524 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



the particular local marketinp; conditions and whether the growers 

 sold individually or collectively. 



The placing in a community of a man competent to classify cotton 

 gives the cotton buyers better assurance as to the quality of the cotton 

 produced, with the result that they can better afford to pay true 

 values than to deal on the wider margins of safety on which cotton 

 trading generally is done. 



Through an understanding with the association, this bureau was 

 enabled to study the operations of the Oklahoma Cotton Growers' 

 Association during the whole of its first season and has collected 

 much data for further study."; In Arkansas the work was confined 

 to a study of the varieties of seed planted in relation to the char- 

 acter of the cotton produced, the introduction of pure seed of varie- 

 ties found to be adapted to the different sections of the State, and a 

 study of the ginning, storage, and compressing facilities of the State. 



During the year a course of illustrated lectures was given by the 

 project leader on the production, classification, handling, marketing, 

 and manufacture of cotton at the agricultural colleges of North 

 Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, and at the 

 George Peabody Institute, of Nashville, Tenn. The lectures covered 

 a period of one week at each institution and a total of about 5,000 

 students and prospective teachers were reached. The course was de- 

 signed to illustrate the relationships between the different branches 

 of the cotton industry. 



A manuscript on "Coordination in the cotton industry" was 

 submitted during the year for publication. 



COTTON-HANDLING INVESTIGATIONS. 



The division leader was assisted in this work by R. L. Nixon. 



Two series of tests or experiments known as the " gin-samples test " 

 and the " weather-damage test " have been conducted, in the course of 

 which many data have been collected for publication. In the first- 

 mentioned tests comparison was made of samples of cotton before 

 baling and samples of cotton after baling for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the practicability of grading cotton from samples drawn at 

 the gin versus samples subsequently drawn out from the bales. This 

 series of tests has been completed, and the data has been prepared for 

 publication and the manuscript is in process of review. 



In the second-mentioned tests bales of cotton were exposed in vari- 

 ous positions and under various conditions for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the losses which accrue on account of the improper storage or 

 lack of storage of cotton. 



The information secured under the first-mentioned tests appears to 

 warrant the conclusion that the adoption of gin sampling, if some 

 method of preserving identity of samples could be devised, would 

 bring about marked economies in handling cotton. That secured in 

 the second-mentioned tests has enabled the bureau to show the pro- 

 ducer and handler of cotton the tremendous losses which are sus- 

 tained annually by failure to protect cotton properly from the 

 weather and how such losses may be avoided. 



A set of lantern slides and lectures on " Handling cotton " has been 

 prepared for distribution through the States Relations Service. 



