The Oklahoma Farmer-Stockman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 28, No. 24, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 25, 1915 Page: 5 of 28
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i
December - 88 10X8
TDD' OKLAHOMA PA K U C K-OTO CK U A If
c:: c
Why Not an Official Gotton Gsi
- - - ‘ - 1
Beginning at the Bottom in Getting More Moneg for Farni Producto
i ' ' ' ' - V -
George Bishop ' "
V
h
THE cotton marketing season is
about over so far as the man
who produced the cotton is con
cerned I have been watching pa-
tiently for some preliminary step to be
taken by the bureau of markets of the
United States department of agricul-
ture toward securing for the farmer a
more accurate grade for his cotton
when it is offered for sale on the local
markets
The department has had men in the
field for nearly three years now and
according to the report of its first
J 'ear’s investigation conducted mostly
n the western half of Oklahoma there
is an off grade made on practically
every bale of cotton sold on the local
markets of small towns where mer-
chants bankers or any man who
wishes may and does buy cotton on his
own grade There are no require-
ments necessary to qualify as a cotton
buyer anywhere in the cotton belt so
far as I know' but a hawk-bill knife
and a credit with the local bank
In the investigation conducted by
the department the samples were
pulled from the same place the buyer
pulled 'his and in many cases using
the same sample pulled by the buyer
These samples were dated-and marked
with the price paid and name of the
town where the cotton was sold Work
of thij kind was conducted in is or 20
cotton markets in the western half of
the state '
These samples amounting? to many
hundreds were assembled in Oklaho-
ma City and carefully given their cor-
rect grade by an expert cotton grader
and in comparison with the govern-
ment standard grades Practically all
of these grades were under-grades and
would have made a difference in value
of from $1 to $5 a bale more money
for the farmer if each bale had re-
ceived the-correct grade and had been
paid in proportion In a very few in-
stances samples were over-graded
that is the cotton sold for more than
its correct grade would justify
From the figures as they were com-
filed at the close of that investigation
t was easy to conclude that there was
a probable loss of more than $1000000
to the cotton farmers of Oklahoma
from the under-grading jyf that sea-
son’s crop Competent observers
claim that this condition continues
and with little if any ‘improvement
over that of the year on which the
investigation was made
tome Honest Mistakes 1
Now just to relieve the mind of the
man who thinks I am trying to accuse
some one of willfully defrauding the
farmer I am willing to grant what is
really the most probable truth which
is that none of those differences were
intentional— -that the off grades were
just honest mistakes due to the fact
that many men who buy cotton are
not qualified to grade it for its exact
value To blame the cotton buyer as
a class does no good He is no worse
nor better than the average middleman
who works along the channels of
trade
But granting that there is no wish
to defraud does not lessen the farm-
- ers’ loss Leaving the cotton buyer
entirely out of it the cotton producer
still has a strong case against a sys-
tem of marketing that permits a con-
dition of this kind to exist and to con-
tinue ' I am familiar with the claims'of the
‘man who says that every farmer
should be able to grade and class his
own cotton I have seen some of the
attempts to teach farmers to grade
their cotton by the use of the movable
cotton school by lectures at short
- courses and at farmers’ institutes It
has never done any good and will
never get anywhere toward solving the
problem for more Jhan the smallest
percentage-of the cotton farmers' It
is fine in theory but wholly impracti-
1 to depend upon
The exslct grading of cotton is en-
tirely too complicated for the average
farmer to master and retain a reliable
working knowledge for the short time'
in which be would need to depend
upon it
The Licensed Cotton Grader
If the cotton school could be used '
for the purpose of training cotton
graders' to be graduated with certifi-
cates and could require each man
working as a grader to pass an exam- I
nation the same as we do teachers
and veterinarians there ’ would soon
be a supply of real cotton buyers
Then if we could have a law requiring
