Though barcodes are more widely celebrated, bark codes do get some love—rather specialized love. These two reports make both of those facts almost clear.
The Value of Bark Codes: “Discounts for Bark, Color, and Trash in Cotton: Evidence from the Texas-Oklahoma Market,” Dale Shaw, Carlos Engels, Jeff Brown, and Don Ethridge, Proceedings of the Beltwide Cotton Production Conference, 1993, pp. 435-438. The report reports: “Records were extracted on the separate color dimensions (grayness/whiteness (Rd) and yellowness (+b)), classer’s independent trash code, and bark codes for one and two grade reductions as well as reductions for grass, oil, etc.”
The Value of Barcodes: “The Barcode Revolution,” Alan Akeroyd, Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol. 31, 1, 2010, pp.51-62. Akeroyd reports: “Barcodes have only been in existence for 35 years, yet in that time they have become one of the most omnipresent elements in the modern world, underpinning every aspect of the global economy.”