The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-01

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 presses of Montgomery must necessa- rily represent large investment and must necessarily employ much skilled and unskilled labor.
 Three large congresses. equal per haps. to any>in the South handled the big crop of last year. During the year the largest compress in the city and the largest fin the State, the plant of the Alabama Compress and Storage Comapny was destroyed by fire. Ihe officers Of the company were F. b. Fisk. President; L. H. Fisk. Secretary and Treasurer. The plant was located in North Montgomery, near the tracks of the Louisville and Nashville Rail- road and the Western Railway. It rep resented an investment of sl25,ooO ana employed seventy-five men. The plant had the great capacity of pressing 1,200 bale daily.
 The plant of the Montgomery Com press Company is located on the tracks of the Western Railway. The officers are J. P. Ferrall President; and c. l.. Stickney. Secretary and Treasurer. 1 The investment of the company Is s40.ooo and 1t employs Nifty men, The plant has daily capacity of i.2oo bales.
 The plant of the Mutual Compress
  of the Louisville and Nashville Rail- road has an investment of s65.0oO. It employs about thirty men and has daily capacity of 800 bales. F. B. Fisk, who is an officer of the Fisk Cotton Company, and who was interested in the Alabama Compress and Storage Company and who Is inter- ested in the Mutual Compress Company declared that the past twelve months had been a most successful year for the congresses of the city. Not only was last year very success fui." said Mir. Fisk. "but the prospects for the coming year are most flatter- ing. Montgomery's cotton crop last year was over one hundred and sixty eight thousand bales. Unless unfa- vorable seasons come on before the present crop is gathered and marketed expect Montgomery share of this years crop to be two hundred thous- and bales.
 Montgomery is really the largest cotton market in Alabama. Mobile being a port is credited with larger cotton receipts than Montgomery. Actually, however. Montgomery re- ceives the greatest amount of cotton Much of Mobiles cotton is transferred directly from the cars to vessels bound for foreign ports. The cotton that is bought, stored and pressed in Mont gomery and shipped through tho port
 of Mobile Is counted in the receipts of | that city.
 While 1 am a stockholder iu one of the congresses of the city and was an officer of the Alabama Cotton Compress and Storage Company, my chief inter- est Is in the cotton trade and not in the compress industry. As is well
 known, the two remaining presses in the city have been leased to the Atlan- tic Compress Company of which C. C. Hanson, of Atlanta, Ga, is the rresi- dent. This company was also tho les
 see of the plant of the Alabama Com
 press and Storage Company which was
 destroyed by fire. This plant will
 not be rebuilt during the present year inasmuch as one company is doing all the compress work of the city. Instead
 of rebuilding the company is engaged
 in largely increasing the capacity of the two remaining plants so that they
 will be able 10 do the work of the
 three presses that were in operation
 during the past year. The Atlantic
 Compress Company controls nearly all the presses of Alabama.
 Tt is no secret that the company had very prosperous year in Montgomery
 and the prospects for the coming year
 are even more nattering.'