TABLE 4.-Average price paid by cottonseed-oil mills for cottonseed per ton on the last 10 days September, October, and November, 1926

TABLE 4.-Average price paid by cottonseed-oil mills for cottonseed per ton on the last 10 days September, October, and November, 1926-Continued

TABLE 4.-Average price paid by cottonseed-oil mills for cottonseed per ton on the last 10 days September, October, and November, 1926-Continued

TABLE 4.-Average price paid by cottonseed-oil mills for cottonseed per ton on the last 10 days September, October, and November, 1926-Continued

Prices of the companies in the various States listed above vary to the same extent as the average prices paid the producer shown in Table No. 2. In addition, the prices for mills located in the same State and operating in the same general territory vary. Prices shown in the above tables range from $2 to $6 per ton higher than those paid the producer as the price reported by the mill includes the ginner's commission or profit and handling charges, exclusive of freight.

The names of the mills reporting the prices shown above are not shown in the table. Not more than 10 mills from any State are included, but an effort has been made to include mills representative of the concerns operating a chain of mills as well as the concerns operating a single mill. The prices shown are the average for the day, so may represent a single or several purchases of seed. There is usually a range of several dollars per ton in the prices shown, although on a few days, in some of the States, the prices are practically the same. For example, on September 25, 1925, the average

price of mill No. 1 in Alabama was $35 as compared with $41 for mill No. 7; in Arkansas, the average price of mills No. 1 and No. 2 was $36 as compared with $41.70 for mill No. 4; in Georgia the average price of mill No. 4 was $38, while the average price of mill No. 6 was $41.25; in Louisiana the average price of mill No. 2 was $34, as compared with a price of $39 at mill No. 8; in Mississippi the average price of mill No. 8 was $35.25 and the price of mill No. 2 was $39; in North Carolina prices ranged from $39.75 for mill No. 4 to $42 for mill No. 1; in South Carolina from $37.30 for mill No. 3 to $44.81 for mill No. 1; in Oklahoma from $35 for mill No. 6 to $40 for mill No. 5, and in Texas from $36 for mill No. 1 to $40 for mill No. 7. On the whole the range of prices in 1926 was not as wide as in 1925. For example, in October prices in some of the States were fairly uniform. On October 26, 1926, the range in average prices in Alabama was from $20 at mill No. 1 to $27 for mill No. 3, but in Arkansas the range was only from $20 at mill No. 6 to $23.45 at mill No. 4; in Georgia from $23 at mill No. 4 to $25.75 for mill No. 10; in Louisiana from $20 at mill No. 10 to $24.60 at mill No. 6; in Mississippi from $22.25 at mill No. 8 to $26.50 at mill No. 2; in North Carolina from $24 at mills Nos. 1, 6, 7, and 9, to $26 at mill No. 5; in South Carolina from $21.50 at mill No. 3 to $24.35 at mill No. 2; in Oklahoma from $18.40 at mill No. 8 to $21 at mill No. 2; and, in Texas, from $19 at mill Nos. 6 and 7 to $22.70 at mill No. 1.

Cottonseed is not officially quoted and refined oil is the only product of cottonseed quoted on the New York Produce Exchange and New Orleans Cotton Exchange. It is this fact of which the industry complains, and, of course, encourages speculation all along the line. The price of refined oil as quoted on the two exchanges appears to be based on bona fide transactions as is the price of many other commodities. Crude-oil prices are fixed on this basis, the price for crude regularly being about 160 points less than the price of refined oil.

Cottonseed and cottonseed products are quoted in a semiofficial manner at New Orleans, La., Dallas, Tex., Houston, Tex., and Little Rock, Ark. The price of products thus quoted is not binding on the purchaser and it is alleged that the quotations are not authoritative. Some of the information is, however, widely distributed by means of the telegraph, newspapers, and radio and therefore becomes available to the producer as well as those interested in the purchase

of seed.

In Dallas and Houston, Tex., there is posted daily on the exchanges the market price on cottonseed, crude oil, cake, meal, hulls, and linters, which prices are furnished by a committee of the exchange known as the Cotton Seed Products Quotations Committee. The prices so quoted are obtained by the secretary of the committee who ascertains from the various oil mills in the vicinity of the respective cities the actual price paid or offered for cottonseed, the quotations being the highest price paid or bid. The secretary is a broker and is in touch with the purchasers of the various products. In each of these exchanges the Western Union Telegraph Co. maintains an office and furnishes the quotations to those paying for the service. This service is known as C. N. D. service. The Dallas News, in connection with the Baker Hotel Corporation, maintains and oper