The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-09-17
FARM NOTES.
Edited by John { Edgar 2nya1 TO whom all

! Edited BY John g Edgar DuYaL 10 whom all
! Communications should be addressed
A Corner on Cotton.
The farmer has been heard to de-
nounce all trusts, corners and COM
bines as schemes of the evil one speci-
ally designed for his undoing; and he
has anathamatized all concerned IN
such plots. But circumstances alter
cases. Various plans have been sug-
gested for raising the price OF cotton,
which is admitted on all hands to
have fallen to, or under, the COST OF
production. All these plans are good,
except for one thing-they are I'M
practicable. The price of cotton can
not be permanently increased so
long as the supply exceeds the de-
mand. The holding back of por-
ton of this years crop would proba-
bly, have the effect of enhancing that
sold: but, as the reserved portion
would help to swell the volume of the
next crop, that scheme, if persevered
in, would, in a few years, find the cot
ton planter with stock on hand
equal to the worlds annual consump-
ton.
What then? Echo answers, "What?"
The suggestion that the acreage
be reduced one-half is good one, but
for the fact that it is unavoidable.
If the cultivation of cotton were con-
fined to one county or a small
state, where the social and financial
conditions of the planters were nearly
on the same plane, such a scheme
would set matters right in one season,
but such an arrangement is not pos
sible amongst the cotton planters Of
Texas alone, to say nothing of other
sections of the cotton belt.
That rooster won't fight.
The only practical way to mend
matters is to lessen the cost Of pro-
duction. The first step to be taken in
that direction is reduction of
acreage. If every planter in Travis
county would reduce his cotton acre
age one-third or one-half and give the
crop the same time and labor as he
gave, the larger area, it is
dollars to doughnuts that he would
make as many bales and save the rent
of land blowing and preparation, as
he made on the begger field.
In addition he would have the crop
raised on the land snatched from the
clutch of King Cotton. This would
very materially reduce the cost of
production. The total yield would
also be reduced by reduction of
acreage as in majority of cases the
smaller crop would not receive any
more thorough cultivation than had
been given to the larger one and the
bales would be in the old proportion
to the acre. There is really nothing
in the present demoralized condition
of the cotton market, to alarm the
level headed, conservative farmer.
AS the falling off in price of
cotton has been caused by
two successive big crops
so will it be raised by one or two
short crops; especially as the cheap
ness of the staple has given cheaper
manufactured article and opened new
markets whose requirements must be
supplied when the short crop year
comes round. l again say the remedy
for improbable cotton, is not less
bales, but is possible more, at a
greatly reduced cost.
The Farmers Alliance which started
out on straight track and an up
grade, promising to land it's patrons
on the level summit of brotherly love
and agricultural prosperity, has re-
versed the engine and is now reach
ing madly round the curve on the
down grade to the devil and destruc-
ton. There is no scheme too foolish for
the Alliance to indOrse, nothing too
utopian to receive it's sanction. The
subtreasury fraud is one of it's pet
children; the alien land law finds in it
q foster parent. Last year it's MEM
bers were advised to hold their cotton
for II cents and some hold it yet, while
others who refused 8 cents were glad
to sell att. Undeterred by that sad
experience, another attempt is to be
made to regulate prices, this time by
the much denounced trust method. 1t
does not need ghost to tell what the
outcome will be if this foolish scheme
is carried out. This is the program
being circulated among the agricultu-
raj papers:
can important scheme, the object of
which is to save the present crop of
cotton from being sacrificed, has
been formulated and will at once be
pushed throughout the cotton growing
states. e. M. Stroeber, a prominent
farmer near Columbia, S. G., is the
author of the plan, which has already
received the sanction of leading Ali
ance officers. 1t is proposed that trust
companies with capital of $4,000 or
$50, 600 each be formed in each county
in the entire cotton belt and receive as
subscription to the capital one-third
of the cotton crop made by each cotton
raiser in the county. 1t is proposed
to bind these trust companies so
firmly that the cotton placed in their
trust can be considered the same as if
not in existence, or destroyed, for the
next twelve months. At the eXpira-
ton of that period the companies are