the fabric is pushed through the bath rather than pulled through the bath and accordingly the fabric tends to fold up upon itself in a series of laps which are folded back against themselves as they are carried through the bath in the liquid medium at the exit end of each bath the fabric is allowed to unfold and as it is drawn from the bath it may open out and be withdrawn from the bath and fed to the next bath in the sequence in a somewhat open state and when it is fed into the next bath it is again caused to double up on itself in passing through a sequence of baths the baths preferably also perform the function of scouring the fabric to remove any wax and lubricants applied during the previous operations in which the cotton fibers are formed into yarns and the yarns are formed into fabrics the initial baths in the sequence include scouring compositions which are effective to scour the fabric suitable fabric softeners and wetting agents may be applied separately or incorporated in the scouring compositions to enhance the scouring operation and also to enhance the ability of the fibers in the fabric to completely relax removal of the waxes and lubricants and any other foreign matter entrained in the yarns assists in the relaxation of the fabric by removing the impediments to relaxation which the foreign matter.