The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-08-23
ABOUT MlkkErED toTfoS.

The new cotton crop is beginning
to move and it is urged, as matter
of the utmost Importance, that plant
ers should be more careful in pre-
pairing the staple for market. Es-
pecially is this of Importance where
the crop is being cut short by various
causes. Many complaints have been
finding their way back from manu-
facturers, as to the condition of cotton
purchased for their uses. Numerous
cases of false packing have been re-
ported, while there have been linn
tied number of "sanded" and water
logged" bales. But no matter how
many or how few the charges that
may properly be brought against pro-
ducers, they are aggravated and made
ten times as bad as probably they
really are. The result is the planters
are injured, for though one
American bale of cotton
be found "water-logged,' it is
made the subject of great hue and
cry against the producers, and, in con-
sequence, it is charged that all the
Southern planters are rascals, and that
the price of American cotton ought
10 be put down. Numerous reasons
do exist for complaint, but, as it is
urged, planters may do much to cor
rect "the growing evils" complained
of 10y greater care in picking, ginning
and packing their cotton. Planters
should not only, IN this manner, zeal
ously guard their interests, but trans
portation companies should be re-
quired to handle cotton with more
care. Not the least important ques-
ton discussed by the late meeting of
the National Cotton Exchange was
how to prevent the bales being in
jured at steamboat landings or rail-
road stations. A veteran broker
has explained to the New York
Commercial Bulletin how the cot
ton is injured by the way in which
it is handled at Louisville and Gin
cinnatl. There. as the cotton is
unloaded from the boats, it is spread
out over large surface and is totally
unprotected from the weather. Sat
urated with water, it is shipped to the
northern markets the cotton often
rots in the centre of the bale before
it is unpacked, and the whole bale de-
teriorateS in value. In the case of
compressed bales the whole quantity
becomes permeated by the moisture,
and is in this way equally damaged.
1t is said that the railroads are also to
be censured for the way in which they
act, and that, IN some Instances, al
though through bills of lading are
given for cotton shipped from southern
ports to northern markets, the train
on which it is shipped is very likely
local one, and when it arrives at the
end of its trip finds no corresponding
train on which to transfer its goods
to the North, and the bales are
thrown out on the ground, where
they lie for hours without the slight
est protection. A New Orleans broker
says that this question has long occu-
pied the attention of the different
bodies of merchants who constitute
the exchanges of this country and
Great Britain. Frequently when cot
ton is received by ships in a damp
condition it dries during the voyage,
with the heat of the ships hold, and
the moisture in the shape of steam
heing drawn outwards, damages not
only the bales shipped damp, but other
bales that have been shipped dry,
whether in contact with them or not;
and so whole cargoes have in this
way been damaged by the Ship
ment of number Of wet bales. Plant
ers are very much to blame when care
less, but summing up the indictments
against the army of cotton handlers it
is easy to see that the transportation
companies are more to blame than all
the planters. Our railways receive
cotton almost altogether in open yards,
and while the bales are often wet to
considerable depth from exposure to
rain, they are rolled through mud and
water and in this state they are
shipped, and when the manufacturer
make up his counts they are all against
the producers. Planters should handle
their cotton with the greatest care,
and they should then demand of the
middle men and the transportation
companies that their product must
be kept in decent marketable condi-
tion. Here probably is work for
legislatures. Railways and other trans
portation companies should be required
to keep cotton bales under shelter
as well as any other SORT of products
or of merchandise.