DURANGO COTTON IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. 17 
he is receiving full value for his money. To manage such sales to 
the satisfaction of all concerned requires a certain amount of skill 
and ability. 
The demand for cotton is based on the activity of the yarn or goods 
market, which in turn hinges upon the style of goods being worn or 
utilized, and upon the general financial conditions. When the supply 
of cotton is unusually large, low prices with dull and inactive markets 
for staples must result. In times of prosperity naturally more money 
is spent on dress goods and other articles of fine quality than’ in 
seasons of financial depression, and there is a good demand for ma- 
terial at high prices. This demand means an active staple-cotton 
market and high prices, but, of course, the law of supply and demand 
apples to cotton as well as to any other commodity. 
As previously stated, the high grades of cotton are those in greatest 
demand; in fact, a mill spinning fine yarns for the weaving of fancy 
and high-grade goods will not buy low-grade staple cotton. Staple 
cotton of the Durango variety ranges in length from 1,4 to 1,3; 
inches, and for each increase of one-sixteenth of an: inch in length 
of staple in the grade of Strict Middling and Good Middling, and 
better, there is an increase in price of about 1 cent a pound. These 
differences in value between the various grades are not stable, but 
vary with the demand for the different lengths of staple, and also 
change with the grade and quality or character of the cotton. For 
instance, Good Middling, 14 inch, grown on poor land which has 
been insufficiently irrigated, will make irregular, soft, and fluffy 
fiber which will not equal in value cotton of the same grade and 
_ length of staple grown under proper conditions. As poor or faulty 
ginning also will reduce the value of the staple materially, in the 
marketing of long-staple cotton it is necessary to take into considera- 
tion every good quality and all defects, whether inherent or produced 
mechanically. 
TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES AND RATES. 
Although this bulletin discusses handling and marketing primarily 
with reference to the Durango cotton produced in the Imperial Val- 
ley, what is said concerning transportation rates and facilities ap- 
plies to all classes of cotton grown there. So far as is known, prior 
to the season of 1916-17, little of the Imperial Valley cotton was ex- 
ported to the Orient from Pacific coast ports. A small portion of it 
is consumed by the mills of the Southeast; some of it moves through 
the ports of Galveston and New Orleans to Europe; and some of it 
moves to those ports and thence by water to New York for consump- 
tion at interior mills. : 
