32 PACKIIS-G AND MABKETING OF COTTON. 



WOEK NOW PERFORMED BY THE GOVERNMENT. 



The work. already performed by the Government and that now m 

 progress with the object of improving present methods of cultivating 

 cotton, of safeguarding the crop, and establishing a comprehensive 

 system for its economical handling promises gratifying results. The 

 Department of Agriculture, under authority of law, with the aid of a 

 committee of experts representing every branch of the cotton indus- 

 try, established a set of standard grades, nine in number, which have 

 become an official standard for classification so far as the standards 

 have been given recognition by the exchanges. Exact duplicates of 

 the official grades liave be^n prepared by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, as required by the law, and these are furnished at a fixed price 

 to cotton exchanges, libraries, schools, and others interested. The 

 standards have been accepted by the cotton exchanges of New Or- 

 leans, Galveston, Memphis, Charleston, Mobile, Natchez, Little Kock, 

 Macon, and St. Louis. New York has not given the standards formal 

 approval, but is at liberty to apply them when convenient or desir- 

 able. The law does not provide for compulsory adoption. Those 

 exchanges that have not adopted the standards urge that the samples 

 from which the grades were made up were selected from cotton 

 grown in the Mississippi Valley, and that they do not accurately rep- 

 resent cotton grown in other sections of the country. It is admitted 

 that the standards have value and are helpful in classifying cotton 

 grown in the section from which the grades were made up, but it is 

 held that these grades can not so fairly be applied in determining 

 the quality of Atlantic States upland cotton. It should be said in this 

 connection, however, that during the first year practically all the 

 cotton used by the Department of Agriculture in making up the 

 types came from the upland districts of Louisiana, IMississippi, 

 Texas, and Oklahoma. All the collections of grades now issued by 

 the department contain Atlantic States upland cotton. 



tJTILITT OF OFFICIAL STANDARDS. 



Established grades have special value with exchanges and local 

 merchants in settlement of disputes, but producers contend that the 

 official standards are of little practical value to them, as they are still 

 obliged to dispose of their cotton under the methods that have alwaj's 

 obtained and to the same interested expert buyers, whose judgment 

 they are forced to accept. An active market, with lively competition 

 among buyers, enables the producer to secure better prices, but as a 

 rule, in absence of uniformity of quotations in the three principal 

 markets. New York, New Orleans, and Liverpool, and inability to 

 accurately class his cotton, the producer is obliged to sell at the price 

 fixed by the expert. It is suggested in connection with an official 

 standard for classification that it is but a short step to the appoint- 

 ment of Government officials to determine and certify the grade and 

 quality of the cotton, for the protection of the producer and the benefit 

 of the final purchaser who buys for consumption. In brief, it is 

 contended that the Government standards advantage the laroe class 

 that stand between the farm and the mill but contribute little, if 

 any, assistance to the producer. 



