Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-04-05
COTTON ADULTERATIONS.
The Situation Explained and Accu-
satIOns Answered.

our well known cotton merchants in reply
to the numerous accusations against South
ern planters of adultersting their cotton,
will be read with much interest:
SAVANNAH, GA, March 81, 1882
Editor Of the NeaO York Journal of Commerce:
Attention has lately been called by several
official and newspaper paragraphs to the
| Rdulteration of cotton, excessive loss in
/ weight in the mills, and packing called
| fraudulent.
To get a true insight into the existing
| evil, let us see how cotton is planted. mar
keted and brought to the mill in the United
/ States.
One newspaper very justly says that India,
Egypt, Brazil and Peru cotton have only
| small amount of what may be called false
| packed, mixed packed or fraudulently
packed cotton; and It adds that. as regards
American cotton, the proportion of prop
| erly packed cotton to that which is not Is a
very great deal smaller than it was during
| he war.
To ANYBODY knowing the condition Of
cotton planting in the South at the present
| day, and the system 10 the other countries
mentioned, the answers must be evident
aud easy. In India, as well as In Egypt,
the land is In the hands OF either govern
ment or grand magnates, who do not collect
their taxes or rents in money, but in part of
| their subjects or tenants crops. The con-
sequence is that there are no gins 10 the
country, but that the produce is brought
| in its rough state-cotton especially still on
the seed-to places where banks are es-
| tablished. and where the business of Sc
lecting (by hand), ginning and baling
| is done in the most methodical
way. The Brazil and Peruvian crops are
| all made on large haciendss; the former By
slaves, the latter by the low paid half-In-
dian or coolie labor. AS natural conse-
| quence, the cotton can be sorted and ship
| ped in large lines OF even running we'll
| handled bales. A shed large enough to sort
| cotton. to gin it, and the necessary sppli-
| ances for covering, baling, handling and for
warding the cotton, involve the investment
/ of an amount of capital which only large
| planting, such as has been mentioned. can
afford, If uniformity in the bales marketed
| is required.
In the cotton States of North America,
however. the position is entirely different
| The different reports alluded to declare
| that not only each planter, each gin house
owner, but also each dealer in cotton,
whether receiver or exporter, must neces-
| sarily be a cheat and swindler. One of
them. indeed, goes so far as to say that in
the good old ante-bellum days such dis
honest dealing was unknown.
It is not difficult to find the answer for
such accusations Before the war the
plantations were all large, and the product
concentrated and sorted, and In the same
way, in which it is possible today to few
well known owners OF plantations in Louisi-
ana and Georgia, making thousands and
ten thousands of bales, to produce really
even running lines correspondinglyl large, so
1t was to the owners OF large acreage and
hundreds of slaves before the war. But con-
ditions have changed. Mr.. E. Atkinson
points out with great pleasure the conse'
quence of emancipation in the South. True
enough, great has been the benefit not only
to the negro, but to the country. Substan
tial houses, strong fences, large and IN
creasing imports of farming implements and
of mules, give the best testimony to the
truth of that fact; and the improvement in
the value of all southern securities prove
that the outside world believes in 1t.
But in spite Of all of this, how does cot
ton industry stand to-day as far as produc-
tion is concerned?
With the exception of the Mississippi
valley, and some of the valleys of its tribu-
taries where the necessity of costly levees
and their maintenance make a large capital
an absolute necessity to begin with, cotton
IS now produced on small plantations, the
owners of which are unable to incur the
expenses mentioned above. There are hun
dreds of small plantations, making during the
four months in which the cotton Is picked
fifty to five hundred bales apiece, but the
cotton has to be taken to the next gin house
on the seed, where the owner Of the gin
pays for 1t at fixed rate generally not de-
pendent on the market) to meet the always
urgent needs of the producer, and then
ginned and baled, as the agent of the owner
of the gin house, who generally does not
know the difference between low middliug
or good middling cotton, or between white
aud high colored cotton, may think best.
These suDerintendents or owners are gen.
orally either white people who have never
left their county or State, and naturally
have no special education as to the value of
the article; or cOlored men selected for the
purpose on account of their being able to
manage the negro labor without difficulty.
The smaller farmers, especially the freed
men planting one to fifty acres, have of
course to rely entirely on the gin
houses for the disposal of their cotton
crop. It is evidently impossible that man
who has no further knowledge Of the article
than the sowing, hoeing and picking of
cotton, should even know the difference
between low grade white cotton and high
grade stained. The consequence is that the
farmer having produced 1000 pounds seed
cotton on five acres, say one-tbtrj on a
black river alluvial soil, one-third on white
sandy soil, and one-third on red clay. sll on
slope of said river, sells the whole quantity
to a certain gin owner, the first and the last
DlcklQR5 Ill ml4tu up hl4ou DdI6e uubb
be the necessary result, but 1t certainly
would he wrong to impute dishonesty in the
case. Yet this is the natural result for the
time being on cotton culture from small
farming.
The next step is to take the cotton after It
is baled to what is euphemisticallY called
the railroad station. If these stations IN the
cotton States were counted no doubt one
fourth would be found containing platform
and shed, perhaps One-half platform and
no shed available for baled cotton, and one
fourth having neither, except the natural
soil, which is often soft mud, to dump the
bales on to wait for a convenient train or
boat.
AS to the treatment of bales taken from
the river districts, anybody who has made a
trip on a steamer in the South will be fully
able to tell. 1t is the same on the Savannah
as on the Tombigbee, the same on the Red
river as on the Mississippi. Landings are
made either by day or night, whenever the
accustomed signal is given from shore.
Landing places or wharf boats exist
at only a very few places Generally,
the boat descending the river is
turned round and runs her bow into
the mud bank. Then, whether the bank be
five feet or 100 feet high, as at some places
on the Mississippi, the bales that are kept
on the shore are thrown down, with couple
of men to each bale to guide it to a plank |
three to four feet wide, thrown out from the |
steamer for the accommodation of passen- |
gers and freight alike. By this process a |
great many bales are covered with mud, the |
covering torn and few thrown into the |
river, to be picked up again afterward, all of |
which may improve the weight, but GER
tainly not the quality of the cotton. All /
this, however, is not the consequence of
negligence, but of sheer inability owing to |
the scarcity of capital, which makes 1t i'm
possible to build the necessary sheds and
wharves, and also of the scarcity and the
high prices which labor commands.
The bales then are left In the stations for
some time. Cows come to feed on them.
Clay is slowly absorbed by4 them, together
with the moisture Of the soil by capillary
attraction, and finally # is put on board of
what is but too often an open platform car
without covering in the way of tarpaulins |
or ANYTHING else. The cotton arrives finally |
at the port from which it is shipped either
North or to Europe.
Having an experience of many years in
different ports Of the United States, the
writer can testify to the fact that In the
railroad yards and in the congresses Of all
the ports, two thirds OF all the Gotten Is ex-
posed to changes of weather II not to the
direct action o. rain; and yet while coffee,
sugar or other articles of value are put up
In expensive, close and really effective bag
ging and every care is taken to protect
them from the weather, cotton is only half
covered, the Il msiest material used TO cover
as much of the bales as is covered, even old
guano bagging doing duty in some cases.
The exporter or the buyer for the North
is simply helpless. He cannot force the
Warrior 0r Chattahnoohaa or EAowe n t{var