PRIMARY COTTON MARKET CONDITIONS IN OKLAHOMA. 29 



such an amount may extend over such a period that the quality 

 of the cotton will not be uniform. If the ginner stands ready to 

 purchase all seed cotton which may be brought to him, the farmer 

 has a ready cash market for whatever quantity he may find it con- 

 venient to sell at any time. 



The individual grower is seldom able to dispose of his seed to 

 good advantage in regions of scanty production, and if he has his 

 bale custom ginned he may have to sell his lint in an equally re- 

 stricted market. In fact, he may have to leave his bale with the 

 ginner or at the railroad station until enough cotton has accumu- 

 lated to attract some itinerant buyer, who will pretty nearly fix his 

 own price. 



As the culture of cotton has become more general, the proportion 

 of the total sold in the seed has constantly decreased, but there are 

 still many localities of considerable production where there are no 

 regular buyers for lint cotton, and where the ginners make every 

 effort to discourage the practice of custom ginning. 



The principal advantage which the sale of seed cotton offers to the 

 farmer under normal conditions is the saving in time of men and 

 teams while waiting their turn at the gin and in selling the bale on 

 the street. The ginner who buys in the seed usually has cbnsiclerable 

 storage space in connection with the gin, with pneumatic unloaders, 

 so that there is little delay in making the sale. The load is super- 

 ficially inspected, driven on the scales, and weighed ; the cotton trans- 

 ferred by suction to the storage house, the wagon reweighed, the 

 check drawn for the cotton, and the transaction closed. This imme- 

 diate sale, without discrimination against large or small loads, has 

 a distinct value in a region and at a season when wages are high, 

 and when delay in picking the crop entails serious loss. 



This seems to be about the only advantage derived by farmers as 

 a class from the sale of cotton in the seed. So far as individuals are 

 concerned it results favorably to the man whose cotton will make 

 a low-grade bale and unfavorably to those bringing in the better 

 grades. Whatever advantage there may be in bulking and curing 

 out the cotton before ginning is earned in this case by the ginner, 

 and the farmer has no share in it. 



As applied to the industry as a whole, the effect of this system is 

 bad, because the prices paid can not be made to vary accurately in 

 accordance with the varying quality of the cotton, and at best the 

 price must be based on the average lint percentage of the com- 

 munity. This, of course, places a direct penalty upon the man 

 who plants a variety with a high lint percentage, and gives a cor- 

 responding advantage to the man who raises the cotton which will 

 produce the greatest number of pounds irrespective of lint outturn 

 or quality. In other words, it puts a direct impediment in the way 



