MAKKETS AND KUEAL OEGANIZATION. 399 



PBEPABATION OF THE NEW OFFICIAL COTTON STANDARDS. 



During the fall months of 1914 the department secured the tempo- 

 rary services of some of the classers of the New York and New 

 Orleans Cotton Exchange Classification Committees to assist its 

 technical force in perfecting a standard which would meet the valid 

 objections to the old permissive standards and yet avoid the intro- 

 duction of anything which might be classed as tinged or spotted 

 cotton. The result was a set of standards believed to represent the 

 white cotton of an average American crop more closely than any 

 standards previously prepared. 



The new standards were tested by grading a large number of sam- 

 ples which previously had been classed on the old standards by the 

 same set of men, and it was found that about 12 per cent more 

 of this cotton could be graded on the basis of the new official cotton 

 standards than by the old permissive grades. 



As previously reported, representatives of the Department of 

 Agriculture were sent abroad to the exchanges at Bremen, Liverpool, 

 and Havre for the purpose of demonstrating the new standards 

 and consulting with these exchanges as to advantages to be gained 

 by their adoption of the official cotton standards for grade, thus 

 making it a universal standard, which is so much desired by the 

 cotton trade. 



Owing to the nature of their business, the two great future 

 exchanges — those at New York and New Orleans — adopted the stand- 

 ards for all transactions subsequent to Februar}^ 18, 1915. The use of 

 the standard by the spot cotton exchanges in the United States is 

 optional; but 21 of such exchanges or similar organizations have 

 adopted the standard and are making their quotations thereon. The 

 following list contains all exchanges that had adopted the standard 

 up to June 30, 1915 : 



New York Cotton Exchange. 



New Orleans Cotton Exchange. 



Montgomery Cotton Exchange. 



Selma Cotton Exchange, 



Little Rock Board of Trade. 



Mobile Cotton Exchange. 



Augusta Cotton Exchange. 



Savannah Cotton Exchange. 



New England Cotton Buyers' Associa- 

 tion, Boston. 



Fall River Cotton Buyers' Association. 



St. Louis Cotton Exchange. 



Vicksburg Cotton Exchange. 



Oklahoma State Cotton Association. 

 Oklahoma City. 



Charleston Cotton Exchange. 



Memphis Cotton Exchange. 



Galveston Cotton Exchange. 



Texas Cotton Buyers' Association, 

 Waco. 



Waco Cotton Exchange, 



Houston Cotton Exchange. 



Dallas Cotton Exchange. 



Paris Cotton Exchange. 



San Antonio Cotton Exchange. 



Norfolk and Portsmouth Cotton Ex- 

 change, Norfolk. 



DISTRIBUTION OF NEW OFFICIAL COTTON STANDARDS. 



Three hundred and eighty sets of the official cotton standards 

 had been prepared and distributed on June 30, 1915, to the vari- 

 ous exchanges, spot-market dealers, merchants, cotton mills, agri- 

 cultural colleges, and textile schools in the United States, and 12 

 sets had been shipped to foreign countries. Twenty-five sets of 

 the standards have been prepared and stored in vacuum for future 

 reference. These are to be opened whenever it is necessary to do so 



