PRIMARY COTTON MARKET CONDITION'S IN OKLAHOMA. 5 



In the course of the season samples were secured from 103 towns, 

 representing practically every cotton-producing county in the State. 

 In some markets only a single collection was made, while in others 

 the sampling extended over a period of two months. In the northern 

 and eastern portions of the State, where cotton is largely sold in the 

 seed, it was not easy to obtain a sufficient number of samples from 

 cotton sold in the bale to form a satisfactory basis for conclusions as 

 to the character of the market for custom-ginned cotton, but such 

 evidence as it was possible to obtain indicates that material advan- 

 tages are derived by the grower who insists upon having his cotton 

 custom ginned, especially if he produces a quality at all superior to 

 the average of his community. A more detailed discussion of the 

 practice of selling cotton in the seed will be found in another place. 



SPECIFIC POINTS TO BE INVESTIGATED. 



Some of the questions concerning the marketing of his crop which 

 most vitally interest the average Oklahoma farmer are : 



(1) Whether his cotton is properly graded. 



(2) Whether he gets a fair premium for the high grades. 



(3) Whether his low grades are unjustly penalized. 



(4) Whether the buyers in his town are paying as much for cotton 

 as buyers in a neighboring town. 



(5) Whether he receives the same treatment as his neighbor in his 

 own local market. 



(6) Whether he receives a fair proportion of what the spinner 

 pays. 



Some of these questions can not be finally answered as a result of 

 this one season's work, but the data in hand enable us to answer 

 others almost conclusively. 



This investigation throws much light on the question whether the 

 enterprising farmer who grows an improved variety and handles it 

 throughout by improved methods secures any corresponding advan- 

 tage when the bale comes on the market, and it may be said at the 

 outset that practically no evidence has come to light that through any 

 portion of the State any attention is paid to the variety of short 

 staple cotton grown when fixing the price. In other words, the only 

 advantage derived by the grower of an improved variety is the ad- 

 vantage which may result from its larger yield per acre, its higher 

 percentage of lint, or some strictly cultural characteristic. 



THE MARKETING OF MIDDLING COTTON. 



To bring out the general relation between the price of middling 

 cotton in different local markets in Oklahoma as compared with the 

 Galveston closing price of the preceding day, the differences between 



