Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-11-07
VALUE Of COTTON GRADING BY THE
 STATE CHASER
Departments Work in Two Days Means $2OOO Increase
 In Growers Receipts.
By JOHN II. PAGE Commissioner of Agriculture of
 Arkansas.

Little Rock. Nov 6.--The last two days our cotton chaser, MT. C. F. At kinso,i. classed 320 samples of cotton. Of these S7 were middIing, l32 strict l middlins. S7 good middling, 3 strict good niddling, 1 mdoling fair, and
 10 strict low middling. In staple 75 l were 1 1-16, 65 were 1 IS; 3l were 1 3-1-6, were 1 IA were 1 5-l6 and was 1 3-S.
 Taking insto consideration the
 grades above middling, on basis of
 the allowances on the Little Rock market, this lot of cotton is worth $262S0 above middling. On the basis of premium allowable for staple, it is safe to estimate that this lot of cotton would be worth at least $2,0O0 more than the value if all were short cotton. This lot of samples came from all parts of the state, and the owners of the cotton nov nave nfull information on which to market their cotton. and they can sell it intelligent ly ani demand it's value. In the ab- scnce of this information they would no doubt sell it on their local mar ket as in tAe past without regard to grade or staple, and would get the market price for mdding cotton. If so there would be loss of from $2,500 to 5000 on the entire lot. The usual custom in local mar ket is to buy cotton on a middling ba- sis. unless the cotton grades below middling in which event it is bought according to grade. This is the report made by the government after thoro investigation over the entire cotton belt in 1913-14. If you are selling cotto1 that will grade above middling and are not having it grawed before selling, the chances are that you are losing money. The grading costs you nothing. All you have to do is to sand your gin sample. taken by the ginnar and sealed. Send either to me or to the United States bureau of markets, Little Rock.
 The following is the difference in price of the different grades of cot ton according to the Little Rock quo tations, based on a 50O-pound bale
 Strict middling soc a bale above middling.
 Good middlng $1.SO above mid ding.
 Strict good middling $2.5o above middling.
 Middling fair, $3,10 above middling.
 Strict low middling sells for $1.25 below middling. Low middling for $3.75 below Wid- ding. ....... .... l's.r-4
 Strict good ordinary $s.25 below middling
 Good ordinary ss.7a below mid dling.
 When you know the price of cotton on your local market and know the grade of your cotton you can easily determine it's selling or market value by taking the foregoing and adding or sut tracting.
 We are chasing cotton every day and have two government classers most of the time, and will gladly serve you.
 When cotton was selling at 20 cents I advised the farmer to hold and they would get g cents. When it got to 25 I advised to hold for 30. Cotton reached the 30 cents mark but drop ped back little. Do not rush your cotton on the market. The cotton crop is very short, and believe cot ton will be selling at 40 cents before another crop is made. Of course the highest price will not be reached until the bulk of the crop is out of the hands of the farmer. Last year the farmers sold their cotton at an aver age of 20 cents, but in June following it reached 27 cents. Remember this.