The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1904-11-08
EDITORIAL
THE RICH KINGDOM OF corroN.*

destroy any IfulG pldIC III lie WOrlu, III mCI
would grow other fruits. Let any lumber tree be-
come extinct tomorrow, and other trees will take
its place, and our building go on as before. Ever
if corn or wheat should perish from the earth
We could grow enough of the other crop, supple
mentcd by rice. oats, barley, rye, peas, beans, etc,
to feed both man and beast with comfort. But
there is no substitute for cotton that can be cult
waited on a large scale; no substitute, animal or
vegetable product, which can compare with it for
cheapness.
Nor is there any plant with a history more mar
velous or more romantic-more suggestive of the
legend and mythology of the Orient from whence
it came. If Frank Norris had lived in the South
instead of California, what an Epic of the Cotton
he might have given us-what a story of Cotton,
responding only to the warmth of a Southern
sun, and yielding a richer fleece than ever Jason
dreamed of; Cotton, whose influence did most to
bring us an alien race from Africa, and then did
most to perpetuate in America the Institution of
human slavery; Cotton, on which a "Dixie Land,
the Land of Cotton" once built its hopes while it
waged the greatest war of modern times; Cot
ton, which helped the vanquished people to their
feet again, and now bids fair to restore them to
their old leadership in wealth and industry!
The Enormous Value of the Cotton Crop.
1t is probably not too much to say that cotton
is now the basis of the dominant industry of the
globe. In their primary forms the iron and steel
products of the world represent a value of only
1,7OO,0 900, 900 yearly, while the estimated value
r IL ~~Gr~L-~c ~~IIo4- eOOde 10
$4,000, ,OOO. On cotton most of the human
race depends for clothing-twice as much cotton
as wool being produced-and three-fourths of the
worlds cotton supply is grown in the Southern
section of the United States. Twice the worlds
total gold output last year would have been re-
quired to pay Southern farmers for lint and seed:
three-fourths of the capital stock of all the M
tlonal Banks in the country would have been in
adequate.
Among our American export crops, cotton tow
ers p%re-eminent with $35O,OOO.O 900 in values for
the year ending June 80, 1903 G9O4 would make a
better showing) against less than 5000, 900, 900 for
all other agricultural exports. In other words. |
take all other animal and vegetable products ex-
ported any year-wheat, corn, barley, oats. rye,
Hour, meal, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, liquors,
tobacco, wine, cattle, hogs, horses, sheep. beef.
pork, mutton, butter cheese, canned goods, lard,
oils, wool, timber, lumber naval stores, etc., etc.
the entire contribution, except cotton, furnished
the outside world by every American farm, ranch
and forest, from Maine to California, from
Michigan to Texas, from Alaska to Hawaii, in
Guiding the South's own not unimportant share
take all this, and with the proceeds of one years.
cotton and cotton-seed exports and a safe mort
gage given on the next years, the Southern cot
ton-grower could buy the whole colossal aggrega-
ton, and still have a surplus of over 800, 900, 600
left as pin-money and as a margin of safety for
the MORTGAGE.
What Cotton Means to the South.
For much as cotton means to the United States
and much as cotton means to the world, it means
infinitely more to the twelve States and Terri