COTTON 63 



and with too much truth that the average farmer 

 takes no more care of his baled cotton than if it were 

 a grindstone. "But," said Mr. J. T. Dargan, of 

 Atlanta, at the New Orleans Cotton Convention, 

 "the farmer is not so big a fool as you think in leav- 

 ing his cotton out in the open on the farm. It is not 

 only safe there under his eye, but, if it rains too 

 much, he can put it under a cheap frame shed in- 

 stead of taking it to town to pay storage charges 

 to the warehouseman, unless he can get more bene- 

 fits than now exist with the average cotton ware- 

 house. What is more important to the cotton 

 grower is, he has long since known that a bale of 

 cotton will lose some ten or fifteen pounds by drying 

 out if stored in a warehouse in comparison to when 

 it is left in the open with a few planks under it to 

 keep it out of the mud. Then, again, bright sunny 

 weather as a rule prevails in the South until about 

 Christmas, by which time most of the cotton grow- 

 er's cotton has been sold to the spot cotton buyers 

 in town. The farmer does not mean to act fraudu- 

 lently by letting his cotton remain in the open to 

 absorb moisture, but as some farmers do it, others 

 are in self-defense compelled to follow suit, and I 

 don't blame him for it at all, for he increases there- 

 by the weight of his cotton and saves storage 

 charges." 



This assertion of Mr. Dargan's, however, does 

 not affect our contention as to the folly of leaving 

 cotton out in the weather; it only shifts the folly 

 from the farmer's shoulders to those of the buyer 

 who does not take the dampness and damage into 

 his reckoning when buying the staple. 



More and more, however, buyers are now coming 

 to an appreciation of this fact; and the advantages 



