18 BULLETIlsr 375, U. S. DEPAKTMEFT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



the interest of pure seed, improved culture, and careful picking 

 should be extended to include the encouragement of custom ginning 

 and a knowledge of the quality and value of cotton before marketing. 

 The facts brought out by the study of the situation at Crowder are 

 published because it is believed that they are typical of conditions 

 in many other localities where cotton is sold in the seed and where 

 efforts to improve the product of the community are being made. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



The wide variations in the lint, seed, and trash proportions of seed 

 cotton, together with the impracticability of determining accurately 

 these percentages and the quality of the cotton before it is ginned, 

 make it impossible for the ginner justly to discriminate between the 

 value of individual loads. The uncertainties thus involved cause 

 buyers to base their prices on the average outturns and average grades 

 of the particular community and the cmTent lint and seed prices. 



This j)ractice results in variations between the prices paid for the 

 lint content of different loads of seed cotton. Wide differences in 

 prices have been shown to exist between the lint content of loads in 

 each market and between loads in the different markets investigated. 

 Where lint and seed cotton are sold in the same market there is also 

 an inequality between prices paid for lint cotton and for the lint con- 

 tent of seed cotton. In some instances, individual farmers have 

 received more for their product in the seed than they would have 

 received by selling in the bale; however, in most cases, and in the 

 aggregate, a loss has been shown on each grade during each month 

 and throughout the entire season by selling cotton in the seed. 



Therefore this method of marketing cotton as a general practice, 

 can not be condemned too strongly, and both the farmer and ginner 

 are advised for the common good of all to encourage custom ginning, 

 so that it may be possible to sell each bale on its merits. 



