PRIMARY COTTON MARKET CONDITIONS IN OKLAHOMA. 27 
grade from other compresses because it is believed that the territory 
of the one produces a slightly better staple than the territory of the 
other. 
The larger cotton firms secure from each of their traveling buyers 
a number of samples from each district covered. These are sent in 
each year as soon as the cotton begins to move. They are carefully 
stapled and an estimate made of the per cent of bales of 1 inch, 
l-j*g- inches, and 1^ inches which the district will furnish from the 
current crop. On this estimate the limits given the buyers are based. 
If the buyer finds that he can not secure much cotton at the limits 
set, he concludes that other firms have been better pleased than has 
his own with the samples from that district and he submits further 
samples, hoping for a higher limit. While the average staple lengths 
of the district are thus carefully considered, no attention is paid 
to the staple of the individual bale in fixing its price. 
In a general way the eastern half of the State is believed to pro- 
duce a better staple than the western half, and instances have been 
known in which buyers, although guaranteed a certain length of 
staple by the sellers, or after accepting certain types as satisfactory, 
have stipulated that the cotton must originate east of the Santa Fe 
Railroad, when the very types which they had accepted were drawn 
from bales produced in the western part of the State. 
In order to show just how much difference in staple there is be- 
tween the cotton in the eastern and western parts of the State the 
following figures from six towns may be of interest. 
Shawnee is one of the markets in which all cotton brings a slightly 
higher price than in most other towns because of its reputation for 
producing a good staple. Twenty bales marketed in October and 
November and representing a wide range of grades were carefully 
stapled, with the following results: In 2 bales the staple was found 
to be if of an inch ; in 15 bales it was exactly 1 inch ; in 1 bale, 1^ 
inches; and in 2 bales, l^V inches. In other words, three-fourths of 
the bales sampled were found to be exactly 1-inch cotton. The sta- 
pling of all the samples here described was done strictly on the 
basis of what would be accepted for the lengths named by a critical 
New England purchaser. In ordinary commercial transactions be- 
tween dealers and exporters in Oklahoma the staple claimed and 
allowed for local cotton is slightly greater than here indicated. 
At Ada samples from 32 bales sold by one dealer to another on 
October 2 were found to contain 2 bales of J-inch, 8 bales of ^f -inch, 
17 bales of 1-inch, and 5 bales of l^-inch cotton. These were an 
even-running, high-grade lot of bales, sold at a uniform price, but 
it is evident that the staple had been entirely disregarded in the 
transaction. 
