36 BULLETIN 1445, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
and from the daily reports of the cotton exchanges and commercial 
papers. Information concerning warehouse facilities in the different 
markets may be had from chambers of commerce, or city cotton-trade 
organizations. The methods of warehouse construction, and the ca- 
pacity and location of Federal licensed warehouses may be obtained 
from the United States Department of Agriculture. Information 
regarding State warehouse laws may be obtained from that branch 
of the State government charged with its operation. 
FINANCE 
The. usual sources of information regarding credits are the local 
banks, city banks, the Federal reserve banks, and the intermediate 
credit banks. 
COOPERATIVE PERFORMANCE OF MARKETING SERVICES 
The success of farmers' cooperative enterprises jn marketing must 
be measured by their ability to perform one or more of the necessary 
services more efficiently than private enterprise, or they must obtain 
appreciable advantages to the farmers by more effectively linking 
their cotton growing and marketing problems. And they must do 
these things in ways which make it necessary for the farmer to join 
the association to reap the benefits. Cooperation in cotton marketing 
is not new, but each movement has been different in that it has been 
directed toward curing defects in more or less different phases of 
the marketing process. 
The services required in cotton marketing are not so completely 
interrelated as to preclude choice in manner of performance. The 
growers may gin their cotton cooperatively and sell it independently. 
They may hire a private company to gin it, store it cooperatively, 
and sell it independently or cooperatively. They may confine their 
cooperative activities entirely to cooperative classing and selling. 
The marketing services most frequently performed cooperatively 
are ginning, which includes baling and wrapping; warehousing; class- 
ing; and selling. Certain other services are rarely if ever under- 
taken by cooperative associations. These are compressing, shipping, 
insuring, and financing. 
The history of cooperative movements in cotton marketing is a 
record of attempts to solve the problems of selecting the most urgent 
lines of work and adjusting the various methods of conducting these 
to suit the changing conditions and necessities of farmers. Much 
has been accomplished in the way of preparation for the ultimate 
success of cooperative cotton marketing even by those movements 
that were looked upon as failures. The more significant develop- 
ments in this field are discussed in detail in Department Bulletin 
1397, Cooperative Marketing of Cotton. 
A typical association agrees to perform services summarized as 
follows: (1) To class the cotton according to grade and staple, (2) to 
pool it in even-running lots for sale, (3) to market it in an orderly 
manner, and (4) to make final returns to the grower on the basis 
of the average price of the cotton in each of the crop-year pools in 
which he has cotton. To carry out these obligations to the best 
advantage, the associations (1) provide an expert sales force 
