Supplement to The American Cotton Bale Package and Our Foreign Markets (AMS-386)

Excerpts from the report: This supplement to "The American Cotton Bale Package and Our Foreign Markets" (AMS-386) is the second and final report resulting from an extensive study relating to the package and surface condition of U. S. cotton bales received in some of the major foreign markets. It provides an important amount of material, most of which was either not ready for release or not available at the time the earlier report was published. The new data should be of major use to those especially interested in helping reduce the deficiencies in the U. S. bale. The additional and final information given here in no way alters the conclusions and recommendations in the preceding summary report. The few differences between the specific findings as previously indicated and as appearing herein are such that for practical purposes they can be ignored. It is strongly recommended that further concerted efforts be made to improve U. S. export bales. Five things which should be given immediate attention are: (a) Keep bale heads covered by using an adequate length of bagging and tucking the ends under the outer bands each time the bale is pressed; (b) use close-weave bagging on all bales; (c) patch both sides of all bales sampled three or more times prior to high-density compression; (d) review each operation and take additional appropriate precautions in sampling, handling, storing, and transporting U. S. bales to prevent surface contamination and damage; and (e) explore the possibility of bringing about improvements in the method of sampling U. S. cotton in foreign ports.