The Colfax chronicle., 1903-12-12
FARMER AND PLANTER.
RAMIE AND COTTON.
Little Present Prospect of Ramio
Becoming q Serious CoDsvetttoR
to American Cotton.

Cotton is the money crop of nine
.enths of the southern farmers. They
are slaves to cotton, bound by a chain
D. circumstances. equally as strong as
Inc slave was bound to the cotton
planter in ante-bellum days. They
would to-day welcome any crop that
would make them Indifferent % cotton,
as a godsend, for two reasons; first,
because cotton is not always sold at
profit to the grower; second, be-
cause the growing of cotton makes
him dependent on hired labor during a
large portion of the year,-and the Ia
Dor of the south, is, to say the least,
unreliable. But whether ramie can be
placed upon the market in competi-
ton with cotton is a matter of doubt
with many; for cotton goods have
gone to China, the home Of ranje,
where, according to Encyclopedia
Britannica, much time and care is be-
slowed upon the cultivation of "TchOu
Mel" as ramie is called by them, un-
til now, Wu Ting Fang, late Chinese
minister to this country, says that
travel into the interior as far as you
may you will see Chinese people, who
never saw or heard of the American
nag, dressed In American cotton goods.
Ramie is shrubby plant, growing
from six to eight feet high, and makes
from three to four cuttings per season.
It Is easily propagated from slips or
root cuttings, and thrives in a hot,
moist and shaded situation,-which is
against 1t as crop to be grown In
helds. Ramie as q substitute for cot
ton is far from being a new idea, for
the fiber first appeared on the Euro
pean market In the year 1910; q fiber
possessed Of such strength and beauty
that 1t soon attracted great attention,
and throughout the early half of the
century numerous efforts we're made
by the East India company to intro
duce 1t as a textile staple, with poor
success. Right after our war between
the states, when cotton was at an ex-
orbitant price, the Indian government
offered two prizes of $4,000 and $10,-
900 each for machinery, or a process,
by which the fiber could be prepared
at such cost per ton as would rem
der practicable its introduction into
the market. Competitive trials were
made by different machines in 1872,
and also in 1879. but no machine was
found to satisfy the conditions of sue
cess; because the fiber Is very diff
cult of extraction and Is proportion
ately SO expensive that it practically
comes into competition only with high
priced dress goods. How could plant
that only yields about $50 pounds Of
marketable fiber per acre be placed
upon the market in open competition
with cotton, that will produce 500
pounds of lint per acre, and seed
enough to pay half the expenses of
making crop? Besides, ramie is-ac-
cording to good authorities-a hard,
inelastic fiber, and on machinery
adapted for spinning other textiles 1t
can only be spun into rough, harsh,
hairy yarn.
AS q prevention of a corner of the
cotton market, we will have to look
to something besides a substitute; for
spectators would soon see in ramie
the money they we're not making in
cotton, and would absorb poor ramie,
too. The only way to keep the cotton
market steady is by legislation, for
how can the price of anything remain
quiet when every Tom, Dick and
Harry is selling promises to deliver In
the future? The cotton growers as
class do not receive the benefits Of the
high price of cotton, for the specula-
tors, by their manipulations of the
market, force the price down until the
cotton Is all out of the farmers
hands, and force It up again before It
reaches the consumer. As to specula-
ton l have no objections to the legiti-
mate work of board of trade, and
they may be necessity, but I can
not see the advantage obtained by the
farmer in selling more wheat In Chi
cago in a day than is produced In the
United States in year. Where prices
are raised by manipulators on the
board of trade 1t seldom reaches the
farmer. At the time of the Letter cor
ner in Chicago, grain was sold 35
cents higher in that city than other
parts of the state. l do not object to
future sales of farm produce provided
the seller actually owns the cOmmo-
dfty at the time of sale. In that case
It would not be left to depress the
market, but every bushel Of fictitious
grain has a tendency to depress the
market by giving foreign buyers the
that there Is an immense
volume of grain in the country. The
effect of fictitious selling of crop Is
ruinous to the producer. II a man
has right to sell something he does
not owr and never expects to have.
in competition with actual produce,
and at a lower price, 1t is bound to
keep prices down. The selling Of
many times as much grain as IS
raised, for future delivery. makes 1t
necessary for the men who have to
deliver 1t to work to keep the prices
down. The dealings in futures and
options on farm produce Is gambling
of the worst type. and is very detri-
mental to tho producer. The govern
ment ought to give it treatment sucl,
as 1t administered to the lottery
Enos e.. yittlnan, in Agricultural Eri-
tomis..