Milford chronicle., 1947-09-19

dust to defoliate the plants re-
moving leaves to help the bolls rip
en- uniformly, to speed the ripening
of bolls low on the stalks. This fac
ilitates picking, whether by hand or
by machine. Some fields have to be
hand-picked before machines are
used; many fields have to be gone
over more than once.
In the Rio Grande Valley picking
begins in August. Along the north
ern reaches of the belt-Arkansas,
Tennessee, Missouri and North
Carolina -pickers take to the fields
in mid-September.
Pickers can take from one to
three hundred pounds of the fiber a
day by hand. On day-labor basis
the pay runs from 50 to SO hum
dred pounds. Agile fingers pluck
protruding fluffy fiber as pickers
move down the rows. Filled pick
sacks are toted to trucks that shut
tie from field to gin.
At he gins circular saws strip
the strands of fiber-the lint
from the seeds and the fiJer
is bagged and tied and moved to the
congresses, where it is pushed in
to bales weighing about 500 pounds
each
Meanwhile, the seeds move to the
oil mills, where the remaining lint
is removed, producing hnters.
extremely short strands OF
fiber-are used in the manufacture
of rayon, smokeless powder and
other products. The seed is pressed
to produce oil and NEAL providing
additional revenue. After cotton Is
baled its worth is determined by its
grade and staple. The grower can
have his cotton graded by govern
ment or a private classer.
Factors That Lower Grades
There are some 700 different
kinds of cotton. Some have reddish,
brownish or greenish casts but
most domestic cotton is basically
white. Cottons with short fibers are
called short staple cottons. Others
are long staple. The fibers range
from coarse and tough to fine and
1 silky in texture.
i A classer judges the brightness
of sample, quality that is lost Il
cotton is exposed to considerable
rain. Alternate rain and sunshine
can cause grayness. Frozen cottor
becomes yellowish. If there is mucf
trash-leaves and bolls-in the bale
the cotton falls in value. Poor gin
ming, too, can lower the grade.
On the market, quotations arr
given for cotton classed as white
yellow tinged, gray or yellow stain
ed. Under these headings are clas
sifications such as good, ordinary
strict good ordinary, low middling
good middling and the like.
3 Once the grade is established, tn
? classer determines the staple. DR.,
; weather produces short staple fiber
wet weather produces long staples
3 An expert eye will tell within
thirty-second of an inch the lengt
) Of the strands. u. S. cotton staple
: range from 13-16th of an inch t
: 11I4 inch. The longer the staple
: the greater the cotton's value.
When planter knows the grad
5 and staple of his cotton-and if n
: is convinced the time is right 70
) selling-he is ready to start cash
3 ing in. Growers usually sell t
neighborhood merchants or to "as
3 sembly markets" where the fiber
s assembled in 10O-bale lots of un
4 form grades and staples.
On to Spot Markets
y Eventually ownership of the co
: ton falls into the hands of large
;. merchants members of cotton e.
? changes-whc operate on "spo
: markets, where cotton is actual
: bought and sold, as distinguishe
from the futures markets, whel
trading is in cotton values.
From the spot markets the fib'
! moves to mill markets or to e.
y porters and soon is on the way t
Z ward being converted into "grs
9 goods" either in this country I
elsewhere.
: After bleaching it becomes "wh
= goods" and no longer are the whit
/, jecked fields of Dixie in the pi
! ture. What happens next is up
/ the textile industry.
= Meanwhile, the planters are bu
: planning next years crop.