24 PACKING AND MARKETING OF COTTON. 



the service. Should there be congestion at either point, which is liliely during 

 the three months of the busy season, the cars wlU be held 3 or 4 days before 

 they can be unloaded and moved out of the compress yard. Assuming that 

 only 2 days be thus consumed, the shortest possible time, that is equivalent 

 1o 1 car for 8 days. Moreover, to carry the cotton to its destination, north 

 or south, 2 cars must be run into the compress and be there loaded, the 

 average time occupied in this vcay being 3 days. I'rom the compress point to 

 Memphis or New Orleans is 2 days. Thus 2 cars are occupied 5 days, equiva- 

 lent to 1 car for 10 days, and adding the 8 days for conveyance to the compress, 

 18 days in moving 100 bales from the initial point to Memphis, the point of 

 concentration, or New Orleans, the port for ocean shipment. A 40-foot car 

 loaded at Duck Hill with 100 bales will reach Memphis or New Orleans in the 

 same time (2 days). It will thus be seen that one 40-foot car employed for 

 2 diiys on gin-compressed cotton will do the same amount of work that requii-es 

 IS days under the present system. 



Mr. J. H. Marion, of Chester, S. C, a railroad man who has given 

 much study to this subject, in speaking of gin compression, thus 

 epitomized the advantages that would come to transportation com- 

 panies by its general adoption : 



One long haul from gin to port versus six shorter hauls; part of the cost of 

 unloading and reloading freight cars at compress points; loss of time (demur- 

 rage) of freight cars arising from unloading and reloading; cost of shunting 

 and marshaling trains ; locomotives, labor, fuel, and other stores at compress 

 points; shorter trains to haul and consequent reduced trackage; reduction in 

 number of locomotives necessary to perform the same work; saving in space 

 and in consequent cost of sidings, goods staging, and warehouse construction ; 

 not to mention the matter of interest upon the capital cost of the same, nor the 

 Items of cost which come into their account as working expenses. 



Mr. G. R. Bennett, of Austin, Tex., who is largely interested in 

 the cotton industry, speaking of the necessity for the introduction of 

 improved methods of handling cotton, said : 



There is no question but that there is a demand for better handling of 

 cotton. This any handler will tell you, regardless of his interests or his 

 prejudices. The spinners of the world are demanding an improved bale and 

 a better handling of American cotton, which is the only cotton that is handled 

 in a slipshod, ragged way. All other cotton-raising countries have long since 

 adopted improved methods of baling and have a perfectly covered and well 

 cared for bale. The American is the only bale that is permitted to lie around 

 in the weather exposed to damage and stealings and every character of waste. 



GRADING AT THE GINNERY. 



It is suggested that ultimately some plan for grading at the ginnery 

 may be devised. It is not possible to assume that the present unfor- 

 tunate conditions will be permitted to continue indefinitely. The 

 presentation of some system that will improve these conditions is an 

 urgent need at this time. For reasons heretofore explained it is be- 

 lieved that great difficulties confront an effort for change by indi- 

 vidual or locally combined effort. 



The suggestion has been made and has received approval in many 

 quarters that the Federal Government should establish a system of 

 grading, certifying, and warehousing cotton, the acceptance of which 

 should not be made mandatory but left optional with those whom it is 

 intended to serve. While the Department of Commerce and Labor is 

 on record as disapproving any plan to materially extend Federal su- 

 pervision over the cotton industry, it may be useful to consider the 

 results which would follow from the establishment of an authorita- 

 tive system of grading cotton at the ginnery. 



