DISADVANTAGES OF SELLING COTTON IN THE SEED. 7 
case, it may be considered that the girmer paid to the farmer for the 
cotton an equivalent of 11.28 cents per pound for the bale. Such 
prices are hereafter referred to as the "equivalent lint prices." 
ELEMENTS THAT DETERMINE THE PRICE OF SEED COTTON. 
The wide variations in the percentages of seed, lint, and trash as 
brought out by Table III and the inability of the ginner or producer 
to determine accurately these proportions or the quality of the lint 
or seed before the cotton is ginned, make it impossible for the ginner 
to figure a just price to be paid for each load, and the best he can 
do under the circumstances is to consider the current lint and seed 
prices and to take the average lint, seed, and trash contents of his 
community as a basis for reaching the price to be paid for the un- 
ginned cotton. This condition has resulted in dealing on a system 
of averages, and the ginner often determines on a certain price 
which he offers for all seed cotton with little regard for quality. 
However, if a superficial examination of the load shows it to be 
much worse than the average in trash or moisture content, a lower 
price is offered. In fixing this price the buyer is naturally careful 
to guard against any losses that may be incurred on account of the 
uncertainties involved and to figure safely his own profit. An 
examination of the records shows many cases where, in the same 
market, on the same day, the same price per hundred pounds was 
paid for all unginned cotton, with apparently an utter disregard for 
quality, the ginner apparently expecting to overcome any losses on 
the poorer loads by gains on the better ones. In nearly all collec- 
tions of samples made during this survey the range in price paid for 
seed cotton on any one day was comparatively small, and many 
instances are shown where the load containing the best lint sold for 
a lower comparative price than did the load which yielded the 
poorest lint. 
Tables IV and V are presented to bring out inconsistencies with 
respect to quality between equivalent lint prices resulting from a 
fixed seed-cotton price in a given market. Detailed statements are 
given of two collections of samples of seed cotton, each load of which 
was grown and sold by a different producer. The cotton in the first 
lot, represented by Table IV, was sold at $4.50 per 100 pounds, in 
Tahlequah, on October 2, and each load of the second lot, repre- 
sented by Table V, at $4 per 100 pounds, in Anadarko, on November 
10, 1913. 
In Table IV, the quality ranges from Strict Low Middling light 
tinged to Good Middling; the lint outturn varies 6.8 per cent; the 
seed outturn, 6.4 per cent; the trash outturn, 2.1 per cent; and the 
equivalent lint price, 2.14 cents per pound; yet each of these 10 
loads brought the producers $4.50 per 100 pounds. In Table V, the 
quality ranges from below Good Ordinary to Strict Low Middling; 
