is the most marketable of all farm products. Non-perishable, and put up in conveniently handled bales, always in demand, it finds a ready sale anywhere and at any time. But the old time method of con signing the crop to a commission merchant to be sold at the discretion of the planter is no longer followed except by a few large planters. Railroads traverse so much of the cotton territory that markets are convenient, and buyers are always on hand to pay cash for every bale offered for sale, thereby saving the farmer the cost of freight, cartage, storage, insurance and commissions for selling. If the cotton is carried to market and the price is not satisfactory it may be stored in a warehouse, weighed, marked for identification and a receipt issued for it that may be negotiated at any local bank at a reasonable rate of interest. In marketing his crop the farmer now has the advantage of selling it according to the grades established by the government. Heretofore, the grading was done by the buyer and the farmer knew little or nothing of the grades or their values. The cotton mills of the South are now consuming about 23 per cent of the total production, a considerable proportion of which is bought by the mills from farmers in the locality where it is produced. The re mainder of the crop is nearly all marketed at interior points and from thence, after being compressed into smaller bales, is shipped either to Northern mills, or to the seaboard and through inland ports to various foreign desti nations. In the general distribution of the crop about 23 per cent is taken by Southern mills, 20.5 per cent by Northern mills, and 56.5 exported. The largest amount of cotton ex ported in any year was in 1911-12, when 11, 070,000 bales were taken by foreign countries. Of this Great Britain took 39 per cent, Ger many 28.5 per cent, France 11 per cent, Italy 6 per cent, Japan 4 per cent, Spain 3 per cent and various other countries the remaining 8.5 per cent.
Grades.— The cotton grown in this country may be divided into three kinds: long staple sea island, long staple upland and short staple upland. The long staple sea island of South Carolina ranges from IA to 2% inches in length, is silky, fine, strong and clean and is used in making doubled or ply yarns from 150s to 400s; the Florida and Georgia sea island ranges from PA to ig inches, is silky and clean, and is spun into lower grade sea island yams from 150s to 200s. The grades of sea island are extra fine, fine, medium fine, good medium, medium, common and ordinary. The long staple upland, such as the Allen, Peeler, benders or the bottom land cottons of Mississippi and its tributaries, as well as those classed as Gulf or New Orleans, is from 1 to PA inches in length, and is used in making yarns from 50s to 70s; the shorter staple up land ranges from g to 1 inch, is easily manipu lated and is suitable for weft or filling yarns from 30s to 40s. To classify cotton with the view to determine its market and spinnable value requires long practice and skilful use of hand and eye. The points to be determined are the grade, the staple, the color, the amount of sand and trash, the amount of dampness and whether or not the cotton is even running. When these are determined from samples drawn from each bale, the cotton is classified under one or the other of the nine standard grades established by the government. These grades consist of middling as the basis, and above this in the order named, strict middling, good middling, strict good middling and mid dling fair; below middling in the order named, strict low middling, low middling, strict good ordinary and good ordinary. These grades
have been universally adopted in this country and now form the basis of all sales of cotton.
Cotton Exchanges.— The marketing and financing of the enormous crops of recent years have been greatly facilitated by the cotton ex changes. These exchanges bring together cot ton dealers from all parts of the world, afford ing the foreign spinner and merchant tunity of buying cotton on short notice for future delivery. They give the domestic spinner and merchant, and the planter as well, the opportunity to purchase a contract or °hedge° as an insurance against market fluc tuations that otherwise might result in loss. The manufacturer who has an order for the future delivery of goods may buy on the Ex change at a definite time and price a contract for the amount of cotton required to fill that order; the Southern merchant who has on hand a certain amount of cotton for which there is no immediate demand may sell on the Exchange a contract for a like amount, and hold his cot ton until there is a demand for it; the planter whose cotton is not yet ready for delivery, seeing the market continually advancing, may sell on the Exchange a contract for a portion or all of his crop. In each case the transaction is an insurance against loss. Thus the Ex changes dispense with the old and costly custom of consigning and selling the crop through commission houses, and through its agency a very large proportion of the crop is sold at home and abroad at a minimum of expense to the producer.
Cotton Futures Act of Congress, known as the Cotton Futures Act, became a law 18 Aug. 1914, and went into effect six months later, 18 Feb. 1915. The object of the Act is to regulate trading on the cotton ex changes in cotton for future delivery, by levy ing a prohibitive tax on such trading except where certain specified conditions are complied with. These conditions were determined with the view to correcting existing abuses, and are imposed upon parties to future contracts in order to equalize their privileges, and also to protect the rights of cotton owners, inasmuch as future contracts made on the exchanges control to a considerable extent the price of spot cotton in the Southern markets.
The first administrative duty imposed by the Act was the establishment of new official standards for cotton throughout the United States. On 15 Dec. 1914 the Secretary of Agri culture, therefore, established and promulgated new standards for nine grades of cotton— middling fair, strict good middling, good mid dling, strict middling, middling, strict low mid dling, low middling, strict good ordinary and good ordinary. Under the Cotton Futures Act the official cotton standards for the different grades are practically compulsory upon the ex changes in the United States, and they were compelled to adopt them in order to avoid execs. sive taxation, therefore the New York and New Orleans exchanges adopted the official stand ards for all transactions subsequent to 18 Feb. 1915. The use of the standards for other ex changes in the United States is optional; but 21 of such exchanges or similar organizations have adopted the standards and are making their quotations in conformity therewith.