The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-12-16
COTTON PRODUCTION.
The World May Soon Require Over
Fifteen Million Bales.

Fifteen MILLION Bales.
The Manufacturers; Record, in an
elaborate review Of cotton production
during the last thirty years, gives
among other facts the average yield
per acre for each year as a basis for
the discussion of questions affecting
the future, such as the claims which
have been made by some of the deter
ioration Of seed by reason OF selllng
the best seed to the cotton Oil mills,
the deterioration of the soil by reason
of the negro tenantry system, and the
insufficient supply Of farm labor, be-
cause Of the rapid growth OF indus
trial employment, to enable the South
to materially increase its cotton yield.
Pointing out how the abnormally
low prices which prevailed from 1891,
tC 1898, aad been as Improbable to
Southern farmers as the lew prices or
wheat ard corn some years ago, when
in some places it was more profitable
tc burn corn as fuel than t. ship it
east, were to Western farmers, the
Manufacturers Record Shows that
sioce the upward trend OF cotton
prices few years ago the total value
o! cotton and cotton seed for the last
i9e wears has been S2,5I5, 10000
against ST, 71Il5. 900, 0C0 for the preced-
ing FIVE years, of a gain in the last i've
years Of $500, 900, 900 over the amount
re ceived by the South for its cotton
crop 10 the preceding hre-year period.
These stupendous figures indicate
scmething OF what the higher price OF
cotton means to the welfare OF the
entire South. The value Of the cot
ton crop Of 1e02-03, including seed,
was s565, 900, 900. The value Of the
present crop, including seed, may be
safely estimated at s625, 600, 900; but
added to the very great Increase in
the value of the South'S cotton crop
is the fact that it raised probably the
largest corn crop which it ever pro-
duced, the value of which is many
millions of dollars greater than the
corn crop Of last year. The $500, ,0Oo,-
900 received by the South for its cot
ton crop during the last FIVE years in
excess Of what it received during the
preceding FIVE years is nearly twice as
much as the entire capital investe1 IN
all the cotton mills Of the United
States in 1900, it is more than the
present market value Of the entire
property Of United States Steel Cor
poration, more than the market value
Of the Standard Oil Company, and
more than the entire capital Of al
the national banks Of the United
States. For the first two OF three
years of this fve-year period the
Southern farmers used their increased
earnings to pay up debts; when they
began to accumulate little, and this
year they will be in shape to spend
more freely than for many years.
In the last one hundred years there
have been only two periods, one from
1910 to ls45 and the other form 1891
to 1899, when the average price Tor
the year in New York was not over
10 cents a pound, except one year IN
which it was fraction less. Review
ing the average yield per acre in
three-year period, beginning with
1871 the Manufacturers Record says:
''These figures showing the average
Weld per acre indicate that for the
three-years period ending with the
crop of 1874 to the similar period
ending with 1922, covering twenty
one years, there we're 40 material
changes in the yield which would in
dicate any permanent increase OF de-
crease in the productivity Of the soil.
| The average yields for three-year peri
DDS during that time fuctuated be-
tween 191 pounds per acre and los
pounds; but beginning with the three
years period from 1892 1893 to
1894 1895, when the average was 195
pounds per acre, OF more than the
average for any similar period during
the preceding twenty.one years, there
was a very marked increase in the
yield pei acre, reaching 223 pounds in
the tbree.year period 1896 to 1897
93, so faY above any yield rrior to that
period, except for single year since
187l-72, that it stands ou:j alone as a
period OF phenomenal production per
acre. The next three-year period
showed q small decrease, hut was still!
much higher than in any preceding
three-year period since 1S7l-12. For
the two years ending with l902-03 the
acreage was 1SS pounds, a further
decline, hut still above the average for
the twer ty-one years from lS7i-72 to
1912. The yield for this year will
probably be much smaller than for
n any years, but the weather condi-
tions were so abnormal that no fair
d ,ductionS as to the productivity OF
the soil or seed can be based. on this.
If We look back for six years only
we see {. decline in the average yield
p1r acre-a decline that would by it.
self seem so alarming as to command
the most serions attention of the
country, but if we ssgo back of that for
twenty years We find that the high
averages between 1S95-96 and 1900-0l
were abnormal, and, therefore, the
decrease in the production per acre
may not be so serious as it looks on its
| face. On the other hand, these high
averages for the whole South between
1892 and 1898 may in part be due to
the heavy opening up Of new and fer
tile soil in Texas, Indian Territory
and Oklahoma, offsetting decline
in the older sections. At any rate,
the cotton situation is one which de-
mands the widest ivestigations by the
national government and the experts
of every agricultural college in the
South. The welfare Of the whole
country, the vast foreign commerce
based on cotton, the enormous cotton
manufacting interests Of America and
Errone are at stake. If there is no