The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-12-18
quotations on Cotton Seed,
(New York Commercial !

N4'1r VI 1OlUIneTclaI.)
While the value of cotton seed and
It's products is increasing steadily
every year, the seed itself is not Weld
ing to its producers in the United
otates revenue at all proportionate
ne trade in cCttonseed is now in q
condition about as demoralized as il
Wen could be, and there is a. wide
spread feeling in commercial circles
that some radical changes in the
methods of handling the crop must
be made a once if the business is
TO be rescued from the Warrinp inter
eSts that now control it and force the
planters to accept prices that too Of
ten mean no profit at all for them
John NJ. Parker, the retiring presi-
dent OF the New Orleans Cotton Ex-
| change, in his annual report recently
! submitted, took up this subject briefly
but significantly, as follows:
Under existing conditions the far
inner is at the mercy Of monopoly
which IN order to pay dividends on
inflated and watered stock, grinds him
down on the price paid for crude cot
tonseed OF arbitrarily advances the
price in certain localities in order to
crush out independent opposition
That accomplished the combine de
creaSes prices to the extreme limit
without any corresponding fiuctua-
tlonS IN the value OF oil. meal cake or
hulls. There is certainly parity in
value between these products and the
crude cottonseed, and by giving daily
official quotations for the guidance
of the planter this institution will be
the pioneer IL new field of useful
ness and Of great benefit to our agri-
cultural people
Going further into details. President
Parker could have shown how railroad
COMMISSIONS, competing transDorta-
ton interests, oil mill associations and
litigation in the State courts have con.
trbuted to a trade tangle 50 conD!icat-
ed and serious that there is absolutely
no uniformity or stability in the price
OF cOttonseed anywhere III the Sout h
today. Oil mills in South Carolina,
for instance, have paid as high as
S22 ton for seed, while on the same
day those in Mississippi and Louisiana
were paying ST, and those in Texas
only S1O.5O to $12. Meanwhile, the
prices Of cotton in these four States
and all over the South were practical
" Identical. In short, the planter has
the advantage of the daily cotton
quotations in the various markets Of
the country. and sells or holds his cot
ton accordingly; as to the price of his
seed, he is all in the dark.
The first step, therefore. in bring
ing order and system out of this
chaos, should be the establishment of
a cottonseed market-tbe dissemina-
ton of daily quotations on the raw
seed and its products. Make an open
market for these great staples, ele-
vate them to the trade dignity that
they deserve alongside Of grain. cot
ton, sugar petroleum. iron and the
meat products, and the chief mischief
maker in the cottonseed industry will
have been destroyed. The price of
the raw seed throughout the cotton
producing States should be as uniform
as those for the baled lint itself
Why, then, should there be any de-
lay in the work of rescuin@ this great
industry from it's present demoraliza-
ton? If the New Orleans Cotton EX-
change shall act promptly on its re-
firing presidents recommendation il
will set the pace for a revolution in
the cottOnseed trade that every inter
est involved ought to welcome and fol
low