DISADVANTAGES OF SELLING COTTON" IN THE SEED. 



Table I. — Estimated ^percentages of total crop and calculated numher of hales of cotton 

 sold in the seed in the several States. 



State. 



Percent- 



Virginia 



North Carolina . 

 South. Carolina. 



Georgia 



Florida 



Alabama 



Mississippi 



Louisiana 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Tennessee 



Missouri 



Oklahoma 



Bales. 

 10, 000 

 81, 000 

 23,000 

 39, 000 

 25, 000 

 41, 000 

 28, 000 

 13, 000 

 184, 000 

 103,000 

 118, 000 

 42, 000 

 230, 000 



Bales. 



15, 000 



107,000 



31,000 



54, 000 



41, 000 



69, 000 



37, 000 



18, 000 



263, 000 



130, 000 



149, 000 



71, 000 



456, 000 



Bales. 

 15, 000 

 92, 000 

 28,000 

 47,000 

 30, 000 

 59, 000 

 38, 000 

 17, 000 

 226, 000 

 135, 000 

 147, 000 

 57, 000 

 312, 000 



Bales. 



15, 000 



100,000 



24, 000 



36, 000 



26, 000 



53,000 



30,000 



15,000 



279,000 



100, 000 



107,000 



48, 000 



372, 000 



Total. 



937, 000 



1,441,000 



1, 203, 000 



1,205,000 



Percentage of crop. 



8.5 



9.1 



8.6 



9.0 



The high price of cotton seed during the 1915 season probably gave 

 some stimulus to the practice of sellmg cotton miginned. The esti- 

 mates given m Table I, therefore, are probably higher than would 

 have been made had the cotton-seed prices been at the level rulmg 

 during recent years when production was greater. As the high per- 

 centages for 1915 have been applied to the census figures for 1912, 

 1913, and 1914, the estimates for these years are probably somewhat 

 greater than the actual facts. This is especially true for 1914, when 

 an unusually small quantity was sold in the seed, because much 

 cotton was held by producers on account of the low prices resulting 

 from the European war. The high percentage shown in Florida is 

 because most of the Sea Island crop was sold in the seed. The prac- 

 tice of sellmg cotton unginned is shown to be most prevalent in regions 

 of scanty production and in the newer cotton-producing sections. 



The purpose of this bulletin is to set forth the results of an investi- 

 gation which was conducted in Oklahoma durmg the season of 

 1913-14, in order to obtain reliable information as to the relative 

 advantages and disadvantages accruing to the farmer who sells his 

 miginned cotton directly to the ginner instead of having his product 

 custom-ginned and marketing the seed and the baled lint cotton 

 separately. 



METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 



For the purposes of this mvestigation, nine representative seed- 

 cotton markets were selected, in each of which the best man available 

 for the work was appomted as a representative of the Department of 

 Agriculture to obtain each week several 10-pound samples of seed 

 cotton from loads sold by different farmers. With each sample was 

 secured a record of the seller's name, date and place of sale, and price 

 per hundred pounds. These samples were packed tightly into cloth 



