The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1883-09-29
PROFITS ON COTTON.
THE OLD DISCUSSION BETWEEN
FARMER AND FACTOR.
A Letter from Farmer about Making
Direct Sales--A Reply from a Cotton

FARMER AND FACTOR
A Letter from a Farmer about Making
Direct SaIes--A Reply from a Cotton
Factor.
A Farmer has written the following let
ter to THE CHRONICLE
To THE CHRONICLE 1t is hardly too
much to say that not more than half
the real value OF the average Southern
farm products goes into the farmers peck
cts. | do not mean, of course that any,
body Intentionally rObS him or that he
allows anybody to rob him, for the average
Southern farmer is as level headed as any
other man on the face OF the earth But
he is robbed and robbed badly, and he is
robbed by the general situation of the
markets and the lack of good facilities to
provide for them.
[ shall talk now only about cotton. and
it is easy to show how the cotton farmer
fails to receive anything like the real value
OF his crop. A man brings 10 bales to
Raleigh. Let me suppose that he owes no
commission merchant and is at liberty to
sell bis cotton wherever he can. He sells
it fOf CENTS. shy; Nizears Nv fpfr,eatcfas4a
sification at his own gin - ght have got
81 cents. Now let me follow the bale Of
cotton to the factory that uses it. First a
of profit, of course. The cotton is weigh
ed by public weigher. He gets fee.
The bale Is cut to get a sample. 1t usual
ly gets dirty when it is thus exposed.
The cotto may remain in warehouse
week. If so, storage is charged. At last
it is sent to a compress. 1t costs SO much
a bale to compress it, Before that, how
ever, it cost something to haul it to the
compress. Then it is sent to a cotton
dealer in the North, it it goes North. 1t
| is there sold time or two, and every man
| that handles it makes profit.
| Finally, OF course, it reaches the owner
! of the factory. 1t has been sampled and
cut so often that it has become much dirtier
than it was when the farmer first picked it
from the field. The owner of the factory
pays at last only what such low grade is
worth, for he has the expense Of cleaningit it.
Now, on this long journey there have
! come between the farmer and the factory
| owner two or three dealers, every one Of
whom has made his legitimate profit a
compress, the owner Of which has also
made profit the weigher who has been
paid something; the owner of a warehouse,
who has charged something for storage;
a good deal of extra charges have been
paid for hauling it on wagons and for
transporting it from one dealer to anOth-
er, and for unloading and reloading at
various places; and the cotton sells Il
lower grade than it really ought to have
sold.
The farmer loses all this, Of course If
you add up all these charges, you will find
that in the aggregate they amount to about
half as much as the cotton at first brought.
In other words, if the man who spins it
could have bought it just as it came out Of
the field and paid the same price (propor-
tionate to grade) that he did pay, the
farmer would have received something like
81 or 10 cents instead of or g. OF this
or 2 cents a pound he has robbed himself
Sometimes it is this much, generally it is
two Or three cents on a pound, and always
zz~a<sassss ss
OF course not one of the men who han
died the cotton between the farmer and
the manufacturer Intentionally robbed any
body. Each one made only small mar
gin, and each did his business
legitimately and properly. But if the
cottOn-trade were so arranged as to enable
the farmer to do without all this handling
and buying and selling, he would more
than double his profits. 1t is the general
arrangement Of the trade that rObs him.
All these statements have been proved
by an experiment at Hogansville, in Geor-
ga. A company of Boston men built a
large Clubhouse there last year. They put
up three large buildings and put in 90
horse power engine. They four gins,
with cleaners and condensers, and two
presses; and during the busy season they
ran them day and night. They ginned
l,5OO bales Of cotton. The cost of the es-
tablishment and the first years expenses
aggregated about $4,000. The very first
year they made nearly % per cent. on their
investment.
, Now what this company made is the total
expense of handling the cotton between
the farmer and the manufacturer. They
graded and cleaned the cotton and sold it
directly to the manufacturer in New Eng
, land.
This is great experiment and it has
proved a new thing. 1t ought to lead to a
revolution of the cotton trade. There is
no sense in having things so arranged as
to allow low grade and high grade to be
mixed. If a farmer sells his cotton to a
Southern factory Within sight Of the field
where it grew, he can get of course only
the ruling market value, which is fixed by
this complicated arrangement Of the trade
Now the thing to do is for farmers in the
thickly settled cotton regions to learn tc
Z assert and to grade their own cotton and
t to put themselves in direct communicative
! with the manufacturers. In this way they
I would save all these expenses.
The general oganiZatiOn of trade Il
somehow against the farmer. 1t has hap
pened so not because anyone wishes tC
: deprive him Of his profits, but because the
I farmers themselves have never taken the
+ trade in their own products into their owr
hands. There ought to be dozens Of sucf
4 companies in every cotton growing State
as this one at Hogansville.
FARMER.
The Merchants View.
The foregoing letter was shown to q