The Opelousas courier., 1894-06-16
KING C0TT0N'S STORY TOLD
HISTORY OF THE STATUES PRO-
DUoTIoN m THIS COUNTRY.

Crop Was 10000 Bales-Now the
Annual Product is 9,OO0,O 900:
TYHE Manufacturer Record
publishes a brief history OF
cotton production in this
6 country, by R. Fl. Edmonds,
the editor. Just 100 years ago, the
total crop of the South was 200 0
bales, but by 1920 this had increased
to nearly 400, 900 bales. Under this
rapid gain in production prices gradu-
ally declined from forty-four cents q
pound in 1901 to thirteen and one-half
cents in 1889.
With prices ranging, from thirteen
to forty-four cents, and averaging for
forty years, from 1900 to 1889, a frac7
ton over seventeen cents a pound, cot
ton cultivation was SO profitable that
we cannot wonder at the disposition OF
the people of the South to concentrate
their efforts more and more on cotton
cultivation to the exclusion of indus
trial interests. Beginning with l840
there came a period Of extremely low
prices and the Cotton States suffered
very much from this decline. Ia that
year the average New York prices
dropped to nine cents, a decline OF
four cents from the preceding. year,
and this was followed by d continuous
decline until 1916, when the average
was 5.63 cents, the lowest average
price ever known to the cotton trade.
Even in 1892, when an enormous
surplus of cotton following the de-
preston that succeeded the Barring
failure forced prices to what many
claimed was the lowest point on record.
the average at New York vas 75O
cents, or nearly two cents higher than
in 1916. Moreover, in 1916 the seed
was without value, while in 1892
tie scale of seed added almost a cent
b pound to. the value Of the crop and
transportation was very much cheaper
than in 1916. In 1947 the crop was
short and prices advanced sharply, only
to drop back to eight and then to
seven and one-fourth cents, making
the average for the decade. from 1910
to 1849, the lowest ever known in the
cotton trade.
After giving in detail the statistics
of production, consumption and prices
for each year since 1910, the Manu-
f~acturers' Record says:
A study of the foregoing figures will
show that seven years of successfully
increasing crops, as from 1885 to
1892, was unprecedented in the
history of trade. It is doubtful if any
leading crop raised can show such an
unbroken increase for sever years.
Jumping from s, 700, 900 bales in 1884
s5 to $500, 900 bales in 1866, there
was practically no hating, as the vari-
atoms in two years were too small to
be noticeble, to 9,O35, 900 bales in
1892, a gain of $500, 900 bales, or
nearly sixty per cent. advance in seven
years. 1t ought not to have been ex-
pected that consumption could keep
pace with such an increase. Fortunate
~ there came break, and we have now
had two short crops. This will help to
| reduce the enormous stocks that have
overweighted the market for several
years. With surplus stocks worked
off e fresh start can be made, and if
next year'scrop is moderately small the
| cotton trade of the world will then be
on a sound basis for higher prices, be-
cause consumption will then have
overtaken production.
In eighteen years cotton has brought
into the South over S., 700, 600, 900, a
sum so vast that the profits out of it
ought to have been enough to greatly
enrich the whole section. Unfortun-
ately, the system which the poverty
following the war developed, of rails
ing cotton only and buying provisions
and grain in the West, left at home
but little surplus money out of the
cotton crop. The West and North
| drained that section ofseveral hundred
million dollars every year, because it
depended upon them for all of its
manufactured goods, as well as for the
bulk Of its food-stuffs. Hence, of the
enormous amount received for cotton,
very little remained in the South.
The increase in diversified farming,
the raising Of home supplies, the de-
velopment of trucking and the build
| ing of factories are ell uniting to keep
at home the money which formerly
went North and West. Whether the
cotton-raiser himself be getting the
| full benefit of this or not, the South
at large is necessarily doing SO.
The figures given in the foregoing
tables show that the lowest average
| yield per acre for the seventeen years
under review was 145s pounds in 1881,
and the highest 209s pounds in 1891.
Had the yield per acre in 1891 been as
low as in 1881 the crop would have
been less than 6, 700, 900 bales, instead
of 9,O35, 900 bales.
From 1910 to 1S49 the average
price in New York was eight cents per
| pound, a lower average for nine years
than any single year since has shown
except 1922.
The Importance of cotton in our
foreign trade relations can be appre-
ciated from the simple statement that
since 1875 our exports OF this staple
have been valued at So, 800, 900, 900,
while the total exports of wheat and
flour combined for the same period
have been So, 500, 600, 900, showing a
difference of 81, 500, 900, 900, or over
fifty per cent. in favor of cotton.
Moreover, during the same period we
have exported about 5000, 900, 900 of
manufactured cotton goods, making
the full value really 81, 900, 900, 600.
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