2 BULLETIN 36, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The spinner would like a better bale, kept under shelter until it is 

 shipped to the mill, and with a covering which would keep the cotton 

 clean and dry. Thus far very few bales thus wrapped and sheltered 

 are to be found in the trade, and the industry is taxed for high 

 insurance rates and for country damage claims instead of for proper 

 warehousing and sheltering facilities and for careful handling. 



The farmer wants a better price, and believes that if there were 

 not so many persons and processes between himself and the spinner 

 he could get it. As matters stand to-day there are just three things 

 which he can do to get more from his cotton crop, and in few locali- 

 ties can he do all three. He is told either (1) to grow a longer 

 staple, (2) to grow a higher-yielding variety, or (3) to pick it more 

 carefully, sO as to have a better grade. Two of these are purely 

 cultural propositions and the third is largely dependent for success 

 upon the kindly consideration of the ginner, who may spoil a high- 

 grade bale by running it just after a low bale without dumping the 

 roll, by making a water pack, or by operating with an improper 

 adjustment of saws and brushes. After a bale of good grade has 

 been ginned the producer is still dependent upon the generosity of 

 the buyer to give him the price to which the higher grade is entitled. 

 This consideration and generosity the ginners and buyers of cotton 

 do not always show. 



The farmer has no direct interest in the concentration of great 

 quantities of cotton at compress points, nor in the process of com- 

 pression, which adds nothing to the intrinsic value of his cotton. 

 He has no direct interest in the patches added to the bale at the 

 compress. He is not a party to the neglect which results in most of 

 the country damage. It is true he sets no good example in this 

 matter, but he receives no compensation for any extra care which 

 he may bestow upon the finished bale. The city crop does not seem 

 to constitute a direct loss to him, as he has sold the bales before most 

 of the robbing is done, but he knows it is a tax on the trade, and he 

 beHeves that all these taxes are deducted from the value of the cotton 

 when the first offer is made him. 



One thing is evident to even the casual observer. There is not 

 a. single important step or process in the entire handling and market- 

 ing scheme which owes its origin to a special consideration of the 

 producer's interests. He is offered so much for his cotton, usually 

 on a limit which is set by a firm which fixes it as a perfectly safe basis 

 for its business. Competition among local buyers is his sole guar- 

 anty of fair treatment and most of the buyers are the subordinates 

 of middlemen. A multiplicity of buyers means that just so many 

 more men are living on the profits made on the cotton of the com- 

 munity after the farmers have parted with it. 



