The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-04-09
THE COTTON BAGGING CUES.
TON.
The Time to Act.
New ORLEANS, March &c, '89.

1uL0 DaSglnS nave gov 0Nc1yGAAnS "
ranged for another heavy raid on our
pockets next fall. The prime movers
in the last years bagging trust have
been able to secure control OF almost
all the available raw material, and this
has enabled them to dictate terms to
the mills who were not in the trust
last year, by which they are able to
control the production and fix the
price of bagging at whatever figures
they choose. The men at the head of
this movement are Messrs. Gratz,
Jones & Warren, whose names we
have not forgotten since last year.
If we wish to do anything that will
protect ourselves effectually against
their schemes for the coming season,
it behooves us to act at once. 1t
would require the manufacture OF
about fifty million yards of bagging
between now and the end of the year
to cover an average crop, and a good
many large mills are already being
shut up under the trust arrangements.
There are no cotton mills in position
to commence to manufacture a full
width of cotton bagging. All the
looms in the South turn out an article
about six inches narrower than is re-
Quired to cover cotton bales. The
owners of these mills do not feel in
clined to go to the expense OF putting
i'm special looms or of devoting any
considerable part of the work of their
mills to turn out an article of cotton
bagging until they are certain that
when produced it will be used; and,
even then, they would not be prepared
to devote the full force of their estab-
lishments to turn out such an article,
but would make whatever they could
of it in addition to their other cotton
dry goods, of which they a dispose
as much as they can possibly manu-
facture. The Lane mills, where the
cotton bagging was first made, could
turn out about five hundred thousand
yards per month, running full time, If
supplied with the necessary looms and
other machinery to do the work to
best advantage and if producing moth
ing else. If they ran night and day
they might produce about a million
yards per month under favorable cir
cumstances. So that the mill, doing
nothing but producing cotton bagging,
could not, between now and the first
of September, produce more than
about 10 per cent. of the total quantity
required to cover the crop.
1t needs no arguments to show that,
if we expect to get relief from the
operation of the jute bagging trust
by avoiding the use of their article,
we must lose no time in making prep,
arations for a supply Of cotton bag
cling or of some other substitute.
Pine straw bagging, it is claimed,
can advantageously take the place of
jute 'bagging; but the supply of this
article is likewise limited, and it lacks
many of the advantages of the cotton
bagging. In the first place, it is very
heavy; in the second place, it is very
inaammable; in the third place, it is
claimed, in a great many quarters,
that it does stain the cotton when wet;
last, but not least, it does not, in any
way, help the cotton producer towards
higher prices for his crop, which the
consumption of cotton bagging I'M
questionably does to a great extent.
I believe it will be to the interest of
all farmers in the cotton States to ad
vocate and practice the use of cotton
bagging, as soon as a sufficient supply
can be obtained to cover the whole
crop to the exclusion of any other
article; but | believe equally firmly
that to-day it is the interest, the i'm
perative duty of every cotton planter,
whether in the Gulf or the Atlantic
or the Middle States, to advocate and
practice the use of any article as COW
ering in preference to jute, for it will
require all the pine straw bagging and
all the cotton bagging that we can,
under the most favorable circum-
stances, hope to procure for next sea-
son, to enable us to resist the oppres-
sive charges that the jute bagging
trust are preparing to place upon us.
There is not a day, there is not an
hour to lose, and we want the support
and assistance of every member of
the Union in devising and carrying
out some plan of action.
I believe the Alliances in the differ
ent States ought to club together to
obtain control of some large cotton
mill capable of producing a good
article of cotton bagging and u it
day and night. 1t would take money
to do this; but it would not take any
thing like the amount that we will
have to stand if the jute bagging
wolves are allowed to carry out their
pernicious schemes for fleeing the
planter.
1t might take three or four hundred
thousand dollars to get a large mill
put IN operation; but, in the first
nIooo IF would bn O rOOd ipuoctnoD+