MARKETING COTTON SEED FOR PLAXTIXG PURPOSES. 23 



ton seed to be sold on the bushel basis when the market for cotton 

 seed for manufacturing purposes, which quantity is ten times as large, 

 is firmly established on the 100-pound or ton basis. The outstanding 

 argument in favor of sales for planting purposes being made on the 

 100-pound or ton basis, however, is the wide variation in the estab- 

 lished legal weights per bushel in the cotton-producing States. In 

 Xorth Carolina. South Carolina, and Georgia the legal weight per 

 bushel of upland cotton seed is 30 pounds; in Alabama, Mississippi, 

 Oklahoma, and Texas, 32 pounds; in Arkansas 33^ pounds; and in 

 Tennessee, only 28 pounds. At the present time most dealers in the 

 various States do not adhere strictly to the legal bushel weights 

 designated, but avoid any probable recourse in transactions by quot- 

 ing prices per bushel of a specific number of pounds, which may or 

 may not be the prescribed legal weight in their respective States. 

 Although the legal weight of a bushel varies from 2 to 5 pounds 

 in different States, the pound remains constant, and the difficulties 

 and misunderstandings attending the lack of uniformity in bushel 

 weights can be avoided by adhering strictly to the practice of quoting 

 prices per 100 pounds. 



CERTIFIED COTTON SEED. 



In view of the fact that authentic information or assurance regard- 

 ing the purity as to variety and trueness to type of cotton seed has 

 an important bearing on its value for planting purposes, it seems 

 that some system of certification would be desirable. Certified seed 

 of potatoes, rye, alfalfa, and a few other crops are available in limited 

 commercial quantities, but little work of this kind has been done with 

 reference to cotton. The registration, inspection, and certification 

 of cotton fields from which planting seed is to be selected, by some 

 < lis interested agency, would go a long way toward providing a com- 

 mercial supply of cotton seed pure as to variety and true to type. 

 It remains for State and Federal agricultural agencies to work out 

 ;i method that will be practical in its application and that will effect 

 the desired results. Certified cotton seed, however, with all that the 

 term implies, would not represent the ultimate in planting cotton- 

 ■I values unless the seed also be subjected to approved methods of 

 preparation and marketing. 



SUMMARY. 



The ideal planting cotton seed may be described as seed selected 

 from cotton that is true to type and pure of variety, well matured. 

 fre< from disease and insects or insert injury, delinted, recleaned 

 and graded, and testing n minimum of 88 per cent germination. 



It i- necessary that the stock seed used in producing cotton from 

 which commercial planting seed is selected should compare favorably 

 with the ideal. 



The more thorough ami uniform removal of the surplus linl ami 

 Culling out, of all extraneous matter and small or light inferior seed 



