Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-09-02
REASONS FOR
FALLING OFF
Relation Between Increase or
Negro Population and the
Cotton .Acreagc.
New York, Aug, 81, 1901.

To the Editor OF the Daily Optic:
submit the following result OF an.
investigation made by me into the con
dition Of the cotton crop UP 70 tho
end Of August:
| have received l,575 replies from
1,l59 towns in SIS cottonproducing
counties, which last year produced
about so per cent OF the entire crop
The estimated average condition as
reported by my correspondents Is 76.
ID against sIS reported by my CORE.
spondents az of the same datc Inst
month. and GIG as reported by the
agricultural department as of the date
of Iuy ~, 1904,
The indicated total production, as.
suming the realization at maturity of
present cran prospects, Is 10,b12,86f,
las against an indicated total produc.
! tion. IS reported By liy cofrespon,
ldents on the goth of Jnly Of 12,a27, ,93f
II will be admitted that all prospects
of bumper cotton crop n the south
| for the coming year mnt be abandon,
ed aud that for the fifth successive
season the world is confronted with
an insufficiency In lis cotton sup.
lply.
Various reasons are assigned for the
deterioration which has SO invariably
set In during the final months Of the
plants development for the past five
years, Unquestionably the first IN
importance Il the boil weevil. which
now infest twothirds OF the cotton
acreage in Texas. The impairment oi
the seed, the exhaustion OF the land
and the insufficiency Of labor are 9th,
er theories upon which five successive
crop failures may be explained.
The cultivation Of cotton Is now
less efficient and the yield per acre
therefore smaller. When we come Ia
study the relationship between the
increase In the negro population and
the cotton acreage this view Of the
case is even more impressive. The
economic consideration that led 10 the
war Of the Confederacy was the idea
that the control Of the negro was
essential 10 the cotton supremacy oi
| the south. II Ii not improbable thai
this theory Is about 10 find its ccono
mic proof. The negro alone can cnlti
yate cotton effectively under the hot
southern sun. In the past fourteen
years the cotton crop Of the soutl
has been Increased by 12,2G0,000 acres
or 63 per cent, and the negro p0pula
Etion In the same period has increased
only 1,493,1s4 or 24,S per cent. I
Iis generally admitted that the ten
Edency iii the south on the part O.
more intelligent negroes liz towaff
northern migration Or residence Il
4 cities and employment ~ the factories
mines, lumbor camps and railroads
THE residntim Of negro labor availabl.
for the cultivation Of cotton n. there
fore, not only out % proportion a
compared with The acreage but com
priscs the least thrifty. ambitious an,
progressive element. The sontherI
cotton plantations, which are for tb,
most part operated under the tcnan
system, have under this system
been less carefully cultivated and be
come less productive. Cotton land fl
i The south for this rcason is worth les
today than II was fifty years ago an,
its value Is but the exponent Of ii
productive capacity under cxistinI
conditions Of labor Il Is plain tha
until these conditions change an In
crease In acreaae Is unlikely 10 resnl
in substantial Increase IN production
and as no charge III these condition
seems probabl within the next fe,
4 years. am convinced the eotlol
. 8fs.sf EG.xtR - s