OI^^E-VAE,IETY COTTON COMMUNITIES. 23 



and assistance is given by the bureau mentioned in grading and 

 classing the cotton, to furnish a basis for more direct dealing in 

 large lots with responsible local buyers or with outside purchasers. 

 This tends to stimulate competition, and it has been shown that buy- 

 ers will come from long distances if sufficiently large stocks of cotton 

 are offered. Moreover, the chance of securing a large lot of one 

 superior kind of cotton is more of an attraction to an outside buyer 

 than the same number of bales made up of different varieties or raised 

 from mixed " gin-run " seed. The following statement, published 

 in the News Letter of the Department of Agriculture for August 10, 

 1921, gives an example of the results that have been secured in some 

 localities by cooperative cotton marketing : 



Texas Grotcers Benefit Through Pooling Cotton. 



How demonstration work in cooperative marketing is aiding farmers during 

 the current season is illustrated by the story of a pool formed in Texas, as 

 reported by the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Three hundred bales of cotton were placed in this pool. Individually the 

 growers had been offered from 3 to 7 cents a pound for the cotton on their local 

 market. The entire lot was classed by representatives of the Federal bureau 

 and grade cards issued to the owners. The samples were then forwarded to 

 Dallas and the cotton trade invited to bid. The lot was sold at 10.25 cents a 

 pound average. 



On the classification made by the bureau's representative the pool averaged 

 75 points off middling. The middling spot price at Dallas on the day of the 

 sale was 10.35 cents. The growers' accounts were settled on the basis of the 

 grade cards issued for the individual bales, using the Dallas difCerencea for 

 the day. 



In unorganized communities the farmers who raise better cotton 

 than their neighbors usually are forced to sell at the same price to the 

 local buyers. Manufacturers pay more for high-quality fiber, but 

 the difference is absorbed by the buying trade instead of being shared 

 with the farmers. The more valuable bales contribute to the profit 

 of buying and sorting over the miscellaneous " hog-round lots " accu- 

 mulated by local buyers, many of whom do not know how to " class " 

 the cotton. Where this condition exists, so that farmers have to sell 

 their cotton at the same price without regard to the quality of the 

 staple, the only object in choosing varieties is to get large yields. 

 Some of the most inferior varieties, with short, weak, and 'irregular 

 lint, yield well and are grown in large quantities simply because the 

 commercial system fails to apply any adequate discrimination of 

 quality in buying the cotton from the farmers. 



Failure to give the farmer practical encouragement in his effort 

 to improve the crop is a serious defect of the present commercial sys- 

 tem, but organized communities have a standardized product, better 

 than any of the " even-running lots " that can be made by sorting and 



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