UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 458 



Contribution from the Office of Markets and Rural 



Organization, 



CHARLES J. BRAND, Chief. 



J^^^XU 



Washington, D. C. 



March 31, 1917 



HANDLING AND MARKETING DURANGO COTTON 

 IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. 



By J. G. Mabtin, Investigator in Cotton Marketing, and G. C. White, Specialist 



in Transportation. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Necessity for clean picking 2 



Care of seed cotton 4 



Ginning Durango cotton 5 



Necessity for good baling and adequate cover- 

 ing 6 



Tagging, marking, branding, and weighing. 8 



Page. 



Storage facilities 9 



Sampling 11 



Classing Durango cotton 12 



Length and character of Durango staple 13 



Marketing of Durango cotton 14 



Transportation facilities and rates 17 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the fall of 1915, the Office of Markets and Rural Organization 

 of the Department of Agriculture, through cooperation with the 

 Imperial Valley Long-Staple Cotton Growers' Association, rendered 

 investigational assistance to the growers of Durango long-staple 

 cotton in the Imperial Valley of southern California in the handling, 

 classing, and marketing of their product. 1 The investigations were 

 begun about the first of October, the beginning of the cotton-pick- 

 ing season in that section, so that besides the actual investigations 

 an excellent opportunity was afforded not only to examine the condi- 

 tion of the Durango cotton in the fields (see fig. 1), but to inspect 

 the methods of picking, handling, and storing the seed cotton on 

 the farms, to study the methods of hauling the cotton to the gins, 

 its subsequent ginning and baling, and its handling and storage in 

 the yards. The specific investigations made included the manner 



1 Martin, J. G. The Handling and Marketing of the Arizona-Egyptian Cotton of the Salt 

 River Valley, U. S. Dept. Agr., Bui. 311, 1915. 



Note. — This bulletin should be of interest to farmers of the Imperial Valley and others 

 located in sections where staple cotton is grown, and to cotton buyers generally . 

 61187°— Bull. 458—17 1 



