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This is a violation of law in some States 5/, and so far as known is not 
a general practice elsewhere. 6/ 
Developments in the mechanical design of gin machinery that would 
obviate the plating of bales would be of great value. Not only would it 
increase the representativeness of samples, but it would remove one of the 
factors that frequently affects the classification of the grower's cotton. 
Cotton buyers in different parts of the Cotton Belt were interviewed 
in an effort to obtain information concerning the prevalence of two-sided 
bales of cotton marketed in the territories in which they operated. Cotton 
buyers of all types were included, some of them being among the largest buy- 
ers of cotton in the United States, and some being only small country mer- 
chants. Since it is not known how much cotton was handled by each buyer, or 
how much cotton was grown in the territory in which each operated, there is 
no satisfactory method of weighting the information given by these buyers 
concerning two-sided bales. 
Unweighted averages of the estimates were computed, therefore, for 
the various States, and they are presented in table 2 as an indication of 
the prevalence of two-sided bales. Inasmuch as two-sided bales are valued 
for grade according to the "low" side and for staple according to the "short" 
side, it can be seen that losses thus sustained by farmers alone in the United 
States amount to thousands of dollars during each season. 
Bales of cotton the two sides of which vary one-sixteenth of an inch 
or more in staple length are not desired by many spinners even at a price 
representing the value of the shortest staple length. Unless the rolls on 
a spinning frame are reset, cockled yarn is likely to result from the spin- 
ning of cotton that averages longer in staple than that for which roll set- 
tings have been made. Bales that are two-sided in grade can be used at some 
mills, but spinners often reject them. 
Another matter connected with ginning that should have attention be- 
cause it affects the sampling of cotton, is the roughly packed top side of 
the bale. It is common knowledge among cotton samplers who work at com- 
presses that it is easier to get a sample of desirable size from the bottom 
side of the bale than from the top side. The first cotton that falls in- 
to the press box forms the bottom of the bale. The sample from the bottom 
of the bale does not break into parts as does the sample from the top side. 
In other words, the sample from the bottom of the bale will usually open 
into layers, which in most instances are the length of the sample; where- 
as the sample from the top of the bale will not open into layers so read- 
ily and often has a rough, wadded appearance. This roughness is not of the 
same intensity in all samples, but few samples from the top of the bale are 
so rough that the grade assigned is lower than it otherwise would have been, 
or that, in trade terms, the grade is reduced. An extreme case of roughness 
5/ See extracts from State laws relating to false packing of cotton, p. 36. 
6/ A mechanical device has been invented for catching the first part of the 
lint for each bale, allowing the next lint ginned to fall into the press box. 
The first lint ginned is then deposited into the press box, and the bale is 
completed. 
