PACKING AND MARKETING OF COTTON. 27 



the owners of the certificate wanted him to do so. By making It feasible for 

 a millman to buy cotton from the owner In warehouse outside the territory, 

 and by bringing cotton into shape where it could be held as an investment and 

 the surplus carried over from one season to another, speculation would neces- 

 sarily have a much narrower field of operations than now and the cotton 

 spinner would have an Infinitely better situation in respect to buying cotton. 



The foregoing utterance was made in December, 1904, nearly eight 

 years ago. Since then the cotton crop has grown in magnitude and 

 value, but no material changes have taken place in methods of prepa- 

 ration for market. The lapse of time, additional study, and further 

 practical experience have strengthened the conviction of Mr. Tomp- 

 kins that the service of a competent, powerful, and trustworthy 

 agency is needed to initiate and carry on a movement for the establish- 

 ment of an organization that will inaugurate the reform so urgently 

 desired and so imperatively needed. In discussing recently with 

 Mr. Tompkins his warehouse and certificate proposition he declared 

 that all men familiar with present conditions of producing and 

 marketing cotton and interested in bettering these conditions were 

 prepared to cooperate with any plan for organization that appeared 

 to be practicaL 



rOEM FOR CERTEFYING GRADES. 



That portion of the certificate devised by Mr. Tompkins devoted 

 to the description of the cotton to be warehoused could be adapted 

 to a descriptive certificate issued by the officer who would grade 

 cotton offered for inspection. The first part of the Tompkins 

 certificate is after the usual form of warehouse documents of this 

 character. The form for describing the cotton passed upon follows, 

 and it will be observed that the grades and intermediary grades enu- 

 merated in the certificate number 30. This detail is doubtless fur- 

 nished to meet any possible condition that may arise in grading, and 

 not because of my existing necessity for so extended a list. 



