8 BULLETIN 60, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUKE. 



The S5'"stem of buying at a flat rate makes it of interest to the buyer 

 to keep the farmer from knowing how good his cotton is, and this 

 keeps him from trying to make it any better. The buyer, rather than 

 the farmer, draws a temporary advantage from any exceptionally 

 favorable conditions or from the introduction of improved varieties 

 that enable better staple to be produced. In its final result, the 

 present system is opposed to agricultural progress, even to the extent 

 of defeating its own object of securing increased business in handling 

 long-staple cotton. 



DEVELOPMENT OF NEW LONG-STAPLE DISTRICTS. 



The buyer's function in the general economy of the cotton industry 

 is to take the cotton in small lots frcjn the individual planters and 

 assort it into larger lots of the same kind of fiber for sale to the 

 manufacturer. Unless this work of assembling and classifying the 

 cotton is properly done, so that uniform lots can be sent to the manu- 

 facturer, permanent harm may result to the community where the 

 cotton is grown. When the buyer fails to recognize and discriminate 

 in favor of the productive possibilities of a new district the manufac- 

 turer also fails, for his judgment is based on the cotton the buyer 

 sends him. If buyers in a certain district send in only mixed or 

 uneven fiber, the manufacturer concludes that the district is not 

 suited to the production of long staples. The manufacturer does not 

 consider that cotton deteriorates because the buyers follow the 

 unfortunate plan of paying the same price for good and bad fiber 

 alike and do not discriminate in favor of farmers who take proper 

 care of their crop. Instead of recognizing that the failure is due to 

 commercial causes, recourse is had to the theory that something is 

 lacking in the climate or the soil, something that prevents the 

 cultivation of long-staple cotton outside of some specially favored 

 region. 



This is the history of many attempts that have been made to 

 grow long-staple cotton in new districts. The first plantings with 

 pure seed are successful. The samples are approved by expert buyers 

 and manufacturers, and one or two crops of good staple are raised. 

 But with each season the seed becomes mixed more and more, and 

 about the time that the stage of commercial production is reached 

 the manufacturer finds the staple too uneven for his purposes, decides 

 that the district is not suited to long-staple production, and refuses 

 to make further purchases from that quarter. The buyers or the 

 farmers may be left with unsalable cotton on hand which they can 

 dispose of only with difficulty and at ordinary short-staple prices. 



An excellent example of the importance of intelligent buying in 

 the development of a long-staple community is now to be found in 

 South Carolina. A flourishing, long-staple industry is developing in 



