Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-06-28

| decided to give up cotton growing, and
ii has been feared that the acreage will
| be so largely increased that there will
be big slump in prices next year, and
| instead of a great gain, the growers
| would actually lose. Under the present
| system Of future" trading, the cotton
farmers could sell their new crop for
delivery between next October and
January at eight cents, or $40 per bale
This would make the normal yield of
IL 100000 bales sell at S440. 000, 600, ali
increase of some $50, 900 over the
present year. The farmer is thus en-
abled to assure himself of eight-cent
cotton even before the crop has been
planted, and profit large enough to
make his industry one of the best pay
ing in the agricultural regions Of the
country.
The new acreage Of cotton will I'M
doubtedly be the largest on record.
There are safe indications of this in
statistics already collected by official
authorities, and the amount Of land in
the South that will be planted with
cotton cannot fall far short of 26. 000, 900
acres. Last season the cotton crop
was small one, amounting to from
9,000,0 to 100000 bales, while the
two preceding years it reached II $50
600 bales. But it was not this
difference in the yield of the two years
alone that caused the unexpected boom.
midas crop proved almost total
failure also, while the Egyptian crop
has more recently been threatened
with a similar fate. In addition to
these causes the worlds consumption
of cotton has increased. and is likely
to continue for some time. A COM
b;nation Of such factors is directly re-
sponsible for the advance in cotton
prices which transform the conditions
OF the South in a gratifying way
Co-extensive with the Improvement
of the Gotten field and better has been
the Development of cotton mills in the
south. The mills of North Carolina
alone employ 100000 operatives, who
have been raised from a miserable con-
dition of poverty TO one of comparative
| aff1uence. Ten and is years ago these
POOR operatives could barely make $3.50
a year on the average off their small
farms. They rarely had any ready
money, and they dragged along from
year to year with but few of the
benefits of modern civilization. To-
day in the cotton mill districts there is
hardly family that cannot make from
$500 to $500 annually, and, many OF
them find little difficulty in earning
from $500 to $1,000 year. The
advance in the price of cotton distinct
~ helps and brightens the future of
most of these cotton mill settlements
in the south, for besides working in
the factories, nearly every family has
few acres planted with cotton. which
some member of the household finds
time to cultivate.
There is hardly crop in this country
that distinctly helps general business
more than cotton. 1t almost equals in
this respect king corn or wheat. The
farmers, the small merchants, the large
dealers, shippers, machinists, trunkers
in cities, operatives in mills, and clerks
and assistants from New Orleans to
New York and from New York to
Liverpool, find distinct benefit when
ever cotton moves upward and prices
promise good returns to the grower
If our trade in the cotton goods in the
far east proves as large and renumera-
tive as merchants anticipate now there
will be new channels of commerce to
feel the quickening impulse of a large
crop of 8 and 10-cent cotton.-Scien
tific American.