DISADVANTAGES OF SELLING COTTON IN THE SEED. 3 
Table I. — Estimated percentages of total crop and calculated number of bales of cotton 
sold in the seed in the several States. 
State. 
Percent- 
age. 
1915 
1914 
1913 
1912 
60 
11 
2 
2 
45 
4 
3 
4 
6 
13 
40 
90 
37 
Bales. 
10, 000 
81, 000 
23,000 
39, 000 
25, 000 
41, 000 
28, 000 
13,000 
184, 000 
103,000 
118, 000 
42, 000 
230, 000 
Bales. 
15, 000 
107, 000 
31, 000 
54,000 
41,000 
69, 000 
37, 000 
18,000 
263, 000 
130,000 
149, 000 
71, 000 
456, 000 
Bales. 
15, 000 
92, 000 
28,000 
47, 000 
30,000 
59, 000 
38,000 
17,000 
226,000 
135,000 
147,000 
57, 000 
312, 000 
Bales. 
15,000 
100,000 
24,000 
36,000 
26,000 
53,000 
30,000 
15 000 
Texas 
279, 000 
100,000 
107, 000 
48,000 
372, 000 
Total 
937, 000 
1,441,000 
1,203,000 
1,205,000 
8.5 
9.1 
8.6 
9.0 
The high, price of cotton seed during the 1915 season probably gave 
some stimulus to the practice of selling cotton unginned. The esti- 
mates given hi Table I, therefore, are probably higher than would 
have been made had the cotton-seed prices been at the level ruling 
during recent years when production was greater. As the high per- 
centages for 1915 have been applied to the census figures for 1912, 
1913, and 1914, the estimates for these years are probably somewhat 
greater than the actual facts. This is especially true for 1914, when 
an unusually small quantity was sold in the seed, because much 
cotton was held by producers on account of the low prices resulting 
from the European war. The high percentage shown in Florida is 
because most of the Sea Island crop was sold in the seed. The prac- 
tice of selling cotton unginned is shown to be most prevalent in regions 
of scanty production and in the newer cotton-producing sections. 
The purpose of this bulletin is to set forth the results of an investi- 
gation which was conducted in Oklahoma during the season of 
1913-14, in order to obtain reliable information as to the relative 
advantages and disadvantages accruing to the farmer who sells his 
unginned cotton directly to the ginner mstead of having his product 
custom-ginned and marketing the seed and the baled lint cotton 
separately. 
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION. 
For the purposes of this investigation, nine representative seed- 
cotton markets were selected, in each of which the best man available 
for the work was appointed as a representative of the Department of 
Agriculture to obtain each week several 10-pound samples of seed 
cotton from loads sold by different farmers. With each sample was 
secured a record of the seller's name, date and place of sale, and price 
per hundred pounds. These samples were packed tightly into cloth 
