CHAPTER IX 

 COMMERCIAL GRADES OF CROP PRODUCTS. FRUIT PACKAGES 



THE market grades or classes of some products have been very care- 

 fully standardized. This is particularly true of grains, hay, and straw, 

 and to a less extent of fruit. In prepared animal products there has 

 been very little standardizing by societies or committees. 



Cotton Grades 



No printed rules have been formulated for the official grading of 

 cotton, as this work proceeds upon the basis of a set of types of actual 

 cotton, adopted as standard on the recommendation of a committee 

 representing the entire cotton industry. These sets of cottons are 

 made up by the United States Department of Agriculture and furnished 

 to all applicants at the cost of their preparation. The samples are put 

 up in specially prepared boxes. 



In the Cotton Grades, as now being issued by the Department of 

 Agriculture, several new ideas have been embodied, conspicuous among 

 which is the protection of the grades by photographs. Each of the nine 

 grade boxes contains twelve samples of cotton, separately packed, 

 representing as nearly as possible the range of diversity in the grade 

 represented. The boxes are twenty inches square; inside the lid of 

 each is a full-size photograph showing the appearance of the cotton 

 when certified by the Secretary of Agriculture. As each particle of 

 trash and each material unevenness in the surface of the cotton is shown 

 in the photograph, it is evident that any material change in the appear- 

 ance of the cotton itself can easily be detected by comparison with the 

 photograph. Of course these photographs make no pretension to show 

 the grade of the cotton, only the position of the trash and fiber. 

 The seal of the Department of Agriculture and the signature of the 

 Secretary, together with a seal-impress certifying the grade of the 

 cotton, appear on the photograph. Experts of the highest class have 



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