each cotton market to have a licensed
cotton grader who might also be the
weigher or at least be responsible
for the weighing this condition of
most expensive uncertainty would be-
gin to narrow down to where each
bale of cotton would at least bring its
fair market value A bill of this kind
was introduced in the last Oklahoma
legislature but it - could not get by
What objections were urged against
it I was never able to find out I think
it neyear got out of the committee
room'
From "my point of view I can’t see
why this law- would not be a good
thing with which to make a beginning
on this cotton marketing problem
Not that it in any way covers the
whole needs -of the problem ‘but it
begins at a 'place where we ’ know
there is a big loss and provides n solu-
tion in a way that should cause no
confusion nor dissatisfaction
We now have complete sets of gov-
ernment standard cotton grades These
grades are recognized and accepted on
practically every cotton - exchange in
the world With a set of these stand-
ard grades at each cotton market and
with a trained cotton classer to pass
on the grade of each bale as it is of-
fered for sale or after it has been -sold
on a middling basis it seems that one:
of the first if not the very first real
step would be taken toward ' getting
the full grade value of cotton at its
first move from" the farmer -
Cotton Compared to Wheat
There is just as much reason' for
having a bale of cotton graded for its
exact value when the farmer offers
it for sale as there is for having it
weighed for its exact number of
pounds The money loss to the man
who sells cotton I am confident has
been more from inaccurate grading
than it ever was from incorrect weigh-
ing by the buyer
I can see no reason why cotton can-
not be bought on the same basis as
-wheat All wheat is bought on a No
2 basis This means that if hard wheat
terts 59 pounds according to the gov-
ernment test bucket it will bring the
quotation price for that day If it is
soft ’ wheat a 58-pound test gets the -top
The tester and the scales then
tell you how much your load of wheat
is worth If it is under weight 'in the
test it is docked so much per bushel
A schedule for cotton 'can be worked
outmlong the same line I cannot see
how any honest buyer could object to
a plan of this kind any more than he
could find fault ' with the ‘Cottca
weigher n
Increased Pay for Longer Staple
In no other way that I can tee art
we going to make progress in getting
farmers to make an effort toward in-
creasing the length of the staple of
the cotton in any section The work
of the demonstration agents over tho
state has shown that - much 'improve
ment can be made in the length of tho
staple in cotton and yet retain its lint-"
ing per centage' and yield equal to any
we have now in common use
We all know that under the present
marketing system the local buyer
neve? looks for length of staple' With
a grader for each market the man
who produced the better grades of cot-
4 ton would get paid for it and if ha
added length of staple enough to jus-'
tify he would get the extra money
that it is really worth The present'
system is a handicap to cotton im-
provement The products of the cpt-
ton farmer should be sold each bale
on its individual merits just the ‘same
as products of the livestock breeder or
feeder
It' occurs to me that since the' bu-
reau of marketing has uncovered this
condition of incorrect grading it would '
naturally propose some method for
preventing it The bureau men may
have ‘ thought of the official grader
plan and found -some obstacle that
would keep it from working but so
far as I am able to see it only nee'da
to be provided for and tlfe problem
would soon work itself out
It seems that there has been so much
‘agitation about building - warehouses-
and using government money to '
finance' the cotton crop that no one has
'been able to giveanv thought to the
little things that could really 1 be done
and would have to be done before any
of the hg schemes would work The’
attempts to help the cotton farmer-re--mind
me very much of the attempts'
to help the rural school Instead of
beginning with the really simple and
useful things that could be done with
no extra expense to any one some
great complicated and expensive meas- -ure
is proposed with the result that it
is never possible to get enough of the -folks
together to' carry it''
Let’s begin at the beginning!'' Why
isn’t an official cotton grader for the ’
local market the place to begin?
