The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-30
PUERTO RICO IS A
 NEW COTTON FIELD.
Ser Island Variety Thrives There
 and Inhabitants Have the

anu 4uubDItdutS nave tnS
 "Cotton Fever"
 Special Correspondence of New York
 Herald.
 San Juan. P. R.-within a month the cotton ginneries being erected on the water front of San Juan will be ginning the most pretentious and cer- tainly the most significant cotton crop Puerto Rico has raised within the last forty years. The output will be at least 10,000 bales of some of the finest sea island cotton ever grown. The best yields will exceed 1,50O pounds seed and fibre to the acre, and of sixty-eight ex- perimental plots all will show profit. Nothing but sea island cotton has been planted and the tendency here is to en- courage, as far as possible. the growing of that grade only.
 Within year, it is confidently expect cd, the cotton boom in Puerto Rico will be attracting widespread attention. It is not improbable that through such a boom the industry will suffer by a later reaction. The principal promoter of the present movement in sea island cotton, who is now witnessing the successful fruition of three years hard work. said yesterday:
 Puerto Rico should grow 5000 bales of sea island cotton a year. The great est danger confronting the enterprise is that a boom in cotton here will mean the unloading of a lot of poor seed and the working of wildcat schemes to in- duce the growing of cheap grades. Then when growers get little or nothing for their crops because of poor samples of Puerto Rico cotton in the worlds markets there will be a slump, and conditions will return to their former depressed state.
 s'Conffdence will be shaken and Puerto Rico cotton will get a black eye. A few weeks ago in Washington I had long talk with Secretary of Agriculture Will son, who expressed himself as being much interested in what we are doing here. He assured me that so far as pos sible sea island cotton interests in Puerto Rico will be protected by his department. There certainly is an opportunity for both the Federal and insular governments to accomplish vast and lasting good for Puerto Rico by a distribution of high grade sea island seed. keeping all other out.
 'One of the most hopeful signs thus far is that not weevil has been found due to careful selection of seed. If cheap seed comes in, the pest is sure to be introduced. The present crop, where it has been properly cared for, will not run below 2S to 30 per cent. silk fibre, and will easily net $50 an acre. If our sugar men clear $15 an acre they are satisfied. If course. if a crop is neg lected the profit may drop to $10. We figure the cost of cultivation at $10 an acre and the picking at 5 cents a hum dred. Transportation to the ginneries win vary according to locations.
 'I believe that if sea island cotton is properly handled in Puerto Rico there will be no valid reasoz4 why, a few years hence there should not be a textile mill here paying well on a million dollar cap- itaI and doing its share toward making Puerto Ricans self-sustaining, intelligent mill hands,"
 The recent decision of President Roose- welt that 5000 acres of public lands in Puerto Rico can now be sold leads to the reasonable supposition that a part of this land. which will doubtless be ap- praised at from A to $10 an acre, will before long blossom with cotton. At least that's the talk in San Juan. The cotton fever is in the air.