98 
CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 
or wait for a higher market. He may allow him to use his 
own judgment, or give him special instructions, limiting as 
to time and price. 
The merchant or factor takes the cotton, stores it away 
m his shed, takes samples, and goes out in search of a 
buyer. After receiving several bids from various brokers, 
he finally closes down on one at a stipulated price per 
pound. The cotton is weighed, the calculation made, 
the money paid to the merchant ; the merchant settles 
with the planter, charging him for storage, commission, 
drayage, repairage, weighing, and insurance. 
In addition to all these charges we now pay, '* by con 
straint, not willingly," the government tax of three cents 
per pound. This tax we will consider in another chapter. 
The Avhole expense on a bale of cotton, from the time 
it leaves the planter's depot until it is sold to a broker, 
may be estimated as follows : 
Freight (say 40 miles) $2.00 
Drayage.. 50 
Storage 50 
Repairage (probably) 25 
"Weighing 25 
Insurance 1.00 
Commissions 4.00 
Government tax 15.00 
Total $23.50 
GRADATION OF QUALITY AND PRICES. 
There are three primitive classes of cotton, viz., ordi- 
nary, middling, and fair; but factors and brokers have 
made so many wool-splitting distinctions, that we are com- 
pelled to recognize all their divisions and subdivisions. 
