COTTON warehouse construction. 31 



In many cases warehouses belonging to farmers' organizations have 

 been located in the suburbs, or even in the country. It frequently 

 happens that the cotton buyers of the town would use this space if 

 it had been located properly, but they find it impossible to dray their 

 cotton to the edge of town for storage, with the prospect of hauling 

 it back to the station when it is sold. This causes the failure of 

 many promising farmers' organizations. 



PLATFORMS. 



It is desirable to provide ample platform space at every ware- 

 house. There should be a convenient place for unloading cotton 

 from wagons, and, where cotton is shipped in, provision should be 

 made for unloading it from cars. It is also necessary to have ample 

 room for trucking when cars are being loaded or unloaded. In 

 many markets cotton is sold by the farmers on public platforms near 

 the warehouses: In such cases platforms should be of adequate 

 proportions and so located that the cotton may be conveniently 

 trucked to the warehouse or to the railroad platforms for loading. 

 The mistake is made frequently of building platforms which are 

 entirely too narrow next to the railroad. When different lots of 

 cotton are being arranged for storage or for shipment, it is very 

 desirable to have- sufficient space to accommodate several hundred 

 bales in addition to room for trucking. There are times during 

 emergencies when such space can be used to advantage for temporary 

 storage. 



In figure 12, page 32, is shown a view of a well-arranged warehouse 

 conforming to Standard I. It will be seen that there is ample plat- 

 form space on either side and that the warehouse is not exposed by 

 other buildings. Fully equipped hose houses are placed at opposite 

 ends of the compartments. This view also shows the proper method 

 of storing cotton, the bales being placed on end only one bale high, 

 and a clear passage is maintained from one end of the compartment 

 to the other. The view also shows in a very general way an auto- 

 matic sprinkler system. In this case the tank is placed on the 

 extended walls of the building, which arrangement is economical in 

 that it saves in the cost of constructing a tower for the tank, but it 

 is not altogether as satisfactory as a separate steel tower. 



SALVAGE. 



Another important consideration is the salvage. While loose 

 cotton burns very rapidly, it frequently requires several days for a 

 bale to damage seriously. In many fires the outside of the bales is 

 burnt and damaged to a considerable extent, but where ample pro- 

 vision is made for removing the cotton from the burning building, 

 it is frequently possible to save at least 50 per cent of the original 

 value. It is for this reason that all standards require many doors 



