MARKETING COTTOX SEED FOR PLANTING PURPOSES. 23 
ton seed to be sold on the bushel basis when the market for cotton 
seed for manufacturing purposes, which quantity is ten 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 cotton seed is 30 pounds ; in Alabama, Mississippi, 
Oklahoma, and Texas, 32 pounds; in Arkansas 33J 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 practice of quoting 
prices per 100 pounds. 
CERTIFIED COTTON SEED. 
In view of the fact that authentic information or assurance regard- 
ing the purity as to variety and trueness to type of cotton seed 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 cotton seed 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 cotton seed, 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 cotton seed 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. 
The more thorough and uniform removal of the surplus lint and 
culling out of all extraneous matter and small or light inferior seed 
