2 BULLETIN 458, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of marking, tagging, and sampling the bales, concentrating the 

 cotton into small lots of a few bales each, and into minimum car- 

 load lots for compression. 



Investigations were also made to determine the feasibility of mar- 

 keting the Durango cotton direct to spinning mills at prices equal 

 to those obtained by growers of staple cotton in the Mississippi Delta 

 and other sections, where cotton of like staple is grown in sufficient 

 quantities to interest spinners of fine yarns. This work was inaugu- 

 rated through the growers' association, which seems to be success- 

 fully accomplishing the purpose for which it was organized. 



Fig. 1. — A well-grown field of Durango cotton. 

 NECESSITY FOR CLEAN PICKING. 



The boll of the Durango cotton is of the five-lock formation, 

 slightty smaller than the boll of Mebane's "Triumph " or the Rowden 

 varieties of short-staple cotton grown in the Imperial Valley, though 

 not of sufficient difference in size to make clean picking noticeably 

 more difficult. 



The Durango fiber is strong, and has already attracted the atten- 

 tion of the cotton trade and spinners of fine and mercerized yarns 

 in the United States. This cotton is utilized in the manufacture of 

 fine goods, and for this purpose it must be free of motes and 

 leaf so that the yarn may be spun evenly and be of uniform strength. 

 In order to insure quick sales of cotton at good prices it should be 

 picked as clean of leaf and other extraneous matter as possible. The 



