22 BULLETIN 36, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In Table X we have presented for the towns of Mangum and Moun- 
tain Park the same information which Table IX carries for other 
points except that the results of four collections are shown in each 
case and the figures have been extended to show the actual loss on the 
better bales, assuming that the lower grades were properly priced and 
applying the same difference sheet used in the foregoing tables and 
discussion. The loss to growers shown in the last column is the 
total loss on the number of highest-grade bales shown in the fifth 
column. 
Mountain Park has only 2 buyers, but Mangum has 27 street 
buyers and we must assume that everything which competition can 
do to force proper respect for quality is done in Mangum. If there 
is a point in the State where competition in buying should yield its 
greatest boon to the producer it is here. How then are we to account 
for such a reversal of qualities and prices as is here shown? By 
what operation of the competitive principle does it happen that a 
low middling bale can be bought for $1.55 less than the average price 
of 4 ordinary bales, when by the published differences of the trade 
it should bring $13.75 more than an ordinary bale? 
In connection with this showing attention is again invited to the 
preceding tables in which Mangum appears. It will be seen that 
every sort of irregularity in pricing and grading found in the smaller 
markets occurs also in Mangum. There is the same wide range of 
prices on a given day for identical bales, the same failure to observe 
any fixed scale of differences, and finally this showing in which low 
grades actually bring more than higher grades. At Mountain Park, 
where there are only two regular buyers, and where the farmers com- 
plain that they do not have a competitive market, the conditions 
appear to be no worse than in Mangum. 
A study of these facts leads to the conclusion that prices on indi- 
vidual bales are fixed by some consideration into which local com- 
petition for the cotton does not enter appreciably. In a majority of 
cases the actual grade of the particular bale does have a real influence 
on its price, but not to the extent that it does in later transactions 
between dealers. 
We are forced to believe that the individuality of the man who 
offers the cotton for sale is a more potent factor than it should be. 
The buyers, even in the most competitive markets, seem to ask them- 
selves, " How much must I pay to get this cotton ? " rather than 
i; What is this bale worth on today's market ? " In other words, 
competition is fully as manifest in efforts to buy a bale for less than 
someone else paid for a similar bale, as it is in a disposition to " raise 
the other fellow's bid." 
