y negroes as a
rule, bring their loads of cotton.

[Illustration: _Gin bale and compress bale showing reduced bulk of
latter_]

As the downy lint, pulled from the tenacious seeds, rolls into the
receiving bin of the gin, the huge compressors are put to work. The
coarse jute bagging is on hand, and the steel straps spread out. The gin
balers as a rule turn out a bale measuring approximately 28 by 56 by 42
inches, and weighing approximately 500 pounds including twenty pounds of
bagging and straps. The cotton, in being separated from its seeds, has
lost about two-thirds of its weight. But the first process in the long
series that manufacturing entails has been completed, and the cotton is
ready to begin its long journey to the mill. It is usually carted to the
nearest railroad station, and from there shipped to the compressing
point.

The small farmer almost always gets his money for the cotton as it leaves
the gin. His interest in it, therefore, is ended when the buyer there
pays him the current price. The cotton is a market commodity from that
time forth.

The compress is a large and powerful hydraulic press, whose function is
to force the loosely packed gin bale into a density that will make its
handling by the railroads, ships, and warehouses more easy and
economical. The compresses are frequently owned by the railroads.

Gin Bales and
Compress Bales

Before being compressed, the bales are sorted according to grade, and are
then compressed into a smaller sized bale, measuring approximately 28 by
56 by 18 inches, with a density of from twenty-eight to thirty pounds a
square foot. It is this bale which is handled from that time forth,
whether it be for export, for consumption in Northern or Southern mills,
or whether, as sometimes happens, it is shipped from place to place as
market conditions change, and the price offered makes reshipment
profitable.

Movement for
Improving the Bale

It is encouraging to note that the war brought about, under Government
auspices, a very definite movement for the improvement of the bale. The
proposal demands the installation of high pressure baling machines at the
gin, capable of producing a bale with a density of thirty-five pounds a
cubic foot. The trading unit in cotton is one hundred bales, and such a
compression would mean that one hundred bales could be loaded into a
single freight car, and shipped directly to the export point or
warehouse. The present practice req