ASSOCIATION 71 



was paid for tobacco of the same quality and type. Tobacco 

 growers complained about this difference in prices for the same 

 quality and type of tobacco. One tobacco farmer related that in 

 1921 he offered for sale the same pile of tobacco on the auction floor 

 ten times the same day with the following results (7, p. 28) : 



Cents 



Cents 



First sale 28 



Second sale 31 



Third sale 23% 



Fourth sale 37 



Fifth sale 34% 



Sixth sale 28 



Seventh sale 35y 2 



Eighth sale 21 



Ninth sale 25% 



Tenth sale 36% 



A standardized and recognized grading system was a prerequisite 

 to the pooling of the tobacco of the same grade and type, to the 

 equitable treatment of members, to the proper financing of member 

 advances and payments, and to the sale of large quantities of uniform 

 tobacco by sample to the manufacturers. One of the first duties of 

 the leaf department of the association was to devise adequate and 

 workable sets of grades for the different types of tobacco handled. 

 The warehouse division of the United States Bureau of Agricultural 

 Economics, had been working on the standardization of grades for 

 the different types of tobacco since 1920, and several tentative sets 

 of grades had been formulated prior to 1922. 33 The association 

 appealed to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics for assistance 

 in working out a suitable grading system. As a result of a con- 

 ference between officials of the bureau and of the association, the 

 tentative sets of grades of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 

 were adopted by the association after considerable amendment on 

 the advice of association officials. 



These grades were not departed from in any essential respect dur- 

 ing the following years, but some refinement of grades was found 

 necessary. At that time the workers of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Economics had not sufficiently refined the tentative official grades for 

 the various types of tobacco and were not prepared to take any 

 responsibility for the grades adopted by the association, which was 

 allowed to use the sets of grades drawn up at the conference with 

 the distinct understanding that such grades were to be regarded as 

 association, and not as Government, standardized grades. The 

 classification of the grades adopted by the association, however, bears 

 a close resemblance to the system subsequently completed by the 

 warehouse division of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 



The flue-cured tobacco grown in South Carolina, the eastern sec- 

 tion of North Carolina (both known as the new belt) and the pied- 

 mont section of North Carolina and Virginia, (known as the old 

 belt) differs substantially in quality and texture, and lends itself to 

 division into three different types. Besides the flue-cured tobacco, 

 the association also handled the dark-fired and sun-cured tobacco 

 varieties of Virginia. The five separate pooling areas were created 

 to include these five types of tobacco. (Fig. 16.) The tobacco in 

 each pooling area was of a sufficiently uniform type to justify such 



33 Among other things, as early as 1920 the Federal Trade Commission in its report on 

 The Tobacco Industry recommended " that a Federal system of grading leaf tobacco be 

 established by the Department of Agriculture. The authority to establish such a system 

 apparently has been given that department under section 19 of the United States ware- 

 house act. It is believed that this would tend to stabilize market values under abnormal 

 conditions such as prevailed during part of last season." 



