SERVICES IX COTTOX MARKETING 15 
by cutting in the bagging on each side of the bale a crescent slit 
about 12 inches long. The sampler draws from 3 to 4 ounces of 
cotton from each side of the bale and puts them together. This 
sample is sometimes divided crossways to make two. 
Cotton classing is done by sight and touch. The grading is done 
primarily by the eye. The classer opens the sample two or more 
times along different layers and judges the grade by the lowest break 
in the sample. Character is judged largely by touch. If cotton ap- 
pears strong, it is said to have good character : if it is weak and with- 
out uniformity of staple, it has poor character. Staple determination 
is a result of sight, feel, and actual measurement. It is done by 
parallelizing the fibers of the predominant length and then estimat- 
ing or actually measuring them. 
If the sample of a given bale of cotton does not match exactly any 
sample in the boxes representing the standards, the classer must 
use his judgment in deciding into which class to place the bale. If 
the character is good, he often puts it into the higher class if it is 
otherwise on the line between two grades : if the character is poor, it 
goes into the lower grade. Cotton from different parts of the belt 
and in different seasons presents a great variety of combinations of 
the grade-determining factors, so that fine distinctions must often 
be drawn, and great accuracy is required for successful classing. 
The technique is learned largely by actual classing under the super- 
vision of skilled classers. 
If the samples are made ready for the classer, under satisfactory 
conditions and with the proper facilities, a skilled classer can grade 
1.000 bales or more a day. Most efficient and economical classing re- 
quires, therefore, that the cotton be assembled in fairly large lots. 
NUMBER OF TIMES COTTOX IS CLASSED 
Cotton is usually classed as many times as it changes ownership. 
The one who buys it from the farmer makes the first classification. 
The sample used may have been drawn by the gin, by the warehouse- 
man, or by the buyer himself. The local buyer sells to a shipper, 
whose take-up man may sample and class the cotton before it leaves 
the primary market, or he may send it to his central warehouse and 
pay on the basis of class as determined there. In either case it is not 
necessary to sample the cotton more than once, though it may be done. 
Cotton is always classed at the central office, for it is at this point that 
the cotton is put up in even-running lots according to the firm's 
types, or according to universal standards for American cotton. The 
classing may be done on new samples or on the samples drawn by the 
take-up man. 
After the shipper has classed his cotton into even-running bale lots 
of 50 or 100 bales, he makes up types representing those lots in stock 
and sends them to his customers. If he is a merchant who handles a 
great deal of cotton and has been in the business a long time, his 
types are well known to his customers and only a few samples to 
show the peculiar seasonal characteristics are sent. 
Sales are made by merchants on the basis of the official cotton 
standards or on their private types. When the cotton is sold and 
shipped to a mill, it is again sampled by the mill classer to see that 
all bales are as good as or better than the type used as the basis of 
