18 BULLETIN 742, U. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
cotton. The charge made for ginning Egyptian cotton in the Salt 
River Valley was until recently about $10 per bale, but was increased 
to $14 in 1917. 
Instead of depending upon custom: ginning two of the associations 
of cotton growers in the Salt River Valley operate their own plants. 
The experience of these farmers, which is in accord with that of 
farmers in the eastern cotton belt, indicates that the best results are 
obtained, when the ginning is under the control of the producers. 
The market value of cotton may be very greatly reduced by careless 
ginning, and when the gin operator has no other interest than to 
secure the largest possible outturn the commercial value of the 
product is likely to be impaired. 
Cotton ginning is a technical operation which requires experience 
and skill to secure the best results. The cooperative ownership and 
management of a gin by the growers does not in itself insure capable 
and efficient management, but it does afford the owners of the crop 
an opportunity to insist upon the work being properly done. This 
opportunity 1s seldom afforded when the cotton is handled by custom 
gins. In either case it is of the utmost importance to the growers 
that the crop be classed or graded by a capable and impartial expert 
as soon as it leaves the gin. Prompt grading serves to warn the 
farmer if either the picking or ginning is being poorly done and 
gives him this warning in time to enable him to have better work 
done. 
The grower is interested in the way the ginning is done, not only 
because of its effect on the value of his lint, but also because of its 
relation to his supply of seed for planting. Where only uncontrolled 
custom ginning is available the grower has small chance of main- 
taining the purity of his seed.* 
The opinion appears to be gaining ground among students of cot- 
ton production that the improvement of the industry depends fully 
as much upon good ginning as upon good cultivation or good picking. 
The surest way to obtain good ginning is by cooperative ownership 
and operation of the gins. 
GRADING THE CROP. 
It was pointed out on a preceding page that uniform grades of 
Egyptian cotton must be established and maintained from year to 
year if the crop is to find ready sale at its full value. In recognition 
of this fact steps were taken in 19138 to establish standards. of the 
different types and grades produced in the crop of Yuma cotton of 
1 Experiments that demonstrate in a striking manner the readiness with which seeds © 
of different varieties of cotton become mixed in commercial ginning establishments have 
been described recently by D. A. Saunders and P. V. Cardon. (Custom ginning as a 
factor in cotton-seed deterioration. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 288, 8 p., 5 fig. 1915.) 
