4 BULLETIN 375, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
sacks and mailed to Oklahoma City, where the small sacks were 
packed into large mail bags and remailed to Washington, D. C. In 
the following spring this cotton was subjected to a humidifying proc- 
ess, making it approximately equal in moisture content to the average 
load of commercial seed cotton, after which 8 pounds of each sample 
were carefully weighed and ginned on a small 10-saw gin. The seed 
and lint were then weighed separately and the percentages of seed, 
lint, and trash calculated. In this way samples representing 881 
loads of seed cotton were ginned and carefully graded. 
This investigation was planned so that the results would reflect 
as accurately as possible the exact conditions prevailing in the 
seed-cotton markets. Every precaution was exercised to secure 
samples and information representative of actual conditions = It 
is believed that the small 10-saw gin yielded on the higher grades 
as good a quality of cotton, but, on the lower grades, about one- 
half grade below that actually produced from the same loads when 
handled by the modern gins of Oklahoma with their various clean- 
ing attachments. On being discharged from the gin, the seed from 
these samples was rim over a screen and in cleanliness was approx- 
imately equal to the average Oklahoma outturn. After ginning, 
5 ounces of lint were taken as representative of each load of seed 
cotton and graded according to the Official Cotton Grades 1 formerly 
issued by this department. 
While these results will show probably a slightly poorer quality 
of cotton in the lower grades than was obtained by the-ginner from 
the actual loads, all of the samples were ginned with the same equip- 
ment, weighed on the same scales, and subjected to the same treatment 
throughout, and therefore they should furnish comparable data. 
The poorer quality of lint obtained by the use of the small gin tends 
to make conservative the comparisons, wnich are drawn later in this 
bulletin, between prices paid for lint and prices paid for seed cotton. 
OUTTURNS FROM SEED COTTON AT GE\S. 
"When seed cotton reaches the gin it contains varying proportions 
of lint, seed, and trash. 2 The proportions of lint and seed depend 
on the variety planted, the soil, and the climatic and cultural con- 
ditions under which the cotton is grown. The trash varies in amount 
with climatic conditions and the care with which the cotton is picked 
and handled. The process of ginning separates the seed cotton 
into its three parts — lint, seed, and trash. Some of the trash, 
however, always remains in both the lint and the seed. 
Table II shows the number of samples of each grade obtained 
from 795 samples of seed cotton representing as many loads. Eighty- 
1 These grades were superseded on Dec. 15, 1914, by the Official Cotton Standards of the United States. 
- The word '■ trash," as used throughout this bulletin, includes all foreign matter, such as leaf, hulls, 
dirt, etc. 
