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rate on the remainder. This action of itself may produce a severe rough- 
ness in the sample, and scanty accumulations of cotton in the condenser chute 
will result in accentuating this roughness when the doffers discharge the 
lint into the press box. If the ginner does not raise the gin breasts promptly 
when finishing the bale, the seed rolls are ginned down to different densities 
so that variable amounts of cotton remain in the seed-roll boxes, and very ir- 
regular plating may result on one side of the bale." 
Under certain circumstances the cotton classer finds it desirable 
to be able to identify the sample drawn from the top side of the bale as 
distinguished from that drawn from the bottom side. Information concerning 
the distinguishing characteristics of the two sides of the bale was there- 
fore sought from those interviewed concerning sampling practices. The identi- 
ty of the top and bottom sides of the flat bale can be determined in almost 
every instance by observation. First, the buckles are usually near the top 
of the bale, and the opening of the buckle is always toward the bottom, re- 
sulting in a longer lap in the ties toward the bottom of the bale. In those 
instances in which the buckles are placed so near the center of the bale 
that there may be some difficulty in identifying the top side of the bale 
by this method, a second means of identification may be found in the smooth- 
ness with which the bagging covers the top of the bale and hangs over the 
sides. Gravity will cause the bagging on the top side of the bale to hang 
down smoothly, whereas wrinkles in the bagging will usually be seen on the 
bottom side, particularly at the edges. The identification of the top and 
bottom sides of standard-density and high-density bales is a more difficult 
problem, but one that in many instances it is possible to solve. For ex- 
ample, the top side of a flat bale will still be the top side of that bale 
after compression if a small auxiliary press has been used to remove the 
bands before compressing. The position of the buckles and the smoothness 
of the bagging will thus indicate the top and bottom sides of this bale, 
as in the case of the flat bale. 
An additional test is sometimes applied when it is known that the 
top side of the flat bale was up when placed in position for compression. 
If this fact can be established, then it is possible to determine by the 
following procedure which side of the compressed bale was the top side of 
the original flat bale. The finger nails are drawn against the sides of 
the bale; the side will feel rough when the nails are drawn from the bot- 
tom of the bale toward the top; but when the nails are drawn in the opposite 
direction, the sides will feel very smooth. It should be borne in mind that 
this method can be applied only to the extent that the fact can be established 
that the flat bale was placed in the press with the top side up. 
It was found that the top and bottom sides of flat bales could be 
identified at 92 percent of the compresses and warehouses visited, as com- 
pared with 64 percent for standard-density bales and 61 percent for high- 
density bales (table 3). In order that the classer may determine which of 
the two portions of the sample is more nearly representative of the major 
part of the cotton in the bale, some adequate means of identifying the top 
and bottom sides of all bales is desirable. This might be accomplished 
