22 BULLETIN 36, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



In Table X we have presented for the towns of Mangum and Moun- 

 tain Park the same information which Table IX carries for other 

 points except that the results of four collections are shown in each 

 case and the figures hare been extended to show the actual loss on the 

 better bales, assuming that the lower grades were properly priced and 

 applying the same difference sheet used in the foregoing tables and 

 discussion. The loss to growers shown in the last column is the 

 total loss on the number of highest-grade bales shown in the fifth 

 column. 



Mountain Park has only 2 buyers, but Mangum has 27 street 

 buyers and we must assume that everything which competition can 

 do to force proper respect for quality is done in Mangum. If there 

 is a point in the State where competition in buying should yield its 

 greatest boon to the producer it is here. How then are we to account 

 for such a reversal of qualities and prices as is here shown? By 

 what operation of the competitive principle does it happen that a 

 low middling bale can be bought for $1.55 less than the average price 

 of 4 ordinary bales, when by the published differences of the trade 

 it should bring $13.75 more than an ordinary bale? 



In connection with this showing attention is again invited to the 

 preceding tables in which Mangum appears. It will be seen that 

 every sort of irregularity in pricing and grading found in the smaller 

 markets occurs also in Mangum. There is the same wide range of 

 prices on a given day for identical bales, the same failure to observe 

 any fixed scale of differences, and finally this showing in which low 

 grades actually bring more than higher grades. At Mountain Park, 

 where there are only two regular buyers, and where the farmers com- 

 plain that they do not have a competitive market, the conditions 

 appear to be no worse than in Mangum, 



A study of these facts leads to the conclusion that prices on indi- 

 vidual bales are fixed by some consideration into which local com- 

 petition for the cotton does not enter appreciably. In a majority of 

 cases the actual grade of the particular bale does have a real influence 

 on its price, but not to the extent that it does in later transactions 

 between dealers. 



We are forced to believe that the individuality of the man who 

 offers the cotton for sale is a more potent factor than it should be. 

 The buyers, even in the most competitive markets, seem to ask them- 

 selves, "How much must I pay to get this cotton?" rather than 

 "What is this bale worth on today's market?" In other words, 

 competition is fully as manifest in efforts to buy a bale for less than 

 someone else paid for a similar bale, as it is in a disposition to " raise 

 the other fellow's bid." 



