The tradition of certifying the nation’s First Bale of the year dates back to the 1800’s when the grower of the First Bale was required to transport the cotton to the Houston Cotton Exchange for certification.  After verifying its status as the first bale of cotton to be harvested that year in the United States, the Exchange would put the bale up for auction. This process continued, uninterrupted, for many years until 1953, when the Harlingen Cotton Committee successfully petitioned the Houston Cotton Exchange for the rights to auction the First Bale.  As a result of this hallmark agreement, for the past 60 years the Harlingen Cotton Committee of the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce has been solely responsible for certifying the nation’s First Bale of cotton each year.  And for each of those 60 years, the First Bale has been grown in the fertile Rio Grande Valley

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U.S. Senator John Cornyn