> BULLETIN 458, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of marking, tagging, and sampling the bales, concentrating the 
cotton into small lots of a few bales each, and into minimum car- 
load lots for compression. 
Investigations were also made to determine the feasibility of mar- 
keting the Durango cotton direct to spinning mills at prices equal 
to those obtained by growers of staple cotton in the Mississippi Delta 
and other sections, where cotton of like staple is grown in sufficient 
quantities to interest spinners of fine yarns. This work was inaugu- 
rated through the growers’ association, which seems to be success- 
fully accomplishing the purpose for which it was organized. 
Fig. 1.—A well-grown field of Durango cotton, 
NECESSITY FOR CLEAN PICKING. 
The boll of the Durango cotton is of the five-lock formation, 
slightly smaller than the boll of Mebane’s “Triumph ” or the Rowden 
varieties of short-staple cotton grown in the Imperial Valley, though 
not of sufficient difference in size to make clean picking noticeably 
more difficult. 
The Durango fiber is strong, and has already attracted the atten- 
tion of the cotton trade and spinners of fine and mercerized yarns 
in the United States. This cotton is utilized in the manufacture of 
fine goods, and for this purpose it must be free of motes and 
leaf so that the yarn may be spun evenly and be of uniform strength. 
In order to insure quick sales of cotton at good prices it should be 
picked as clean of leaf and other extraneous matter as possible. The 
