PACKING AND MAKKEITNG OF COTTON. 



11 



per hour) that little time or care can be given to adjusting the 

 patches, so that many bales emerge from the press with openings 

 through which lint protrudes. In many cases pieces of jute are 

 added merely to increase the weight of the bale and as an offset to the 

 claim for tare made by the purchaser. This is particularly true with 

 cotton intended for export. As previously stated, the service of the 

 compress consists solely in reducing the size of the package. The 

 bale is recompressed in the condition in which received, except for the 

 patches contributed to conceal lacerations, and goes forward for fur- 

 ther offering, sampling, and consumption, inadequately covered and 

 in unsightly form. 



SECONDHAISTD MATERIALS UTILIZED. 



Aside from the impairment of the package by cutting the covering 

 for samples, the use of secondhand bagging is contributory to the 

 ragged condition of the American cotton bale. If new jute bagging 

 were used on each bale, there would be complete protection and the 

 covering would resist much of the pressure incidental to handling and 

 which proves so disastrous to old bagging. What proportion of the 

 crop is covered with old bagging is problematical. There are several 

 degrees of this secondhand covering. The mills at home and abroad 

 after stripping the bale collect and sell the covering, which is shipped 

 to persons in this country who deal in it and work it over for sale to 

 ginners and others. When old bagging is received it is sorted, and, 

 conditions warranting, the pieces are sewed together. When a suffi- 

 cient number of yards is thus secured the material is made into rolls 

 &nd sold to ginners. Those pieces that can not be thus utilized are 

 torn up by machinery, converted into yarn, and woven into cloth. 

 This makes fairly good covering, but is not so strong as the original 

 material. After the first manipulation and conversion of the second- 

 hand bagging the output of each additional process is reduced in ten- 

 sile strength and yields to the slightest pressure. The mills produc- 

 ing this class of covering also supply the large compresses with pieces 

 of bagging, new and old, for patching. A large quantity of sugar 

 bagging is also used for baling cotton and for patching, all of which 

 is secondhand and much of which has been used several times. How- 

 ever, this bagging is usually a good quality of covering. 



EXPENSES FROM FARM TO COMPRESS. 



The expense for conveying a bale of cotton from the farm to the 

 large compress for recompression is stated above to average $5. 

 That this is a conservative estimate is shown by statements of actual 

 expenditure furnished the writer by managers of large plantations. 

 Following is the statement of the manager of a plantation embracing 

 several thousand acres, located in Bolivar County, Mississippi : 



