COTTON WAREHOUSES. 23 



certain that he would take kindly to any system which might be 

 devised. As a general proposition, he is averse to storing his cotton, 

 especially when he has to pay any direct charge for the service. The 

 majority of farmers have been accustomed to selling their own cotton 

 and receiving the money for it when it is delivered. It is not believed 

 that they would generally patronize any storage house, if to do so it 

 were necessary to ship their cotton to another town. It is equally 

 true that they will not cooperate readily with each other in building 

 storage houses near the place of production. 



SELLING COTTON THROUGH FACTORS. 



To anyone spending much time in the cotton markets it becomes evi- 

 dent that our cotton crop is supporting entirely too many men. This 

 is particularly true of buyers and merchants in the primary markets. 

 It is not uncommon, in those cities where from 10,000 to 15,000 

 bales are marketed in one season, to see four or five and frequently a 

 larger number of buyers on the street. Naturally these men must be 

 paid for their services, and it is quite evident that the cotton itself 

 is taxed to cover this expense. If such a town had one good ware- 

 house and one competent cotton man to represent the farmers, these 

 buyers could be eliminated, and the farmer would receive the benefit 

 in the form of better prices for his cotton. It is true that most farm- 

 ers prefer making their own sales, but in very few cases do they know 

 the grade of their cotton or the price it should bring. Consequently 

 they are not in a position to make an intelligent sale. It would be 

 much better for farmers to pay a nominal fee for the services of an 

 experienced man. This would save time and trouble and eventually 

 place the cotton trade on a business basis. It would not only elimi- 

 nate unnecessary persons connected with the markets, but it would 

 save the farmer much time now lost in going to town to make his sale 

 and would prevent the waste resulting from unnecessary sampling. 



VALUE OF PLANS. 



The importance of taking the necessary precautions in planning 

 warehouses and adhering to the standards of the underwriters' asso- 

 ciations is forcibly illustrated by a comparison of five standard 

 warehouses with sprinkler equipment with five warehouses without 

 such equipment, all of which are located in the same Georgia city. 

 The five warehouses without sprinklers have a total storage capacity 

 of 21,000 flat bales, or an average of 4,200 bales for each warehouse. 

 These buildings cost a total of $82,500, or an average of $3.92 per 

 bale storage capacity. The other five buildings have a total storage 

 capacity of 46,000 bales, or an average capacity of 9,200 bales for 

 each warehouse. These buildings cost $161,000, or $3.50 per bale 

 capacity. The first group of buildings have no automatic sprinkler 



