30 PACKING AKD MAEKETIKG OF COTTON. 



UlTEEaiANGES OF COTTON EXCHANGES. 



The practicability and desirability of a uniform system of grading 

 and certification have been aiSrmed by many representative cotton 

 men of the South and the plan has also received approval from 

 prominent members of the New York and New Orleans Cotton Ex- 

 changes. For many years, in order to facilitate the holding of a 

 stock of cotton at New York, it has been urged that the warehouse 

 and certifying system of that city should be extended to southern 

 markets under control of the New York Cotton Exchange. It was 

 proposed that cotton stored in southern warehouses should be sampled 

 when stored and the samples forwarded to New York for inspection 

 by the inspection bureau of the exchange. Upon certification the 

 cotton was to be tenderable on contracts without being brought to New 

 York. Several reports on this matter were made by committees of 

 the exchange. The advantages of the proposed plan were explained 

 in a report made by a special committee in 1903, in which it was 

 said: 



It will gradually establish a uniform grade of cotton. The certificate will 

 assure the buyer that the cotton Is all in the warehouse as stated and that 

 the grade is guaranteed. Reclamations will be reduced to a minimum, espe- 

 cially for grade. The planter or dealer will let the cotton stay in the South 

 at cheap storage until he sells to mills and exporters. Duplicate samples will 

 enable the owner to offer his certificated cotton in any market or to any buyer. 

 The buyer can take and pay for the certificates and leave the cotton where it is 

 tUl he is ready to order it elsewhere or resell it on contract. 



It is true the purpose of extending the New York warehousing 

 system to the South was to promote and faQilitate operations in sales 

 for future delivery on contracts, but the standardization proposed 

 in this case can be applied to grading and certifying cotton at the 

 ginnery, when this may be practicable, and having it stored there 

 and at other convenient points where suitable warehouses under re- 

 sponsible direction may be located. If it be practical and desirable 

 to grade and certify cotton stored at points of origin for the con- 

 venience and profit of merchants and brokers at New York or other 

 distant places, it would seem to be equally so to institute similar 

 processes for the benefit and encouragement of the producer and those 

 for whom primarily the crop is intended. 



July 20, 1912, at a meeting of the representatives of 41 cotton 

 exchanges an,d others interested in the marketing of cotton, at which 

 differences between certain European and American exchanges in 

 regard to arbitration were considered, the following was among the 

 resolutions adopted: 



We recommend that all cotton interests work toward the adoption of a 

 standard of classification for American cotton of all growths, which shall be 

 made world wide. 



GIN COMPRESSION AND ADEQUATE WAEEHOTJSES. 



Warehouses of modern fireproof construction for storing baled 

 cotton, located at or contiguous to the ginneries and at the south 

 Atlantic and Gulf ports from which shipments are made, are urgently 

 needed. The construction of such warehouses would logically follow 

 the inauguration of a system of gin compression. Adequate ware- 



