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after compression at interior compresses and elsewhere in Texas and Louisiana, 
the samples sometimes measuring as little as 2 inches in width. 
There is considerable variation in the size of samples drav/n by the 
different methods from different kinds of bales. The width of the sample 
from a flat bale averages between 6 and 7 inches. The largest samples ob- 
served were those from the Delta area in Mississippi. In this area, it is 
the practice to pull samples that are as long as possible and as deep as 
can be obtained with a hook. They are in many instances as long as the width 
of the bale. Buyers state that much cotton produced in Mississippi is sold 
by brokers and that the original sample is divided into two parts in order 
to have for their use two samples from the same sample hole. Samples from 
compressed bales in Texas averaged 4 inches in width; but samples drawn in 
Mobile and Savannah, where the practice of better spacing of bands had been 
adopted for bales of cotton to be certificated, were found to average from 
6 to 7 inches in width. In all areas the length of the compress sample ap- 
peared to depend also upon whether the cotton was to be certificated. 7/ 
Certain cotton classers insist that a satisfactory sample requires a mini- 
mum of 6 ounces of lint, 3 ounces from each side of the bale. They state 
that accurate determination of grade is not assured if the sample is too 
small. 
When the sample is taken by hook, it is extremely difficult to pull 
the cotton close to the band, whereas by the plug method the sampler can 
cut the fibers parallel to and against the band, giving a little more width 
to the sample. Those who prefer taking samples with the hook say that it 
is less destructive to fibers than is the knife used in sampling. A hand- 
drawn sample is even smaller and thinner than a hooked sample, because of the 
difficulty of pulling the cotton close to the band. Because of the greater 
effort required to pull samples by hand, this method of sampling is said to 
encourage "pinching." 8/ 
The plug method is best for obtaining samples from standard-density 
and high-density bales on which the bands are placed close together. It 
has been suggested, however, that the sampling of high-density bales would 
be much facilitated by spacing the bands somewhat as shown in figure 11: 
two rather close together on each end of the bale and the other five at uni- 
form intervals over the rest of the bale. 9/ 
7/ Specifications for samples from bales to be certificated are given in Ser- 
vice and Regulatory Announcement 124 of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 
United States Department of Agriculture. 
8/ "Pinching" is the practice of making a very small hole in the bagging of a 
cotton bale and pulling a small sample by hand. The size of the sample is so 
small that it is said to be a pinch. A sample taken in this way probably 
will not weigh 1 ounce. 
9/ This spacing, suggested by F. J. Heberlin of Galveston, Tex!, is now used 
extensively in the Southwest. A. L. Reed, Secretary-Counsel for the South- 
western Compress and Warehouse Association of Dallas, Tex., aided materially 
in bringing about the adoption of the practice. 
