The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1904-02-13
FARMER AND Pl ANTER.
PERMANENT COTTON FAMINE.
ger of Permanent Cotton
Famine I'm the south.

to the question: Is there danger of
permanent shortage in the cotton crop
of the southern states?
1t is claimed that through the exist
ence of the conditions which now APP
pear there is danger of steady de-
ficiency in our cotton supply for the
following reasons:
First-That there is gradual de-
terioration of the seed, due to the SELL
ing of the best seed to the cotton oil
mills.
Second-That the tenantry system
has lessened the fertility of the soil.
Third-That there can be no large
increase without material gain in
population, as the industrial develop
ment of the south has drawn many
hands from the cotton fields to rail-
road, mining and kindred work.
Added to these is the boil weevil,
which is conceded TO be serious men,
ace, but which can be left out of con-
sideration, because it has not been in
existence long enough to produce any
serious effect upon the general yield,
and therefore the matters stated above
will only be noticed. In order to have
a clear understanding of the situation,
the Record has gone deeply into sta
planted; the CROP produced in pounds
and bales, the weight of bales and the
| product in pounds and bales per acre
| for each year from and commencing
with the crop of 1S71-72, and ending
with and including the crop of 19O2-o3.
Taking periods of three consecutive
years through the whole time men
| toned above, SO as to get a fair av-
erage of the production per acre, the
Record finds that there were no ma
terial changes in the yield which would
| indicate any permanent increase or
decrease in the productivity of the soil.
The average yields for three-year peri
cds during that time fluctuated be-
tween 191 pounds per acre and 1853
| pounds; but beginning with the three
year period from 1928 to 1S94-95,
when the average was 1875 rounds per
| acre, CT more than the average for any
similar period during the preceding
crease in the yield Fer acre, reaching
2.3 pounds in the three-year period
1926 to 1898, so far above any
yield prior to that period, except for a
single year since iS71-72, that ii stands
out alone as a period of phenomenal
| reduction per acre. The next three
year period showed a small decrease,
hut was still much higher than in any
preceding three-year period since 1871
| r. For the two years ending with
1928 the average was 1873 pounds,
a further decline, But still above the
average for the 81 years from 1S71-72
to 1912. The high averages of pro-
duction between tie years 1892 and
1898 are attributed by the statistician
of The Record to the extensive open
| ing NJ OF new and rich cotton lands In
Texas, indian territory and Oklahoma
in tina. period.
There does not appear 10 be any
failure in the soil that can not be RENE
died by proper system of fertilizing.
Moreover, there are great bodies of vir-
gin lands adapted to cotton, that have
never had a hoe, much less a pillow
driven into them. But there is de-
ficiency of labor, caused partly by the
emigration of the negroes from the
plantations to the towns and cities;
partly by the withdrawal of nesro "a
Dor from agriculture to works of pub
lie development, and partly by the MI
| grafton of the negroes to oorsSaSn
states. The needed labor mus bs So
cured from some source, and up to the
present time the best farm labor that
has been obtainable to replace the ne
| groes is supplied by Italian immigra-
ton. Those people have come into the
south in the past few years In consid-
cradle numbers, probably million of
them can be expected in the next few
years They are generally peaceful
and industrious, and in the second gen.
GRAFTON they become fully American
| lied
| AS to the seed, that is something that
must be carefully determined. 1t is
possible to get good seed, and the best
should be reserved for planting. All
the technical questions should be de-
termined by scientific research, while
all the practical problems must have
| the attention of our most intelligent
men, and where legislation is neces-
sary, it should be forthcoming. AS the
Record well says: THE welfare of the
whole country, the vast foreign COM
MERGE based on cotton. the enormous
ton-manufacturing interests of
America and Europe are at stake. If
there is no danger, the world needs to
know it beyond the possibility 0f any
error; if there is danger, then no sum,
whether it be one million or one hum
dred Million. is too large for the ma
tional government to spend y over
| coming it"
| The Record declares that the south
ern states of the Union must get ready
to raise an average of 100000 to 49,
| 600 900 bales of cotton year within
| the next five or ten years, since the
growing consumptive requirements of
the world absolutely demand an in
| crease in cotton production as large at