The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-08-28
FARM NOTES.
FULL DISCUSSION OF THE TREATMENT
AND CHARACTER OF THE GREAT
GROWING CROP king
COTTON"
Selection of Cotton Seed One of the Most
Important of Questions.

cotton. He asks: l. How does
Peterkin differ from other varieties?
2. What are its good and what its
bad qualities? 3. Is it hard to pick?
4. How does it stand storm?
On all these points 1 have given my
opinion frequently during the past
few months through these columns,
but as Mr.. Browns letter is sample
OF many receive on the same subject
it is evident that the subject is of IN
terest to cotton farmers, and l will
briefly answer the foregoing queries.
in general statement.
The "Peterkin" is a long-limbed
cotton. Last year l had plants seven
feet high with limbs four feet long,
bat they were exceptional. In an or
binary way it grows and spreads much
like the "Myer." 1t is late variety
and grows off slowly. 1t is late to
bloom, late to fruit and late to ma
ture. 1t stands dry weather and in
tense heat better than any variety 1
have seen. My "Peterkin" kept on
blooming and frulting all through our
recent drouth without any apparent
check, when other varieties were burnt
up. 1t is very prolific, every plant
carrying more than double the num-
Der of bolls borne by other varieties
The bolls are small but as the seed is
also very small, each boil
contains nearly, if not quite, as much
lint as the larger bolls with large seed.
1t is champion at the gin as 1900
pounds of dry seed cotton will make
500 pound bale. 1t is very easy to
pick, as the lightest touch brings the
whole of the cotton out of the boil,
rarely leaving tag.
These are its good qualities, and its
bad ones are more quickly told. Being
so easily picked it will not stand
storm and even drops to the ground
without wind or rain. The lint is
inferior to any other kinds, but as
buyers in this market don't seem to
discriminate between good and poor
lint, the farmer need not consider its
quality as a drawback.
Taken altogether the "Peterkin" is
the best cotton to stand our long dry
summees and l would strongly
recommend every cotton grower to
give it trial.
GRADING COTTON.
What is cotton worth today? is
question daily asked by thousands
interested in the crop. Nominally
there are six grades of cotton ranging
from ordinary to middling fair, prac-
tically there is but one grade and
that middling which is the standard.
Now it does not take very good
bale to grade middling in the
Liverpool, New Orleans or Gal
weston market, but in the
small markets of the country
it always takes good middling and
often a middling fair to meet the
standard and this is where the cotton
buyers profit comes in.
A farmer will often be told that his
cotton is low middling and about the
end of rainy season he will learn
that he is the owner of an ordinary
bale, but buyers rarely tell him that
he has a good riddling or middling
fair, and when they are constrained
to make the admission, they will rare
ly pay more than a sixteenth over
midd ing price.
Its claimed that it costs a cent
pound to transfer and pay all costs
on bale from Austin to Galveston.
If this be so, it follows that buyer,
say in Austin, cannot afford to pay 10
cents for cotton that will only
bring II cents at the seaport. To
do so would be to work for glory, a
charge never yet laid against a cotton
buyer, yet some of these gentlemen
practically affirm it, where they grade
middling fair as middling and offer
the price of the latter. Old farmers
knowing that they do not get any
more for an extra fine sample, have
long since ceased to exercise any care
in the handling of the staple, and as
a consequence thousands of dollars are
lost to the country every year.
What is needed is to have spinners
buy direct from the producer. The
middle man or men, get too much ont
of it, at the expense of the farmer.
This is fit subject for the alliance to
consider and act on.
SELECTION OF COTTON SEED.
Now is the time to select seed for
next years planting. No seed runs
out quicker than cotton, and it is only
by careful and judicious selection in
the field that standard can be main
tanned. The value of good seed for
planting is now beginning to be recog-
nized, and the most casual observer
can distinguish between the crop from
selected seed and that from the COW
feed bin.
- Il.