34 BULLETIN 36, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGEICULTUBE. 
unopened bolls, but also the empty pods from which the cotton had 
been picked by hand earlier in the season. This made it necessary 
for the ginners to separate the cotton from about twice the amount 
of bolls and trash which would be present if the bolls had been 
gathered from the stalks by hand. 
At least one farmer whose previous experience had been in the 
wheat-growing regions of the Xorthwest, after picking the greater 
portion of his crop in the ordinary way and finding that what 
remained after the beginning of cold weather was all near the top of 
the stalk, went over the field with a wheat header, cutting off the tops 
of all the plants at a given height and brought this material to 
the gin. 
The cotton harvested by these methods was actually put through 
the gin, baled, and sold, but the ginning process is so slow that the 
ginners generally refuse to handle sled-picked cotton. 
In this connection it is only fair to say that there is probably no 
State, with the possible exception of Texas, in which the equipment 
and efficiency of the average ginning establishment is so excellent 
as in Oklahoma. Our observation leads us to doubt whether 10 per 
cent of the ginning establishments in the southeastern portion of 
the belt could operate at all upon such cotton as a majority of 
Oklahoma gins handle throughout a considerable part of the season. 
We are inclined to believe that the average load of hand-picked cot- 
ton which is brought to the average Oklahoma custom ginnery 
results in a bale at least one grade higher than would be obtained 
from the identical cotton if it were put through one-half of the 
gins operating in the Carolinas. 
The larger cotton merchants of Oklahoma complain that there is 
no proper recognition by the trade of the fact that Oklahoma cot- 
ton contains less sand and gives less invisible loss in the mill than 
the cotton of any other section. The almost universal use of mod- 
ern cleaning devices in Oklahoma ginneries and a general absence 
of such devices in many other portions of the cotton belt lead us to 
believe that the superiority claimed for Oklahoma cotton actually 
exists. 
With facilities for getting the highest grade which can be secured 
from the cotton on the farmer's wagon, it seems both unfortunate 
and unreasonable that no marketing system has been worked out 
which gives him the full advantage in price to which this superior 
quality is entitled. In other words, with a mechanical equipment for 
ginning and baling which is superior to that found in any other por- 
tion of the cotton belt, the resulting high-grade bales are sold in the 
primary markets almost without regard to actual grade. 
It is our purpose to continue this survey during the season of 1913 
on a somewhat different plan with a view to obtaining reliable statis- 
