THE RELATION OF COTTON BUYING TO COTTON GROWING. 21 



of a variety of cotton, nor even to regard very highly the advice of 

 the Department of Agriculture regarding the necessity of such 

 precautions. More general planting of long-staple cottons can not be 

 advised unless marketing conditions are improved. 



Greater discrimination in buying would be the most effective way 

 to encourage the production of long-staple cottons, by giving the 

 farmer a more direct interest in maintaining the purity and uniformity 

 of his crop as a means of securmg the full market price. The present 

 tendency to buy long-staple cotton at flat prices like short-staple 

 cotton does not encourage greater care and discrimination on the 

 part of the farmer, but encourages the opposite tendencies to care- 

 lessness, loss of uniformity of fiber, and degeneration of varieties. 

 Accordingly, there may be urged upon manufacturers and others 

 who are interested in the development of the long-staple cotton 

 industry the importance of improving the methods of buying, so 

 that greater discrimination may be used, instead of paying the same 

 prices for mixed fiber as for fiber raised from pure stocks of seed. 



Inspection of the cotton in the field affords a much better basis 

 of judgment regarding the essential quality of uniformity than the 

 present method of pulling samples from the bales. Field inspection 

 should precede warehouse grading, especially with long-staple cottons. 

 Familiarity with a variety of cotton makes it possible to recognize 

 much smaller percentages of admixture or degeneration than can be 

 detected in the bale, thus affording a greater degree of protection to 

 the buyer and manufacturer and at the same time offering a greater 

 inducement to the farmer to maintain the purity and uniformity of 

 his cotton. 



ADDITIONAL COPIES of this publication 

 -tx. may be procured from the Superintend- 

 ent OF Documents, Government Printing 

 Office, Washington, D. C, at 5 cents per copy 



WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1914 



