MARKETING COTTONSEED FOR PLANTING PURPOSES 21 
SALES ON BASIS OF WEIGHT v. MEASURE 
The sale of planting cottonseed on the basis of weight rather than 
measure is strongly urged on all persons or concerns handling this 
commodity. It seems inconsistent, to say the least, for planting cot- 
tonseed to be sold on the bushel basis when the market for cotton- 
seed for manufacturing purposes, which quantity is 10 times as large, 
is firmly established on the 100-pound or ton basis. The outstanding 
argument in favor of sales for planting purposes being made on the 
100-pound or ton basis, however, is the wide variation in the estab- 
lished legal weights per bushel in the cotton-producing States. In 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia the legal weight per 
bushel of upland cottonseed is 30 pounds; in Alabama, Mississippi, 
Oklahoma, and Texas 32 pounds; in Arkansas 33i/ 3 pounds; and in 
Tennessee only 28 pounds. At the present time most dealers in the 
various States do not adhere strictly to the legal bushel weights 
designated, but avoid any probable recourse in transactions by quot- 
ing prices per bushel of a specific number of pounds, which may or 
may not be the prescribed legal weight in their respective States. 
Although the legal weight of a bushel varies from 2 to 5 pounds 
in different States, the pound remains constant, and the difficulties 
and misunderstandings attending the lack of uniformity in bushel 
weights can be avoided by adhering strictly to the practices of 
quoting prices per 100 pounds. 
CERTIFIED COTTONSEED 
In view of the fact that authentic information or assurance regard- 
ing the purity of cottonseed as to variety and trueness to type has 
an important bearing on its value for planting purposes, it seems 
that some system of certification would be desirable. Certified seed 
of potatoes, rye, alfalfa, and a few other crops are available in limited 
commercial quantities, but little work of this kind has been done with 
reference to cotton. The registration, inspection, and certification 
of cotton fields from which planting seed is to be selected by some 
disinterested agency would go a long way toward providing a com- 
mercial supply of cottonseed pure as to variety and true to type. 
It remains for State and Federal agricultural agencies to work out 
a method that will be practical in its application and that will effect 
the desired results. Certified cottonseed, however, with all that the 
term implies, would not represent the ultimate in planting cotton- 
seed values unless the seed also be subjected to approved methods of 
preparation and marketing. 
SUMMARY 
The ideal planting cottonseed may be described as seed selected 
from cotton that is true to type and pure of variety, well matured, 
free from disease and insects or insect injury, delinted, recleaned 
and graded, and testing a minimum of 88 per cent germination. 
It is necessary that the stock seed used in producing cotton from 
which commercial planting seed is selected should compare favorably 
with the ideal. 
