COMMUNITY PRODUCTION OF EGYPTIAN COTTON. 19 



opportunity is seldom afforded when the cotton is handled by custom 

 gins. In either case, it is of the utmost importance to the growers 

 that the crop be classed or graded by a capable and impartial expert 

 as soon as it leaves the gin. Prompt grading serves to warn the 

 farmer if either the picking or ginning is being poorly done, and 

 gives him this warning in time to enable him to secure better work. 



The grower is interested in the way the ginning is done, not only 

 because of its effect on the value of his lint, but also because of its 

 relation to his supply of seed for planting. Where only uncontrolled 

 .custom ginning is available the grower has small chance of main- 

 taining the purity of his seed. 1 



The opinion appears to be gaining ground among students of cot- 

 ton production that the improvement of the industry depends fully 

 as much upon good ginning as upon good cultivation or good picking. 

 The surest way to obtain good ginning is by cooperative ownership 

 and operation of the gins. 



GRADING THE CROP. 



It was pointed out on a preceding page that uniform grades of 

 Egyptian cotton must be established and maintained from year to 

 year if the crop is to find ready sale at its full value. In recogni- 

 tion of this fact steps were taken in 1913 to establish standards of the 

 different types and grades produced in the crop of that year. A cot- 

 ton-grading expert was detailed from the Office of Markets and Rural 

 Organization to cooperate with the growers' association for this 

 purpose. The work was continued in 1914, the standards having been 

 perfected and arrangements having been made for spinning tests, in 

 order that the cotton might be placed on a sound basis of market 

 value. The scope and results of this standardization work are given 

 in a report from the Office of Markets and Rural Organizations. 2 



MARKETING THE CROP. . 



Notwithstanding the facts that the Egyptian type of cotton has 

 not been grown previously on a commercial scale in the United 

 States and that the Salt River Valley is a new cotton-growing local- 

 ity, comparatively little difficulty has been experienced thus far in 

 disposing of the product. This is due largely to the cooperative ac- 

 tion of the growers in grading and marketing their cotton, which has 

 made it possible for them to offer it in uniform lots of sufficient size 



1 Experiments that demonstrate in a striking manner the readiness with which seeds 

 of different varieties of cotton become mixed in commercial ginning establishments have 

 been described recently by D. A. Saunders and P. V. Cardon. (Custom ginning as a 

 factor in cotton-seed deterioration. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 288, 8 p., 5 fig. 1915.) 



2 Martin, J. G. The handling and marketing of the Arizona-Egyptian cotton of the 

 Salt River Valley. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 311, 16 p., 3 pi. 1915. 



