4 BULLETIN 315^ TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGEICULTTJEE. 



sacks and mailed to Oklahoma City, where the small sacks were 

 packed into large mail bags and remailed to Washington, D. C. In 

 the following spring this cotton was subjected to a humidifying proc- 

 ess, making it approximately equal in moisture content to the average 

 load of commercial seed cotton, after which 8 pounds of each sample 

 were carefully weighed and ginned on a small 10-saw gin. The seed 

 and lint were then weighed separately and the percentages of seed, 

 lint, and trash calculated. In this way samples representing 881 

 loads of seed cotton were ginned and carefully graded. 



This investigation was planned so that the results would reflect 

 as accurately as possible the exact conditions prevailing in the 

 seed-cotton markets. Every precaution was exercised to secure 

 samples and information representative of actual conditions. It 

 is believed that the small 10-saw gin yielded on the higher grades 

 as good a quality of cotton, but, on the lower grades, about one- 

 half grade below that actually produced from the same loads when 

 handled by the modern gins of Oklahoma with their various clean- 

 ing attachments. On being discharged from the gin, the seed from 

 these samples was run over a screen and in cleanliness was approx- 

 imately equal to the average Oklahoma outturn. After ginning, 



5 ounces of lint were taken as representative of each load of seed 

 cotton and graded according to the Official Cotton Grades ^ formerly 

 issued by this department. 



While these results wiU show probably a slightly poorer quality 

 of cotton in the lower grades than was obtained by the ginner from 

 the actual loads, all of the samples were ginned with the same equip- 

 ment, weighed on the same scales, and subjected to the same treatment 

 throughout, and therefore they should furnish comparable data. 

 The poorer quality of lint obtained by the use of the small gin tends 

 to make conservative the comparisons, wJiich are drawn later in this 

 bulletin, between prices paid for lint and prices paid for seed cotton. 



OUTTURNS FROM SEED COTTON AT GINS. 



When seed cotton reaches the gin it contains varying proportions ' 

 of lint, seed, and trash.^ The proportions of lint and seed depend 

 on the variety planted, the soil, and the climatic and cultural con- 

 ditions under which the cotton is grown. The trash varies- in am omit 

 with climatic conditions and the care with which the cotton is picked 

 and handled. The process of ginning separates the seed cotton 

 into its three parts — lint, seed, and trash. Some of the trash, 

 however, always remains in both the lint and the seed. 



Table II shows the number of samples of each grade obtained 

 from 795 samples of seed cotton representing as many loads. Eighty- 



1 These grades were superseded on Dec. 15, 1914, by the Official Cotton Standards of the United States. 



2 The word "trash," as used throughout this bulletin, includes all foreign matter, such as leaf, hulls, 

 dirt, etc. 



