PKIMARY COTTON MAKKET CONDITIONS IN OKLAHOMA. 11 
bales sold at a difference of $6.25 at Erick ; while on December 2, at 
Duncan, a difference of $10 was noted between the prices paid for 2 
strict 1ow t middling bales. 
In Table V, showing miscellaneous grades and tinges, no instance 
has been included which did not involve a difference of 1 cent per 
pound or $5 per bale in price, and such differences were noted for 
good middling cotton, the highest grade recognized by the trade in 
Oklahoma, and for strict middling tinged. On 2 low middling tinged 
at Ma dill on December 20 the difference in price was $7.50, while 
2 good ordinary bales sold in Mangum on November 7, the one for 
7.50 cents and the other for 11.35 cents per pound, or a difference of 
$19.25 between the 2 bales. A close inspection of these figures seems 
to furnish some justification for the widespread popular belief among 
the farmers in Oklahoma that their low grades are not sold so nearly 
on their merits as are the higher grades, and that when the cotton 
is distinctly below middling it is comparatively easy for the buyer 
to set his own price. In the extreme case cited at Mangum it is 
possible that the good ordinary bale which sold for 11.35 cents per 
pound may have been one of a small number sold at an average price 
and may thus have brought confessedly more than its value, but as 
there were 27 cotton buyers in this town it would seem that every 
guaranty which competition can give that no bale need be sold below 
its value was there afforded. 
The geographical distribution of the towns in this tabulation is as 
suggestive as the figures themselves. In the strict low middling table 
we have Porter in the northeast, Okemah in the east central, Nor- 
man in the central, Wellston in the north central, Caddo in the south- 
east, Duncan, Waurika, and Terral in the south central, Mountain 
Park and Snyder in the southwest, and Erick in the extreme west 
of the cotton-producing section of the State. It would be difficult 
to select an equal number of towns which would much more thor- 
oughly cover the geographical distribution of the important cotton 
production in the State. 
The other tables are based on collections in fewer places, but are 
almost as comprehensive in their geographical representation. The 
western part of the State furnishes more entries in the tables on 
later collection dates because the crop was an early one and picking 
in the eastern sections was practically finished at an unusually early 
date. Furthermore, in many of the eastern towns so much of the 
cotton is first sold in the seed that an ordinary sampling would not 
give us any considerable number of bales of any one grade sold on 
the same date, the first price of which it would be possible to secure. 
Summing up this feature of the investigation it may be stated 
that the fluctuations in prices paid for any grade of cotton from day 
to day, or during any one day, exceed greatly those justified by any 
