The Tupelo journal., 1904-01-15
PLANTER
PERMANENT COTTON FAMINE.
Reply to the Question as TO the Dam
ger of Permanent Cotton
Famine in the south.

VI iIt SOutitTu States.
1t is claimed that through the exist
ence of the conditions which now ap-
pear there is danger of a steady de-
ficiency in u cotton supply for the
following reasons:
~First-That there is a 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 a 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 a serious men,
ace, but which can be left out of con-
sideration, because it has not been in
existence long enough to produce any
seriods 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
%tistics, printing returns of the acreage
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 1871-72, and ending
with and including the crop of 1902-03.
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 t~hree-year peri
Cds dul ing that time t%luctuated be-
tween 1911 pounds per acre and 1853
pounds; but beginning with the three
year period from 1929 to 1S94-95,
when the average was 1876 pounds per
acre, G. more than the average for any
HiAbiAo pNtAoo Wing ~ PtSNSoiho
II years, there was a very marked in
crease in the yield Ter acre. reaching
2l3 pounds in the threc-year period
1926 to 1898, sn far above any
yield prior to that period, except for a
single year since iS7i-72. that it stands
out alone as a period of phenomenal
production per acre. The next three
.-onr 1,n,iol rL0u4 ., ~~,a11 lo1raor4
hut was still mpch higher than in any
preceding three-year period since 1871
u. 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 1882. The nigh averages of pro-
duction between the years 1892 and
1893 are attributed by the statistician
of The Record to the extensive open
ing ut Of new and rich cotton lands in
Texas, indian territory ana Oklahoma
in tina. period.
There does not appear to be any
failure in the soil that can not be rene
died by a 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 a 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 negro la
Dor from agriculture to works of pub
lie development, and partly by the mi
grafton of the negroes to northern
states. The needed labor must be Sc
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 a 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 coed 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 we'll says: THE welfare of the
whole country, the vast foreign COM
merce based on cotton. the enormous
cotton-manufacturing interests Of
America and Europe are at stake. If
there is no danger, the world needs to
know it beyond the possibility of any
error; if there is danger, then no sum,
whether it be one million or one hum
bred million, is too large for the ma
tional government to spend in over
coming it"
The Record declares that the south
ern states of the Union must get ready
to raise an average of ID, 00O, 900 to 49,
000, 900 bales of cotton a 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
that. The population of the globe is
steadily increasing in the absence of
destructive epidemics of disease that
once decimated it's inhabitants periodi-
cally, while the spread of civilization
among savage and barbarous peoples
has created a demand for clothing and
other products of civilized labor that
formerly did not exist; therefore, the