The Osceola times., 1886-10-09
DETERMINED MOVEMENT
Or THE COTTON PLANTERS IN Or
POSITION To
THE AMERICAN OH TRUST COMA.
NY-THEIR PLAN OF OPERA
TI0NS.

New Orleans, La, September 20.
A movement which has been on foot
in this State and Mississippi for some
time to organize the cotton planters
IN opposition to the American Cotton
Oil Mill Company has finally been
perfected. The Trust Company is a
syndicate which has obtained control
of eighty cotton seed oil mills in the
South, producing very near all the
oil of the country. Being without
competitors or opposition it is able
to control and to monopolize the bu-
siness. In New Orleans, where it
owns all the oil mills but one, it has
closed three, and will thus be abe
to run with fewer hands. The COM
pany has decided topay only IS per
ton for seed on the river bank, as
against much larger rates in past
years. The complaint IS made by
the planters that with the cost Of
hauling these seed to the river this
rate will leave them nothing. 1t is
proposed that they shall combine and
force the mills to give better price,
and that to this end they shall refuse
to sell cotton seed to the mills for a
year to come, forcing the latter to
remain idle and thus breaking up
their monopoly. BY such action it
is claimed the planters will lose very
little, while if the seed is used as a
fertilizer it will restore the fertility
Of their lands and repay them far
more than the insignificant sum now
given by the mills. Estimating the
cost of bringing the cotton seed to
the river bank at 81 per ton, the
planters are now receiving only about
sixty cents for their seed. The plan
has received the warm endorsement
Of the country press of the two states.
1t is proposed to agitate a plan to
form an organization throughout the
South in opposition to the American
company, and ifpossible to send rep
rcsentatives to different districts to
point ont to the farmers the advan-
tage of united action.
That little heed, or attention, will
be paid to the plan above proposed,
by the farmers in the immediate Vi
cinity Of Osceols, there can be no
sort of doubt; as the system long
since adopted by them Of drawing
from the land all it will produce and
regarding it as sacred and religious
duty to see that nothing should be
put back that would assist it in keep
ing up its fertility and producing ca.
pacity, is too well and firmly estab-
lished to expect any sudden change
of system now. They regard the
price, be 1t ever so little, received
for cotton seed, over and above the
e> pense Of sacking and hauling, as
so much money realized over and
above the natural product of the farm.
AS to fertilizlng the land, from which
everything is expected, the idea is
never entertained. Why, even the
cotton stalks, which ifplowed under,
would in time, decompose and return
a light per centage of fertilizer, are
carefully raked up and burned.
To the people, however, living
long distances from the river, where
hauling seed at the preset rates is a
loosing business, we would suggest
that you try the plan of fertilizing
your land with your seed, and see if
the difference in the number of
pounds of lint cotton, per acre, on
your next crop, doesn't more than
repay for the loss of the present price
of the seed.
The Jackson County Herald says:
"One of our best farmers says
that he is realizing twenty dollars
per ton from his last years crop OF
cotton seed. He refused to sell
them for a song, and sing the song
himself, but used them as fertilizer,
and is now reaping his reward.
There is more money in them when
used to fertilize the ground than six
dollars per ton, and our farmers
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