THE RELATION OF COTTOK BUYING TO COTTON GROWING. 11 



give themselves the further trouble of discriminating among the 

 numerous small lots. Nevertheless, it was bad policy to take the 

 mixed, weak, or uneven fiber at the same price that was paid for 

 the best. 



The care that must be used in maintaining the quality of future 

 crops is just as necessary as any other part of the work of produc- 

 tion, planting, irrigating, cultivating, or picking, but it is a part 

 that has been neglected in the past and is likely to be neglected in 

 the future if the value that it adds to the fiber is ignored by the 

 buyer. In other words, increased production of long-staple cotton 

 is very largely a commercial problem. Further improvements of 

 varieties and methods are to be expected, but the varieties and 

 methods that are now available make it possible to produce almost 

 unlimited quantities of long-staple cotton in the United States. All 

 that seems now to be needed is that the commercial world appre- 

 ciate its agricultural responsibilities. The supply will correspond to 

 the demand, but the demand must be made effective by proper dis- 

 crimination in price. 



COMMERCIAL CAUSES OF DETERIORATION OF COTTON. 



The manufacturing world, in Europe as well as in the United States, 

 seems to be unanimous in the opinion that the cotton crop has 

 deteriorated m recent decades. The same complaint is made regard- 

 ing all of the principal types of cotton — Upland short staples, long 

 staples, Egyptian, and Sea Island. While direct evidence on the 

 fact of deterioration is not easy to obtain, there is circumstantial 

 support for the idea that deterioration has taken place, for the sys- 

 tem of buying has allowed changes that would naturally tend toward 

 a decline in the quality of the crop. The necessary precautions of 

 selection and for avoiding admixture of seed have been relaxed, and 

 even the planting of inferior varieties has been encouraged. 



The general disregard of the essential qualities of length, strength, 

 and higher grade on the part of buyers has had the natural effect of 

 leading the farmers to believe that the most deskable character a 

 cotton variety can have is that of giving a high percentage of lint, 

 "a large outturn at the gin." This erroneous idea is now firmly 

 fixed in the popular mind, and is not likely to be eradicated whUe 

 the present system of buying continues. No matter how inferior in 

 other respects a variety may be, thousands of bushels of seed can be 

 sold by advertising a high percentage of lint. 



The fact that some of the varieties with highest Hnt percentages 

 produce extremely short, inferior fiber does not interfere with the 

 planting of such varieties as long as the farmer can sell three-quarter- 

 inch cotton for as much as inch cotton or even inch-and- an eighth 

 cotton. The popularity of such varieties is a result of the present 



