PKIMARY COTTON MARKET CONDITIONS IN OKLAHOMA. 11 



bales sold at a difference of $6.25 at Erick; while on December 2, at 

 Duncan, a difference of $10 was noted between the prices paid for 2 

 strict low middling bales. 



In Table V, showing miscellaneous grades and tinges, no instance 

 has been included which did not involve a difference of 1 cent per 

 pound or $5 per bale in price, and such differences were noted for 

 good middling cotton, the highest grade recognized by the trade in 

 Oklahoma, and for strict middling tinged. On 2 low middling tinged 

 at Madill on December 20 the difference in price was $7.50, while 

 2 good ordinary bales sold in Mangum on November 7, the one for 

 7.50 cents and the other for 11.35 cents per pound, or a difference of 

 $19.25 between the 2 bales. A close inspection of these figures seems 

 to furnish some justification for the widespread popular belief among 

 the farmers in Oklahoma that their low grades are not sold so nearly 

 on their merits as are the higher grades, and that when the cotton 

 is distinctly below middling it is comparatively easy for the buyer 

 to set his own price. In the extreme case cited at Mangum it is 

 possible that the good ordinary bale which sold for 11.35 cents per 

 pound may have been one of a small number sold at an average price 

 and may thus have brought confessedly more than its value, but as 

 there were 27 cotton buyers in this town it would seem that every 

 guaranty which competition can give that no bale need be sold below 

 its value was there afforded. 



The geographical distribution of the towns in this tabulation is as 

 suggestive as the figures themselves. In the strict low middling table 

 we have Porter in the northeast, Okemah in the east central, Nor- 

 man in the central, Wellston in the north central, Caddo in the south- 

 east, Duncan, Waurika, and Terral in the south central, Mountain 

 Park and Snyder in the southwest, and Erick in the extreme west 

 of the cotton-producing section of the State. It would be difficult 

 to select an equal number of towns which would much more thor- 

 oughly cover the geographical distribution of the important cotton 

 production in the State. 



The other tables are based on collections in fewer places, but are 

 almost as comprehensive in their geographical representation. The 

 western part of the State furnishes more entries in the tables on 

 later collection dates because the crop was an early one and picking 

 in the eastern sections was practically finished at an unusually early 

 date. Furthermore, in many of the eastern towns so much of the 

 cotton is first sold in the seed that an ordinary sampling would not 

 give us any considerable number of bales of any one grade sold on 

 the same date, the first price of which it would be possible to secure. 



Summing up this feature of the investigation it may be stated 

 that the fluctuations in prices paid for any grade of cotton from day 

 to day, or during any one day, exceed greatly those justified by any 



