19 BULLETIN 476, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Special attention is called to Gastonia as compared with Charlotte. 
The average price for unclassed cotton sold at Gastonia was 12.03 
cents, while it was only 11.80 cents for the classed cotton sold at Char- 
lotte. It will be observed, however, that the average length of staple 
at Gastonia was 1.06 inches, whereas the average length of staple at 
Charlotte was only 0.95, a difference of approximately one-eighth of 
an inch. While unclassed cotton sold at Gastonia brought 23 poimts, 
or $1.15 per bale, more than classed cotton sold at Charlotte, the real 
difference in value of the cotton was at least 60 points, or $3 per bale, 
more for the Gastonia cotton on account of the length of staple. This 
indicates that in this instance the cotton classed before sale brought 
$1.85 per bale more than the unclassed cotton, value being considered. 
The cotton sold at Salisbury was not of greater value than that sold 
at Charlotte, but the fact that such a large portion of the cotton sold 
at Salisbury is purchased by supply merchants is believed to account 
for the consistent showing it made in this and other foes as a high 
market. 
As there are about 300,000 bales arudiicad in this section, Table 
VII indicates that at least $90,000 might have been saved the farmers 
of the Piedmont section had their cotton been classed before sale. 
Because of the inferior staple sold at Charlotte as compared with that 
sold at the other towns, it might be assumed that the producers of 
this section would have received $175,000 to $200,000 more for their 
cotton by having it classed before sale. 
DIFFERENCE IN PRICES BETWEEN GRADES. 
A comparison of the average difference in prices between grades on 
classed and unclassed cotton sold during the 1915-16 season is shown 
in Table VIII. These data were compiled in order to ascertain 
whether individual bales brought more nearly what they were worth 
if the owner were informed of the grade of the bale before sale. The 
information was obtained by finding the average price at which each 
grade sold at each town throughout the same period of time = 
determining the difference between these average prices. 
It will be noted that the differences on grades below Middling were 
more favorable to the seller of unclassed cotton than to the seller of 
classed cotton. On the other hand, differences on grades above Mid- 
dling were more favorable to the seller of cotton that had been classed 
before sale. Taking into consideration the fact that 48 per cent of 
the cotton was above Middling and only 273 per cent below Middling, 
it will be seen that the differences used on classed cotton were more 
tavorable to the seller than the differences used on unclassed cotton. 
