such as lint cleaner 10 were developed specifically for removing leaf particles immature seeds motes grass and bark collectively designated herein as foreign matter 7 that remains in lint cotton 25 after seed cotton cleaning extracting and ginning in order to separate foreign matter 7 from lint cotton 25 lint cotton 25 of the controlled batt saw lint cleaner is initially formed into a batt on a condenser screen drum not seen the batt should be of uniform thickness and be evenly spread over the entire width of the lint cleaner 10 otherwise poor cleaning and excessive fiber loss will result after the batt is formed it is then initially fed through compression rollers 14 16 18 and 20 driven by motors preferably variable speed motors not shown the cotton is subsequently passed between the very closely fitted feed roller 22 driven by a motor preferably a variable speed motor not shown and feed plate 24 and fed onto the saw cylinder 26 stated alternatively and more specifically after the batt of lint cotton 25 passes through the narrow gap between the feed roller 22 and the feed plate 24 it then reverses direction around the toe 24 a of the feed plate 24 to move onto the toothed wire 27 of the saw cylinder 26 the feed plate 24 generally clears the toothed wire 27 by about one sixteenth inch the feed roller 22 is preferably fluted and under spring tension exerting pressure toward the feed plate 24 and holding the batt of lint cotton 25 while it is combed and fed onto the toothed wire 27 of saw.