a batch may be composed of the same standard
quality of jute, although the marks may be different. It must be
remembered that although the marks have a distinct reference to
quality and colour, they actually represent some particular firm or
firms of balers or merchants. At other times, the batch of 5 to 10
bales may be composed of different qualities of jute, the number of
each kind depending partly upon the finished price of the yarn,
partly upon the colour, and partly upon the spinning properties of
the combination.