UNITED STATES OFFICIAL COTTON GRADES. 5 



by the use of large vacuum tubes the cotton types could be kept 

 without appreciable change for an indefinite period of time. Fifty 

 sets of the grades have been put up in vacuum tubes and stored for 

 future use. Each separate sample in each grade was placed in a 

 vacuum tube, making 12 tubes for each grade, or 108 for a complete 

 set. The cotton is first wrapped in chemically pure wliite paper and 

 then in pure black paper, before being placed in the tube, and in the 

 top of the tube, after the insertion of the wrapped cotton, a 2-inch 

 layer of specially prepared asbestos is placed. The air is then 

 exhausted and the tube sealed by fusing off. No such system has 

 ever before been put into effect in connection with cotton grades or 

 any other graded agricultural product. This is probably one of the 

 largest undertakings of the kind ever attempted. 



From time to time one of these vacuum sets will be broken open 

 and replaced in grade boxes, each sample having been specially pre- 

 pared and labeled with that end in view. In this way absolutely 

 exact copies of the original types will be available from time to time 

 for the next 100 years or more, and cotton grading will, for the first 

 time, be freed from the drawback of depending solely on the memory 

 of experts. 



A campaign to educate the producers and local buyers in the use 

 of the grades has been carried on through the agents in charge of 

 the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. Several of the 

 agricultural colleges are now teaching cotton grading at their summer 

 schools, as well as during the regular term, and are using the official 

 grades as the basis of instruction. With the return of the students 

 to the farm a demand for the grades for use on the farm is bound to 

 grow. With the increasing quantity of cotton which is now sold by 

 the grower directly to the mill, the value of the grades is increasing, 

 all branches of the industry, producer, merchant, and manufacturer 

 alike, using a uniform standard whose correctness and constancy are 

 guaranteed by the Government. 



When the original set of types was prepared by the committee 

 appointed for the purpose, the aim was to produce a set which would 

 be representative of American white cotton as a whole. No atten- 

 tion was paid to the source from which the cotton came, and this 

 policy has been continued in the preparation and sale of copies of 

 the original types. The committee had before it an exceedingly 

 great variety of American cotton. Not only did the department 

 secure, through the officials of about 30 American cotton exchanges, 

 grade types in accordance with the ideas of those exchanges and place 

 these entirely at the disposal of the committee, but members of the 

 committee were invited to bring with them cotton winch they con- 

 sidered would be suitable for the preparation of the official grades. 



[Cir. 109] 



