The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-12-11
Wealth Pouring in For
Higher Cotton.
LEAN YEARS AND FAT.
In the Last Five the South Shows a
Gain OF S8oo,oo0,OCO Over
Amount Received For Cot
ton in Five Years Pre-
ceding.

Baltimore Dec. 10.-The Manufacturer
production during the last thirty years,
gives among other facts the average yield
per acre for each year as basis for
the discussion of questions affecting the
future, such as the claims which have
been made by some of the deterioration
CT seed by reason of selling the best
seed TO the cotton oil mills, the deter
icration of the sell 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 $
cotton yield.
Pointing out how abnormaly low prices
which prevailed from 1891 to 1898 hal
been as Improbable to Southern farmers
as the low prices of wheat and corn
some years ago, when in some
was more profitable to burn corn than TO
ship it east, were to Western farmers
the Manufacturers Record shows that
sipee the upward trend of cotton prices
q few years ago the total value Of cotton
and cotton seed for the last five years
has been $2,575, 0O0, coo, against Sits ,O0O-
600 for the preceding five years, or
gain in the last five years of $500, 600 .0C0
over the amount received by the South
for It's 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 1902.
Including seed, was 1865, COZ 600. The val.
ue OF the present crop, including seed,
may be safely estimated at 1925 900, 600:
but added to the very great increase in
the value 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 $S00,009,000 received by the South
for Its cotton during the last five years
in excess of what it received during tic
preceding five years is nearly twice as
much as the entire capital invested in
all the cotton mills of the United States
in 1900; 1t is more than the present mark
ct 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
years of this fve-year period the Southern
farmers used their increased earnings 70
pay debts then they began to accumu-
late 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 1916 and the other from 1891 10
1899, when the average price for the
year in New York was not over 10 cent,
POUND, except one year in which it
was a fraction less Reviewing the aver
age yield per acre in three-year periods
beginning with 1871 the Manufacturers
Record says:
These figures showing the average yield
Per acre indicate that for the three-yeac
period ending with the crop CT 1884
to the similar period ending with 1882,
covering twenty-one years, there were
no material changes in the yield which
would indicate any permanent increase
or decrease in the productivity of The
soil. The average yields for three-year
periods during that time fiuctuated be-
tween 19l pounds per acre and 1j8
pounds; but beginning with the three
year period from 1929 to 1S94-95, when
the average was 1875 pounds per acre
or more than the average for any SIM
liar period during the preceding twenty
one years, there was a very marked in.
crease in the yield per acre, reaching
223 pounds in the three-year period 1885,
SIS to 1928, so far above any yield prior
to that period, except for single year
since 1912, that It stands out alone
as 4 period CT phenomenal production per
acre. The next three-year period showed
a small decrease, but was still much
higher than in any preceding three-year
period since 1S71-72. For the two years
ending with 102-03 the average was l2S
pounds, further decline, but still above
the average for the twenty-one years
form 1S71-72 to 1892. The yield for
this year will probably be be much small
len than for many years, but the weather
conditions were so abnormal that no fair
deductions as TO the productivity of the
soil or seed can be based on this.
IF we look back for six years Only
we see a steady decline in the average
yield per acre-a decline that would BIZ
itself seem so alarming as to command
the most serious attention of the country
but if we go back of that for twenty
years we find that the high averages be-
tween 1886 and 10000 were abnormal,
and, therefore, the decrease in the pro-
duction 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 or new
end fertile soil in Texas, Indian Terri
tory and Oklahoma, offsetting decline
III the older sections. AT any rate, the
cotton situation is one which demands
the widest Investigations by the national
government and the experts of every ag-
neultural college in the South. The wei
fare OF the whole country, the vast FOR
eign commerce based on cotton, the en-
ormous cotton manufacturing interests of
America and Europe are at stake. If
there is no danger. the world needs know
! IT beyond the possibility of any ereror |
II there is danger, then no sum, whether