DURANG0 COTTON IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. 3 



cotton mills that make fancy and high-class goods are willing to pay 

 a premium for clean and well-handled cotton of the extra-staple 

 varieties, as less waste is produced in the carding and combing proc- 

 esses, i 



The mills that buy staple cotton prefer the highest grades and will 

 not accept cotton of lower grades than Strict Middling until quite 

 late in the season, when the higher grades become scarce and they are 

 forced to use a small quantity of Middling, in spite of the fact that 

 all the grades by that time have been lowered by the effects of frost, 

 which kills the foliage of the cotton plants. The dried leaves break 

 up and adhere to the cotton as it is picked. It is a well-known fact 

 that after frost has killed the plants the picker finds it difficult to 

 gather the cotton in a clean condition. 



The lower grades of staple cotton are difficult to sell on a staple 

 basis. They are usually- bought by spinning mills, which make cer- 

 tain kinds of goods that ordinarily require staple cotton to give the 

 cloth strength, but which need not be of the finest quality. When the 

 goods are intended for a use for which a showy appearance is not 

 necessary, they can be made from low-grade staple cotton, but it must 

 be remembered that this class of goods necessarily sells at low prices, 

 and, therefore, the price paid for the cotton from which this cloth 

 is manufactured must be in proportion to the price at which the latter 

 is sold. To show how rapidly staple cotton depreciates in value as the 

 grades are lowered by the increasing quantity of leaf contained in 

 the seed cotton, the following statement of prices is given. 



In making the following sales in the Imperial Valley, Strict Good 

 Middling cotton of lyVinch staple was taken as the basis of value, 

 since it represented the early and clean-picked cotton. 



Grade. Net price received by grower. 



Strict Good Middlings 17. 30 cents. 



Good Middling 17. 05 cents, or 25 points less than Strict Good Middling. 



Strict Middling 16. 50 cents, or 80 points less than Strict Good Middling. 



Middling 15. 75 cents, or 155 points less than Strict Good Middling. 



Strict Low Middling — 14. 00 cents, or 330 points less than Strict Good Middling. 



This means a difference of 330 points between the highest and the 

 lowest grade shown, or a loss to the grower of $16.50 for a 500-pound 

 bale of cotton of the grade of Strict Low Middling, because the cot- 

 ton contained " picks " and leaf and had been poorly ginned. There 

 was also increased difficulty in selling low-grade staple cotton. At 

 times, in order to interest the mills in the purchase of the lower 

 grades of staple cotton, it was necessary to offer it at much wider 

 differences between grades. 



At present there is available a plentiful supply of pickers, includ- 

 ing white settlers, Indians, Mexicans, Hindus, and Japanese, Chinese, 



