tly to the
gin, and has it ginned and baled there, paying the ginnery for the
operation, and selling the cotton directly to a local buyer and the seed
to an oil mill. If the gin warehouse is available, and he desires to wait
for a more favorable opportunity to sell, he may store the cotton, taking
a gin receipt for it, against which the cotton will eventually be
delivered. The gin receipt may be collateral for a loan from a cotton
factor, or from a local bank.

Thus, it will be seen that the grower receives accommodation throughout
his season, and is paid cash for his product when it is delivered. This
arrangement puts a heavy strain upon the cotton buyers, particularly upon
those who deal in large lots for the mills. The method by which the
buyers pay the growers is thus described:

The buyers make arrangements with the local bankers where the gins are
located for the payment of the cotton, the banks furnishing the actual
cash against tickets issued by the buyer's representatives, holding the
tickets in question as their collateral in the meantime. When a
sufficient amount of cotton has been accumulated the local banker, at the
request of the buyer's agent, delivers the tickets in question to the
local agent of the railroad, who in turn issues a bill of lading covering
the shipment to the compress point, which then is attached to the draft
drawn by the buyer's agent upon the buyer's head office, which draft
includes the price paid for the cotton plus interest and exchange charged
by the local banker, who is reimbursed for the amount of the draft thus
drawn. When this cotton is ready for export (or for shipment to the mill
in the United States) local bills of lading, covering shipment from point
of origin to compress point, are exchanged by the cotton buyer's banker
for local bills of lading to port or for through bills of lading.

[Illustration: "_Picked 100 pounds today_"]

When cotton is bought at compress points, compress receipts instead of
tickets are delivered to the local banker, who pays for the cotton as
purchased by the buyer's representative from time to time. When a
sufficient amount of cotton is ready for shipment the compress receipts
are exchanged by the banker for local bills of lading to port (or to
mill), or through bills of lading, as the case may be. These bills of
lading are attached to the draft drawn by the representative on the head
office of the buyer, the local bank being reimbursed for the