treated in a bath water of a degree of hardness of about 17 u00b0 ratio of goods to bath 1 10 for 3 hours the bath had the composition as given hereinafter in examples 1 and 2 comparative treatment with conventional complexing agents 1 g l of ethylene diamino tetraacetic acid 2 g l of a wetting agent consisting of a mixture of an ethoxylated fatty alcohol an alkyl aryl sulfonate and an alkyl sulfonate and the raw cotton treated as described hereinabove in said bath has an m p value of 1 800 its degree of whiteness is 77 and its ash content 0 68 1 0 g l of a wetting agent consisting of a mixture of a phenylsulfonate with an ethoxylated fatty alcohol 1 0 g l of sodium dithionite na 2 s 2 o 4 and the raw cotton treated with such a solution has an m p value of 2 030 a degree of whiteness of 75 and an ash content of 0 68 as is evident from examples 1 and 2 the ash content is about the same in both examples the degree of whiteness is not appreciably different but the m p value in the comparative example 1 is reduced by 230 units while when proceeding according to the present invention the m p value of the raw cotton remains the same these comparative tests thus clearly show that the cellulose chain in raw cotton when subjected to a pre.