14 A STORY OF COTTON 



"LOOSE COTTON" or "COTTON LOOSE" are terms that 

 are commonly used and indicate the flakes of cotton that are 

 pulled off of samples or from the bale proper while making 

 a PRESENTABLE sample. 



This "LOOSE COTTON" falls on the bale, or on the ground 

 or floor, near the point where the sample is drawn from each 

 bale, and is gathered, and baled, and sold, for the account of 

 some one. 



In some cities, noticeably New Orleans, La., the revenues 

 derived from the sale of accumulations are used, EXCLU- 

 SIVELY, for the payment for the services of "SUPERVIS- 

 ORS," and the men required to pick up the loose, who CON- 

 SCIENTIOUSLY and EFFECTUALLY, prevent an UNNECES- 

 SARY pulling of loose in connection with the creation of the 

 samples, and in the inspection of cotton. 



The samples, PROPER, however, drawn from the bale in 

 the original sampling for John Brown, are baled as they accu- 

 mulate, and are stored for the account of John Brown. 



As a rule, these accumulations of loose cotton amount to, 

 approximately, one-half pound, PER BALE. 



This amount is in ADDITION to the weights of the samples 

 proper. 



This represents, in itself, quite a loss to original producers, 

 AS A CLASS, if applied to the ENTIRE cotton crop of 

 America; but, as the great majority of the cotton, at the PRES- 

 ENT TIME, is NOT consigned to cities to John Browns for 

 sale, this figure should not be applied TO, but a fractional 

 part OF, America's production. 



In some markets, immediately after the Cotton Buyer re- 

 ceives the cotton he has purchased from John Brown, it is 

 sampled, by cutting ANOTHER HOLE in the bagging between 

 the bands on each edge of the bale, and a LARGE sample is 

 drawn, weighing, about one-half of a pound, from EACH 

 SIDE OF THE BALE. 



Besides this sampling, the Buyer bores the bale with a 

 BARBED AUGER, making, usually, EIGHT insertions into the 

 bale. 



With EACH insertion of the barbed auger, he withdraws 

 from this bale, say, one-eighth of a pound of cotton, which he 



