24 BULLETIN 36, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



many of these small towns there is keen rivalry as to which shall 

 win the reputation for being the best cotton markets, and that the 

 local merchants deliberately pay more than the cotton is worth be- 

 cause of the incidental bill collecting and cash trading involved in 

 such transactions. Although the larger firms have resident buyers 

 in many of these towns, they make it a rule to purchase no cotton on 

 the streets, but " take up " the cotton from the merchants at night, 

 often, the}*- claim, at an average of $1 or $2 per bale less than the mer- 

 chants have paid for it. They say that they can buy the cotton from 

 the merchants cheaper than they can buy it in competition with them. 

 It is easy to see that where cotton is made practically an article 

 of barter and exchange in this way we can hope to have no close 

 discrimination between grades nor a sca ; 3 of prices based upon the 

 real value of the cotton. The merchant who is buying cotton as a 

 means of collecting open accounts and securing general trade and 

 good will for his store will very naturally gauge his offer by the 

 value of the farmer's good will, rather than by the exact grade of 

 his cotton. 



FLUCTUATIONS OF PRICES IN PRIMARY MARKETS. 



In most of the towns in Oklahoma, where the quantity of cotton 

 sold runs into the thousands of bales, the greater portion is bought 

 either by the ginners or by men who deal in cotton exclusively. The 

 buyers who represent large exporting interests receive daily purchas- 

 ing limits, and the quotations of the Galveston exchange are usually 

 made public every morning. 



In a general way it would be natural to suppose that the prices 

 paid in primary markets for cotton possessing no quality which will 

 demand a premium would be the Galveston quotation, less freight, 

 and possibly one or two commissions. A large portion of the Okla- 

 homa crop does, however, command a premium, and the differences 

 between the prices received for middling cotton in many Oklahoma 

 towns and the Galveston quotation on middling will not cover freight. 

 Nevertheless, all Oklahoma markets might be expected to rise and 

 fall in sympathy with Galveston. Our sampling was not such as to 

 give us a satisfactory statistical showing on this point for the whole 

 State, but we have presented in Table XI the results of our collec- 

 tions in five towns during the period in which the price of cotton was 

 almost steadily advancing. 



