BUREAU OF MARKETS. 453 



Investigations relating to the harvesting, handling, storing, and 

 grading of rice have been continued. Special attention has been 

 given to the factors which are considered in the commercial grading 

 of rough and milled rice, with a view to establishing definite standard 

 grades therefor. An experiment indicated that rice cured in properly- 

 constructed shocks is worth 12 cents per barrel, or $1.G0 per acre, more 

 than that secured in poorly made shocks. Experiments showed also 

 that during a very dry harvesting season the loss in weight from 

 natural shrinkage of rough rice in storage, during the three months 

 after thrashing, was approximately one-half of 1 per cent. 



The following Department Bulletins have been issued jointly with 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, summarizing the results of certain 

 phases of investigational Avork: No. 374, The Intrinsic Values of 

 Grain, Cottonseed, Flour, and Similar Products, Based on the Dry- 

 matter Content; No. 455, The Drying for Milling Purposes of Damp 

 and Garlicky Wheat; No. 472, Improved Apparatus for Determining 

 the Test Weight of Grain, with a Standard Method of Making the 

 Test; No. 473, The Origin, Characteristics, and Quality of Hump- 

 back TV-lieat ; No. 516, Table for Converting Weights of Mechanical 

 Separations into Percentages of the Sample Analyzed; No. 522, 

 Characteristics and Quality of Montana-grown Wheat; and No. 557, 

 A Comparison of Several Classes of American Wheats and a Con- 

 sideration of Some Factors Influencing Quality. 



INVESTIGATION AND DEMONSTRATION OF COTTON STANDARDS AND COTTON 



TESTING. 



The investigation and demonstration of the official cotton stand- 

 ards of the United States and the work in cotton testing have con- 

 tinued under the direction of Mr. Fred Taylor. 



INV'ESTIGATION AND DEIMONSTRATIGN OF COTTON STANDARDS. 

 STUDIES TOWARD FURTHER STANDARDIZATION. 



The studies toward further standardization of cotton, including 

 length of fiber and the study of Sea Island cotton, have been con- 

 tinued along the same lines as reported last year. Thousands of ad- 

 ditional samples have been collected in the different markets, studied, 

 and classified. The Sea Island samples were classified on the basis 

 of a tentative set of standards prepared from samples collected dur- 

 ing the season of 1915-16 and the results in relation to the prices 

 obtained by the growers have been tabulated. This work, which has 

 now covered two seasons, shoAvs that the discrepancies obtaining in 

 the prices paid for the same qualities of Sea Island cotton are even 

 wider than those found in the primary short staple markets. Owing 

 to the advent of the boll wecA'il in the Sea Island district a number 

 of varieties are now being planted and experimented with, and it has 

 not been found feasible to promulgate standards for this important 

 crop until conditions are more settled. 



Three thousand three hundred and seventy-fiA'e bales of the 

 Arizona-Egyptian cotton, 240 of which Avere of the Pima variety, 

 bred by Mr. T. H. Kearney, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in con- 

 nection Avith the work of the Southwestern Cotton Culture Commit- 