i
The Boys’ Club Work and Hundred-Bushel Corn
REPORTS of corn yields of 100
bushels to the acre and better
keep coming in from Oklahoma
members of the Boys’ Corn club Orion
Stuteville of Caddo county has the
high yield of the state so far as now
known - This young man produced
Hi 1 -7 bushels of corn on his one acre
of ground
The second high yield of the state
among boys’ club members is that of
Elston Coleman Kay county Okla-
homa who raised 108 bushels and 49
fiounds The third high yield so far
s given to Ted Colbert of Johnston
county with 101 bushels anc 45 pounds
All of these yields have been checked
up by officials of the state agricultural
college and are known to be correct
During the past summer the boys’
club work has been carried on in Ok-
lahoma by the United States depart-
ment of agriculture in co-operation
with the extension-division of the ag-
ricultural college The work has been
directly in charge of John E'Swaim
who is assistant state agent in charge
of boys’ clubs assisted by C L Cham-
bers specialist in charge of pig clubs
four district agents and 60 county
agents
The enrolment for 1915 was 6336
boys in' the five different clubs super-
vised There were 2752 boys in the
corn club 1568 boys in the kafir club
798 boys in the cotton club 1133 boys
in the pig club and 85 boys in the pea-
nut club
While the complete records of the
work accomplished are not ready for
distribution the following partial re-
port may be interesting: The club
boys have cultivated 6001 acres for
demonstration purposes They have
fattened 207' pigs for contests and they
have raised 114 sows for breeding pur-
poses The officials have held 540
rallies and field meetings and the
county agents have made 1938 visits
to club members
The boy club members have made
2480 individual exhibits at district
county and state fairs the past fall
These exhibits are as follows in the
different dubs Corn 124 7 kafir 608
cotton 485 pig 125 peanut 15 This
means that 12470 ears of corn 3040
heads of kafir 4850 bolls of cotton and
4850 pounds of seed cotton and 15
§eanut vines all grown by club mem-
ers have been on exhibit
We do not have a report of the num
ber of individual prizes offered in the
county and district fairs bur at the
State Fair there were 1066 prizes of-
fered to the boys The value of these
prizes awarded in the county and dis-
trict fairs of the state amounted to
$317912 This makes a total premium
list of $517912 awarded to the boys
this summer for the work they have
acomplished
In addition to the prizes above de-
termined approximately $2500 in schol-
arships are yet to be awarded to the
members of the boys’- clubs All the
second prize winnersin the different
county fairs arc to receive a one-week
scholarship to the farmers’ winter
short course in January Twelve an-
nual scholarships in the agricultural
college valued at $1525 are yet to be
determined
The following year there will be six
boys’ clubs organized and supervised
by the club department They are
corn grain sorghum cotton peanut
crop rotation and pig Inf rmation
relative to this work may be ’ secured
by addressing Boys’ and Girls’ Club
Department Stillwater Oklahoma or
anv county demonstration agent
Many other interesting facts may be
gleaned from the boys’ records Jessie
Newsom of Lutie Latimer county had
enough determination to cause him to
plant his acre 'seven time to corn 'or
kafir Each planting was washed away
or drowned out by high water -Dennis
Clay of Coweta Wagoner
county has the distinction of having
produced the best exhibit of corn
grown in Oklahoma the past season
Bertha Grove of Wetumka Hughes
county grew 75 bushels of kafir on
one acre of ground
Dan Languey and Jodie Hogue of
Rubottom Love county had enough
interest in better agriculture to ride
horseback 48 miles to Henryetta and
return to attend a club meeting held
by the county agent -
In 1913 Herman Shockley against
- his father’s wishes joined the boys
corn and cotton club Since then he
h&s “converted” his father to better
methods in agriculture grown thtee
crops on three abres of ground valued
at approximately $350 -and received
$joo in prizes
Mark Lunceford of Saskkwa Semi-
nole county had a pkr at the Okla-
(Oontlnu-d on Pat Twsnty-fouri
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r
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Williams, Carl C. The Oklahoma Farmer-Stockman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 28, No. 24, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 25, 1915, newspaper, December 25, 1915; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2046522/m1/5/?q=%22new-sou%22&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.