PRIMARY COTTON" MARKET CONDITIONS IN OKLAHOMA. 23 



Running from one buyer to another, perhaps two or three times, 

 haggling to get the last bid raised by a few points, is very distasteful 

 to a large number of farmers who will not assume the attitude of 

 begging for a few extra cents. Driving from office to office with a 

 bale or two of cotton takes time and patience. Repeated sampling 

 may tax the bale perceptibly. There are many reasons why the pro- 

 ducer should accept about what the bale is worth and drive on to the 

 yard and get rid of it. Any buyer will assure him that they all have 

 about the same limits and any higher bid he might get could amount 

 to only a few cents. 



Furthermore, the buyers must get along together on terms of gen- 

 eral amity and good fellowship. They have much more in common 

 with each other than any of them have with the growers. If one 

 buyer is making a special effort to get together a shipment of a cer- 

 tain quality he can well afford to reciprocate any courtesy which his 

 competitors may show in declining to outbid him on that particular 

 grade or quality. 



There is some evidence that a responsible producer will sometimes 

 receive a better price if he leaves his bales at home and sells by 

 sample. The presence of the bale in town is pretty nearly a guar- 

 anty that it will be sold to some one before night. Holding the bales 

 at home gives an impression of independence not always lost upon the 

 buyer, who instinctively recognizes such a patron by making a thor- 

 oughly businesslike bid, offering all the inducement the market will 

 justify to bring the bales into sight. 



PURCHASE OF COTTON BY GENERAL MERCHANTS. 



In some parts of Oklahoma, especially along the northern edge of 

 the cotton-producing area, where cotton is grown in rotation with 

 other farm crops, the plantings ranging from 5 to 20 acres per farm, 

 the marketing system is very different from that which obtains where 

 cotton is the principal crop, largely grown by tenants and pledged 

 in advance for perhaps its entire cost of production. On these mixed 

 farms cotton is not the only money crop. In fact, in many cases it 

 is not even the principal crop, but it is the crop most quickly and 

 easily, converted into cash. 



In these regions a bale of cotton is handled very much as a basket 

 of eggs is sold in the Central West ; that is to say, it is sold to a gen- 

 eral merchant in the nearest town or village, usually a merchant 

 with whom the farmer has an account. Incidental to the purchase 

 of the bale the merchant may collect a bill, or if the farmer does not 

 owe him anything the merchant is very likely to make a sale in which 

 a profit of at least 20 per cent on goods will be involved. Some of 

 the largest cotton dealers in Oklahoma have assured us that between 



