The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-12-15
Wealth Pouring Into Dixie.


Baltimore, Dec. 10.-The Manufacturer
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 deterioration
Of seed by reason of selling the best
seed to the cotton oil mills, the deter
ioration Of the soil by reason Of the negro
teEantry system, and the insufficient sup
ply of farm labor, because of the rapid
growth of industrial employment, to en-
able the South to materially increase s
cotton yield.
Pointing out how abnormally low prices
which prevailed from 1891 to 1898 had
been as Improbable to Southern farmers
as the low prices of wheat and corn
some years ago, when in SOM
was more profitable to burn corn than TO
ship it east, were to Western farmers
the Manufacturers Record shows that
srce The upward trend of cotton prices
a few years ago the total value of cotton
and cotton seed for the last five years
has been 81 575, ,000,0 600, against $1,175 GOO,
eco for the preceding five years, or
gain in the last five years of $500 0,0CQ
over the amount received By the South.
for its cotton crop In the preceding five
year period.
These stupendous figures Indicate some
thing Of what the higher price OF cotton
means to the welfare Of the entire South.
The value of the cotton crop of 1909,
including seed, was S565, ,00C, eco The val
ue of the present crop, including seed,
may be safely estimated at $625, ,000,C0U
but added to the very great increase IN
the va.ue of the South's cotton crop is
the fact that it raised probably the larg-
est corn crop it ever produced, the Value
of Which IS many millions OF dollars
greater than the corn crop Of last year.
The $500 900 0G0 received by tie South
for its cotton 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 invested in
all the cotton mills of the United States
in 1909; it is more than the present mark
eft value Of the entire property OF the
United States Steel Corporation, more
than the market value OF the Standard
Oil Company, and more than the entire
capital Of all the national banks OF the
United States. For the hrst two or three
years OF this fiye-year period tho Southern
farmers used their increased earnings 70
pay debts: then they began to accuinu
late a little, and this year they VIII be
IN shape to spend more freely than Tor
many years.
In the last one hundred years there
have been only two periods, one from
1910 to 1S45 and the other from 1891 10
1899 when the average price for the
year in New York was not over 10 cent,
a pound, except one year in winch IT
was a fraction less Reviewing the aver
age yield per acre in three-year periods
beginning with 1871 the Manufacturer
Record says:
s.These figures showing the average yield
per acre indicate that for the threeyca' :
period ending with the crop OF 1S731+
to the similar period ending with 1892,
! covering twenty one years, there were
no material changes in the yield which
would indicate any permanent Increase
or decrease in the productivity OF he
soil. The average yields for three-year
4 periods during that time fiuctuated be-
/ tween 191 pounds per acre and 13S
pounds; but beginning with the three
wear period from 1929 to 1S9+-95, when
the average was 1875 pounds per acre
or more than the average for any sln-
liar period during the preceding twenty
4 one years, there a very marked n
crease IN the yield per acre. reaching
223 pounds in the three-year period 1885,
I o. TO 1S97-9S. 50 far above any yield prior
to that period except for a single year
since 1S71-72 that it stands out alcn2
as a period of phenomenal production per
acre The next three-year period shoW'a
small decrease. but was still much
hioher than in any preceding three-year
period since 1S71-72. For the tWo years