The term "quality" has far-reaching effects on all segments of the textile industry--from producer to manufacturer to consumer. Two important factors currently considered to adversely affect quality are bark contamination in cotton and white specks in finished goods. Bark contamination causes cotton to be discounted in grade, thus resulting in economic losses to producers and previously resulted in production efficiency losses for the manufacturer. White specks cause problems when they appear in finished fabric--causing rejects or second quality goods. Research has shown that modern textile processing equipment can efficiently remove bark with little or no decrease in production efficiency when bark is 1.25% or less based on the weight of the cotton. Analyses of data reflect that white specks can be minimized by careful selection of cotton based on specific factors--such as variety, area of growth, fiber properties, etc.--depending on end use.