The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-23
PLANT MORE COTTON
Oklahoma City Cotton Mills
Presidents Advice
TO OKLAHOMA FARMERS
Gives Reasons, Not the Least
of Which Is the Price.

Guthrie, March N.-Mr. David McPher-
son, who is president of the company op-
Grating the cotton press at Oklahoma
City, has sent out the following letter
advising the farmers of Oklahoma to a
mare liberal cultivation Of cotton:
ITO farmer and planter of Oklahoma
Territory: You are welded to grain and
small crops to the exclusion of cotton.
There is no section of the south where
cotton can be grown to any better adj
vantage than in this and Indian Ter
ritory. Southern Kansas Is commencing
to grow cotton and the experiment has
proved successful.
while am not an advocate Of exclu-
sive crops of any kind, but believe in
proper diversifcation, yet as a money
crop, and a safe one, there is nothing
equal in the whole list to cotton. The
Panhandle of Texas that for many years
after occupation went exclusively to
wheat have since largely gone to cotton
finding that drouths which kill wheat
crop rarely affect cotton crop.
Il wish to state the benefits and adj
vantages that a cotton crop has over any
other by reason Of natural causes.
'First-If a good stand is obtained,
which is generally an easy matter, and
the crop worker properly, it is not i'm
possible to have what is called in other
crops a failure-for the reason that a
drouth of almost any duration cannot
kill it outright, and rain therefore makes
it spring into life-put out fruit and ma
ture until it is visited by killing frost
every other crop in this country has but
one course Of maturity. If that is dam
aged or killed the whole crop is done for.
''SecOnd-When a drouth visits the cot
ton belt, it Invariably affects such a
large area that any shortage in the crop
is fully counterbalanced by an advance
price in consequence not 50 with any
other crop. You may make a positive
failure Of wheat or other crops in the
territory, and the same crops may be
bountiful in other great sections of the
United States, or elsewhere throughout
the known world-not so with cotton.
We hold the drop on that article of pro-
duction.
''Third-A cotton crop you can harvest
at your leisure, or when you are not
busy at anything else, and this holds
good for several months I have known
of planters VINO only made one picking
after all had opened-leaving thee arlier
openings in the pod and in the field for
months before being picked While
would not recommend this course, yet it
can be done without serious loss, but
very rarely anybody picks their cotton as
rapidly as it opens. What would happen
to your grain crop if left that way for
weeks or months after maturity? The
in this is that the farmer is
not forced to employ hands at any mo-
ment if this crop is matured but can
take his own time, and If ne has half
grown children they can pick cotton as
well as anybody else.
Since my advent into the cotton bust
ness the demand for cotton has grown
from three million of bales to eleven
millions of American cotton; in the next
thirty-five years it will reach twenty
millions Of bales to a dead certainty.
Who is going to produce this enormous
supply to meet the worlds needs? Are |
the peopl Of tn south and southwest !
that now have a monopoly of this Won
ierful product that natur has provided |
to bountifully in this chosen land, or will !
we as people allow it to drift into AZ |
RIGA now in course Of rapid development) |
where the little that is already market |
ed from there takes a premium over our
own staple While I do not advocate |
dealings in futures. yet anyone who has
4 small margin Of money can today, or
any day now, sell gainst his crop Of next |
year to vige him right here seven and /
1ne-half cents per pound.
The great fertilizing Companies who
supply all the fertilizers used in the old
southern states, and who take cotton in
exchange therefore, have already sold
heir next seasons supply at highly re-
nunerative prices.
I commend all these things with the
argument adduced. to the careful consid-
ration Of every intelligent farmer in the
erritory., DAVID MCPHERSON"