This is my license plate. It is not actually several years out of date. I was “slavishly” following an old license plate to approximate the “Mountains to Sea” format. By the way, I built this graphic myself using Microsoft Image Composer. This is an attempt to suggest the old Southern reply to “How are you?”…. “Fair to Middlin”. I learned that this was a Cotton Grade correctly spelled “Fair to Middling”.. I had assumed that it originated in the South because it was such a large source of the fiber. When I did some Web Surfing to find out more about the expression there were too many citations in British speech to ignore. I suspect the Cotton grading originated in the purchasing process. In the 19th Century, Great Britain was probably the leading manufacturer of cotton goods, a theory that the South hoped would persuade England to be of help during the Civil War. If YOU need to grade cotton the following may be useful: Cotton: Soft vegetable fiber obtained from seed pod of the cotton plant. It’s origins date back to 3000 B.C. The longer the fiber the better the quality. Cotton fiber is graded by the American Cotton Grading System Table as Follows:

#1. Middling Fair  middling #2. Strict good middling  #3. Good middling  #4. Strict middling  #5. MIDDLING*

#6. Strict low middling #7. Low middling #8. Strict good ordinary #9. Good ordinary

“Fair To Middling” would be the answer. 

All grades of cotton are compared with #5 Middling cotton.
Hence the expression when asked how you feel,

That’s pretty good.  Better than “pretty good”.

Certainly better than being stuck in the eye with a sharp stick. – Clwyd

Find out more about Cotton