COTTON MARKETING 375 



tinges and stains are usually due to contact with red or 

 other strongly colored soil or to injured bolls. The price 

 of stains is somewhat below that of tinges, and consider- 

 ably below the price of unstained or white cotton of other- 

 wise the same grade. This emphasizes the folly of allow- 

 ing pickers to mix with white cotton the stained locks 

 that are usually found lying on the ground. 



348. Differences in value between the commercial 

 grades. There is no fixed difference in the value of any 

 two grades. The demand determines this difference, 

 which varies from year to year. Usually the following 

 general statements hold true : 



(1) The difference in price between any two adjacent 

 grades of good cotton is less than between any two of the 

 lower adjacent grades. 



(2) When the greater part of any year's crop consists 

 of the lower grades, the difference in price in favor of the 

 upper grades is greater than usual, because of the strong 

 competition, under these conditions, for the small amount 

 of cotton of the upper grades. 



(3) As the average price of cotton rises, the difference 

 in price between grades increases, because the lower 

 grades entail a larger percentage of waste in spinning than 

 do the better grades ; this waste can ill be afforded when 

 even low-grade cotton sells at a comparatively high 

 price. 



The following categories give examples of approximate differ- 

 ences in price that frequently prevail among the usual grades 

 and half grades. The (+) sign indicates a price in cents per pound 

 above that of middling, while the ( ) sign indicates that the 

 price is below the middling quotations : 



