Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-07-11
ARKANsA as
The Cotton and other Crops of Cross COuh.
B-The Prospect for l87l-SOme
Suggestions for Factors.

DIV uaAdIUlQk SOLlc lCluhIh hDOuL the
welther. l do not know that can
do any better than to commence my
talk with you in the same way. There
have been some peculiarities about
the season thus far which are worth
noting. The month of February and
the most of March were very promis-
ing. An early season was confidently
expected; but the drenehing, exces-
siVe cold and continuous rains that
afterward came destroyed this bright
prospect and created great uneasiness.
PloWs were stopped and planting
ceased. Seed cotton in the ground or
the plants died after they got above
ground. 1t was not until the first
week in May that favorable change
came. Then we watched the clouds,
dOubtingly fearing every day that an
other flood would be poured down
upon US, washing everything to
pieces and followed by cold. But the
change remained a change. Never
did crops do better business in grow
ing than they have since that first
week in MAY. June has shown US a
new feature in her character. Can
any one FecOllect another June when
there was no cool spell some time dur
ing the month, either about the 10th,
or near the sOlstitial days? This year
il was a continuous reVel of warm
sunshine and warm rains; the rains
coming Just often enough to keep of
the suspicion Of drought, and to rem
der timely assistance to the work that
the old sun WAS doing. The June OF
this wear was 8 premium June. 1t
would take the highest prize in live
ly competition among the Junes.
The result Of all this excellent weather
is that we have had complete revO-
luton. The lst Of May the season was
reckOned among the latest. 1t was
constantly asserted that the prospect
was never more gloomy. Now the
season is early. Cotton Is blooming
ten days or two weeks earlier than in
an average season. 1t Is healthier and
larger than almost ever before. Such
corn crop was never before seen,
especially on the ridge; for this year
the ridge, upon the whole, beats
the bottom; the rains having been
seasOnable and sufficient, while the
bottom was slow in drying out after
the terrible drenching it got in April,
and grass and weeds were not slow in
announcing their presence too much
and too often. The best judges now
say that the prospect for cotton is ab-
sOlutely better than it was last year.
The area is not so great, but il is
thought the crop is enough earlier and
better to more than make up for this.
Let no one jump to the conclusion
from this statement that the cotton
crop of 1871 will equal that Of 1870.
For this is impossible. There was
less planted, and much that was
planted was destroyed entirely-either
washed out Of the ground completely
or dying beyond recovery. In our
locality the crop was only delayed,
scarcely any destrOyeds indeed much /
of 1t was planted after the favorable
change, and the growth of this has
been so rapid and uninterrupted that
il now nearly equals the early plant |
ed. Twelve acres of my cotton were
planted the last week in May, and the |
plants are DOW knee high and covered |
with squares. 1t is not likely the fall
ing Oh from last years crop will be 50
great by half a million OF bales as was
at one time anticipated, yet q crop of |
8, 500, 600 bales will make difference
of 700, ,O00-quite large enough to al |
low US to expect better prices than the |
last crop was sold for, since it is now
demonstrated that the supply was
and the certainty seems to be
creasing more rapidly than the supply.
Can there not be a cooperation estab- |
lished among the cotton factors not to |
allew the crop of this year to be sacri- !
feed? Certainly it Is for their interest |
to do this. Their commissions for |
selling are greater the higher the price !
they get. And it is important for |
them that they do not allow the cot |
ton growers to become discouraged. |
IL the prices of last year continue to 1
rule, thousands of planters will cease |
TO plant cotton. Why should they |
not? II they must have all the trouble |
Of directing labor, and all the expense !
TO which they are subject without any |
profit, even with an annual loss, they |
will surely stop the business, as any |
sensible man would, and ought to. /
Hence the consumers and the factors |
have direct interest in securing a |
profit to the producer.
More than one fowl that laid a golden /
egg has been fOOlishly killed. Our |
country can easily control the great |
monopoly Of supplying the world with |
cotton. But this can easily be lost by /
a little mismanagement. II the profits /
are all to go to the spinners and the /
factors, while the planters and the /
laborers suffer yearly loss,
spinners and factors viii soon /
have to look to other fields for supply. |
Our people are too intelligent, too !
elastic and too enterprising TO remain /
convenient beasts Of burden to carry /
riches into Golfers not their own.
Would it not be quite as easy for the /
factors of Memphis, New Orleans,
and Mobile to control the
prices as for Liverpool, Manchester
and New York? Cotton has not lost
all its royal prerOgatives; Liverpool,
Lowell and Lawrence
must have cotton. The necessity to
them is even greater than for the
planter to make haste to sell. Let the
factors combine and fix e reasonable
price. Let them, in the meantime,
satisfy the pressing wants of the plan
.ers and lsbOrers by timely advances,
and patiently but firmly wait until
nose VINO uCtu Tic IDlboU SUdll DC VIII /
ing to pay q reasonable price for it. See
how readily the enormous crop of last
year was snapped up and worked up,
ghile, Oliver TWist-like, the spinners
anne eargeFly asking and bidding
high for more. Is not this an impor-
ant suggestion that am making? Is
1 not perfectly practicable? Does it
need anything for success, except a
little intelligent management and en-
energy? Bear in mind thatI
lm not advising any effort to bull
,ottOn above q reasonable price.
only insist that g com
)ined effort shall be made at the end
rom which cotton commences to move
20 secure a remunefative price TO the
grower from those who derive the
greatest amount Of profit from it. The
Ipinner5 never lose on account
i prices. If cotton is higher
he goods grow higher, and
he profit is probably even greater I
0 them when prices are good
han when they are bad. l am only
.dYising that there shall be a change
# localities in controlling the prices.
am suggesting that the producers,
through their agents, should begin to
,e heard instead Of always listening
Or fha rpanouaaS Of the o0ffOn lorf1s ~ 1 ,