PACKING AND MABKETtNG OP COTTOH'. 85 



would be the active means of removing other evils that are the out- 

 ^owth of the present system. Moreover, it would tend to improve 

 the quality, increase the value, and guard the integrity of the cotton 

 crop by eliminating the nondescript grades, few of which are fit for 

 spinning and many of which would find their way to paper mills and 

 similar utilities. Knowing he would get a better price for good 

 quality and that his cotton would be accurately graded, the farmer 

 would be impelled to grow the higher types and would exercise greater 

 care in picking and proper vigilance m protecting the cotton after 

 leaving the ginnery. Cultivation by communities of types best 

 adapted to their several localities, compression at the ginnery, grad- 

 ing and certifying by competent authority, go to the root oi the 

 existing evils. 



PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION BY COTTON CLUBS. 



The Department of Agriculture contemplates entering a new line 

 of activity to improve both the quantity and quality of the cotton 

 crop and to educate the farmer in the fundamentals of growing and 

 grading the staple by the establishment of cotton clubs similar to the 

 corn clubs inaugurated with success several years ago. Boys consti- 

 tute the bulk of the membership of the com clubs and it is proposed 

 to form cotton dubs from the more advanced and successful of 

 Ihese boys. 



The establishment of com clubs demonstrated to southern agricul- 

 turists the possibilities of com growing in the South and stimulated 

 an interest m agriculture, especially the production of home supplies. 

 Those in charge of the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work 

 believe that the best of the corn-club boys can now progress from corn 

 (o cotton production, thus widening their useful knowledge and giv- 

 ing them the basis for a thorough system of agriculture. The lessons 

 of preparation, seed selection, and intensive cultivation will be con- 

 tinued as applied to cotton, and in boll-weevil sections the boys will 

 be shown the department's methods of raising cotton under boll- weevil 

 conditions. 



Members of cotton clubs will be expected to work at least 2 acres, 

 and practically every boy will thus grow enough seed cotton to make 

 a bale. It is not so important that a large number of boys be enrolled 

 the first year as that every boy's crop be a first-class demonstration 

 By the same kind of persistent work that has been done in the corn 

 clubs the boy can grow at a good profit, even in the worst infected 

 boll-weevil sections, a large yield of improved cotton. This has 

 already been done in Louisiana and Texas. 



It is expected that the boys will study grading and standardization, 

 so that they will be able to classify and mark their crops intelligently. 

 With the theoretical knowledge acquired at the State agricultural 

 colleges and farmers' institutes, these practical demonstrations by the 

 Department of Agriculture through its well-equipped field agencies 

 will in a comparatively short time qualify the farmer to obtain the 

 very best results from cultivation and enable him to determine with 

 approximate accuracy the quality and value of his crop. 



